by: Carrie Bell (page 11)

LOS ANGELES - How You've Grown, one of 10,000 Maniacs' early hits, is the best way to describe their latest folk/pop release, The Earth Pressed Flat, due May 18 on Bar/None.

"We recorded this in very different ways than we are used to. We were a band on the run recording at a theater in Jamestown [N.Y.], in our producer Armand John Petri's living room, in an abandoned pharmacy, and in several different studios," says keyboardist Dennis Drew. "All the locations added variety and diversity, even though we basically wrote the same kinds of songs as we have for the last 18 years."

The project also marks the band's return to the independent realm - it self-released its first album The Secrets Of The I-Ching in 1983 - after years on Elektra and Geffen.

"With the consolidation and closure of many majors and the quarterly bottom-line mentality, the independents are being taken more seriously than ever before," Drew says. "They're still signing good music and taking chances but are making a profit. And it seems that radio, press, and retail are starting to care less where the band comes from as long as they think their audience wants the music."

Bar/None, a Koch-distributed indie based in Hoboken, N.J., that has released albums by the likes of Esquivel and They Might Be Giants, is thrilled to have them.

"I've always been a fan of 10,000 Maniacs, and it's always fulfilling to work with bands who work hard on their careers and make good music," says Bar/None president Tom Prendergast. "They trust us. It makes musicians happy to work with a label where they can have a special relationship with the powers that be. Bands don't want to be caught up in the majors' shake-ups, so they're turning to smaller labels."

Mary Ramsey, who replaced Natalie Merchant as vocalist in 1995 after years with John & Mary (which featured 10,000 Maniacs guitarist John Lombardo), thinks the deal has allowed the band to be more hands-on and has made her more comfortable as the "new girl".

Ramsey explains, "We have more control, and things are very casual. I just feel better in this situation than I ever did at Geffen ... They just expected us to continue on the same financial trajectory as the band did with Natalie, which wasn't going to happen until the fans got used to me as the new singer."

That process began with 1997's Love Among The Ruins, which peaked at No. 104 on The Billboard 200, sold 202,000 units, and spawned the act's second-highest-chartng single, More Than This. The Roxy Music cover climbed to No. 25 on The Billboard Hot 100.

"We are a part of the fabric of your life," Drew says. "I never pictured us on a soap or Sabrina The Teenage Witch, but we've done both."

Bar/None hopes the title track of The Earth Pressed Flat will strike a similar chord when it ships to triple-A and hot AC this month.

At retail, Jim Primerano, music buyer for the Buffalo, N.Y-based Record Theatre, says, "There's been a buzz locally for the new album because the band is from Buffalo. I think some fans on the Internet have also heard about the album. We ordered the album, but except for the [10,000 Maniacs' core audience], I'm not sure if there's too much awareness for it."

Hoping to build that awareness, the band, which is booked by the Agency for the Performing Arts and managed by Blair Woods of Big Walkup Artist Management, will continue its heavy touring schedule.