by: Michael Canning (page 13 - Weekend)

It's one step back, two steps forward for a band that doesn't know how to quit. Things must seem a lot like they used to for 10,000 Maniacs.

New singer Mary Ramsey joined the band, and founding guitarist John Lombardo returned to the fold after the 1993 defection of Natalie Merchant.

And with the absence of that '80s college radio darling turned VH1 mega-chanteuse, plus a corporate merger that forced their record label to drop it, the band's fortunes are more like they were at the time of Lombardo's 1986 departure.

The quirky, folky rock band from western New York that reached MTV Unplugged heights by the early '90s has pretty much returned to being a proud indie outfit, complete with an indie label contract, a respectable cult following and an uncertain career outlook.

Though 10,000 Maniacs is back to playing primarily smaller venues, the band is certainly not lacking for creativity in its tour bookings. The band has played in Portugal, Brazil, the Virgin Islands, Panama, and even some USO gigs in Bahrain and Kuwait in February. In this country, they've performed in some well-known book supermarkets.

"We're doing a lot of Barnes and Noble gigs, which really helps a lot," said drummer Jerry Augustyniak on the phone from Ship Bottom, N.J. "We do a lot of Borders book stores. We're truly independents now."

Saturday night, they'll be playing in a stadium dominated by a big pirate ship. Stick around after the 7 p.m. Tampa Bay Mutiny/New England Revolution soccer match at Raymond James Stadium, and you can see the Maniacs perform at no additional charge.

They don't dominate the air and video waves like they did when their alterna-easy listening hits Trouble Me (from 1989's Blind Man's Zoo), and These Are Days (from 1992's Our Time in Eden), and Because the Night (from 1994's MTV Unplugged) lifted the band from college radio obscurity to mainstream exposure. But you cannot question 10,000 Maniacs' bravery.

Merchant's absence posed a daunting situation when the remaining Maniacs decided in 1993 to carry on. The public's perception was that Merchant was the band.

"It was a little scary when Natalie left," Augustyniak said. "I perhaps was a little more cynical than everybody else, going, 'Oh man, we can't go on.' But fortunately those guys had more common sense than I, and it was just 'Well, we have to keep going. We don't want to . . . work at McDonald's.'"

Ramsey bore the brunt of the pressure, filling the shoes of a post-modern rock icon. "When I joined up with the group," Ramsey said over the phone, "it was kind of naively to be honest with you."

Ramsey was part of a viola/guitar duo with John Lombardo since the two met in 1986. After recording two albums, they were asked to join the Maniacs' 1990 tour as backup musicians. [note from the @Natalie webmaster: this is totally wrong! John & Mary did not meet until 1989. They did not join the Maniacs' 1990 tour as 'backup musicians' - they were the opening act. And they would join the band for certain songs (especially John, who would join in when the band played older songs)]. When Merchant left the band, Ramsey and Lombardo started writing and jamming with the remaining Maniacs under the moniker John, Mary, Steve, Rob, Dennis and Jerry.

Then their manager suggested they use the name 10,000 Maniacs. "At first I thought, 'Uh, I don't know about that,'" said Ramsey. "And then it started to creep in for me, like 'Uh-oh, this is going to be pretty weird for me'. And we got signed and the album came out. The press really made me aware of the magnitude of my decision," she said with a laugh.

In 1997 the band released the well-received Love Among the Ruins on Geffen. Its single More Than This, a Roxy Music cover, became the highest selling U.S. retail single in Geffen's history. After getting dropped by Geffen, the band signed with indie label BarNone, which released the new Maniacs' second album, The Earth Pressed Flat. Augustyniak said it isn't selling as well as Love Among the Ruins.

Without the deep pockets of a major label to dip into, 10,000 Maniacs has quietly trimmed its expectations of massive success and resolved to make music on its own terms.