By: Joni Hollar
Actually, there are six 10,000 Maniacs. This band hails from Jamestown, New York, where they say they are just about the only people of their kind. Until this year, few people in their own country had heard them or even heard of them, though they have been popular in the U.K. for a few years. With the release of their second album, The Wishing Chair on Elektra, they are achieving some recognition in the States. I should mention that they are one of the best new bands to emerge in ages, and The Wishing Chair, produced by Fairport Convention producer Joe Boyd, is one of the best albums of the year.
10,000 Maniacs sound a great deal like Fairport Convention, with a hybrid of funk, rock, reggae, calypso, and folk underneath it all. What gives them a core, a momentum, what makes them superlative rather than merely good, are the voice and lyrics of Natalie Merchant. The 21-year-old Merchant has an evocative, warm, yet cutting voice that fleshes out her dreamy lyrics. Her closest current vocal comparison would be Maria McKee of Lone Justice, but you can also hear bits of Kate Bush, Deborah Harry and especially Fairport's Sandy Denny.
The Wishing Chair is their first album on a major label. Their first, Secrets of the I Ching, was released by the band on their own Christian Burial label. It was the first album and the Human Conflict EP that caught the ear of BBC Radio disc jockey John Peel. Being favorites of Peel meant popularity in England before they caught on here. Now that The Wishing Chair is out and they have gotten some notice. they are touring the States. They stopped in the Bay Area last week at the Berkeley Square and the Stone. I talked with bassist/writer John Lombardo while Natalie and guitarist Robert Buck were doing a short acoustic set for KALX. Lombardo writes most of the band's music.
Lombardo said that 10.000 Maniacs have been together four years, and that all but drummer Jerry Augustyniak grew up in the snowy and isolated Jamestown area, though they had never crossed paths until shortly before forming the band. They met at a warehouse/performance space Lombardo and friends rented for the few "hip" people in town. When they got together, only guitarist Robert Buck had ever played in a band before.
"Four of the people in my band - Natalie, Robert, Steve (Gustafson, bass) and Dennis (Drew, on keyboards) - formed a band at that point. They asked me to jam with them, and I brought along some friends. We had a whole lot of people on stage and it was mass confusion, so we called it 10.000 Maniacs, just as a joke," Lombardo explained.
"In our town there's a lot of cover bands, there's no emphasis on new music. We wanted to let people know that we weren't in that ball park. To this day people hold us accountable for the name. We're not real happy with it, but I suppose it works in an ironic way, considering that some of our music is quite thought out," he said.
Considering the numerous comparisons to Fairport Convention 10,000 Maniacs have gotten, I was curious about their association with Joe Boyd.
"Most of his music had influenced us, and that's probably one of the reasons. Joe was actually one of the first people to express interest in working with us. Joe had heard the music and dug it, so when we signed to Elektra we talked them into it. They wanted a hitmaker, but that's the last thing we wanted. We didn't want our record to sound specifically '80s. One of the things we liked about Joe was his work with the Fairports and the McGarrigle Sisters, a sort of timeless quality. You couldn't immediately identify it," Lombaro explained.
Lombardo explained how they went from indie cult band to major label band.
"It was their choice. I mean they sign you. These days for a group to be signed they need to have some independent success. It's made it easier for A & R departments (artists and repertory, i.e., new talent). Instead of going out into the bushes, they just sit in their office and listen to independent records. It shows a great deal of commitment on a band's behalf when they invest their time and money into putting out a product. They just look around at regional record labels, and they court you," he said.
"Record companies act in a very strange way sometimes. Someone had warned us of this, and it turned out to be true, that some companies aren't interested in signing a band until they find out that another company is gonna sign that band, and then they're all after you," he revealed. "They're not interested in art, they just wanna move plastic. They want to be sure that you can continue to compose things that sound similar and that you are together enough to tour to support that record."
I mentioned that for a fairly new band. most of whom hadn't played before, 10,000 Maniacs have a really full, tuneful sound.
"Over the years we've played, we haven't had outside jobs, so we've spent a lot of time, so hopefully we would get better. But the thing is, I see people all the time in sort of bad bands in which every person in the band plays better than our..."
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