10,000 Maniacs

Okay, she's on here twice. Fair enough. Natalie Merchant is pretty talented, but I insulted her on this list already. 10,000 maniacs didn't have 10,000 fans after Merchant left.

I used to like this little band, back in my naive days of youth, but I haven't listened to them since my frosh year at the big state college. Like over-testosteroned young boys outgrowing a lot of the heavy metal they headbanged to, eventually earnest collegiate types outgrow modern folk music. Now, as someone who in his latter years has outgrown to various degrees both styles of posing, I speak with a bit of authority (and I bet you didn't figure there'd be a creature out there who outgrew both the Maniacs and Boston, but I bet my experience is true of lots of folks. Go on, admit it, "More Than A Feeling" rocks!). The 10,000 Maniacs seemed almost tailor-crafted to win the souls of the earnest college student crowd, and while there's no crime in that (earnest college girls who just read their first e.e. cummings at the coffeehouse are people, too), given my distance now from the scholarship-liberal sensitive-boy demographic, my taste for this overly polite style of discourse has waned.... Read more

10,000 Maniacs were superb with Natalie Merchant. In My Tribe is one of the best albums of the 80's.

Our Time In Eden was great, and this band was great with Natalie Merchant. I have not heard this band since Mary Ramsey joined.

10,000 Maniacs is (some say was) an enjoyable jangle pop/alternative band (named after the cult horror film 2,000 maniacs) which was fronted by the easily recognized vocals of Natalie Merchant. The band languished for a few years and through several low production, relatively poor sounding releases before hitting it big with the 1987 release In My Tribe (at least on college radio). Tribe was clearly the best release of the three primary studio efforts and is highlighted by What's The Matter Here?, Like The Weather, and a cover of Peace Train by Cat Stevens (but note that Peace Train was dropped from later pressings). The band's follow up to Tribe was Blind Man's Zoo (1989) which was a drop from its predecessor (but is well worth the price used) and includes Eat For Two, Trouble Me, and Poison In The Well. The last studio effort with Merchant was Our Time In Eden (1991) which was a return to prime form and features These Are Days and Candy Everybody Wants. After Eden Merchant annou... Read more

a 5 with natalie merchant, a 2 with mary ramsey

I couldn't handle Natalie Merchant's voice or her goody-goody self-righteous songs.What a bore!

great group great music

No talent whatsoever.

They had a good Unplugged performance.

Natalie has the best voice I have ever heard, her days in Maniacs were the best she ever did.

Okay music but sorta boring dontcha think?

Natalie Merchant's voice sounds like someone scratching a chalk board.

I like the 10000 Maniacs an awful lot. That MTV unplugged concert album of theirs is especially good: especially the song "Because the Night" I know they didn't write it (Springsteen did) but Natalie Merchant performs it so soulfully!

They were the best, and they're still great!

Natalie Merchant is a fantastic songwriter.