OFF: 10,000 Maniacs

[K Henderson]

Hi Folks...

Well, I know you might think this is strange, based on the bulk of my
musical tastes (which I consistently force upon you poor people), but 10,000
Maniacs have (at times) been one of my favorites (at other times, been
rather pathetic). And founding member/guitarist Rob Buck died yesterday of
liver failure, which is a sad thing, since he was I believe the true reason
that they were appealing to me (and probably many others who never realized
it).  And if you had ever seen them in concert during the period(s) where
the show wasn't all about Natalie Merchant, you would have recognized that
Buck was a psychedelic rocker at heart, buried in a
liberal-propaganda-spouting-folk-pop-rock band.  I've been to enough 10KM
concerts (oh, about 13 or so, freebies the last couple of years) to see the
blank stares of people who can't fathom what the hell Buck's playing when
they pull out 1982-era tracks like 'My Mother the War' and 'Planned
Obsolescence' and he turns on a whole host of effects and lets it fly.  The
Spinal Tap-air force base scenario come to life.  The children cover their
ears and run.

Anyway, 10KM existed for about 18 or 19 years, although were only highly
visible for about 3 years (when they were at their worst...like that MTV
Unplugged show...what garbage), and began as a weird mixture of folk, punk,
reggae, calypso?, who knows what else...then morphed into a quirky folk-pop
outfit, went horrifically political, thankfully lost Natalie (whose
voice/singing style in the early days was something special IMHO) to a
miserable (though surprisingly popular) solo career, and then flattened out
into 'has been' territory.  The new albums (with Mary Ramsey) were rather
worthless (pleasant though empty), however their recent concerts (when Buck
was on-stage) were still full of 15-20 year old gems that Natalie had
obviously vetoed in her final years with the band.

Sorry for that bit of way-off-topic rhetoric...I just wanted to publicly
announce that we had lost one of 'our own', even though I don't think most
people would have ever thought so.

I hope the band decides to call it a day.  I doubt it though.

Grakkl (FAA)

ObCD: 10,000 Maniacs - Hope Chest
ObDrinkCoaster: 10,000 Maniacs - Blind Man's Zoo

P.S.  I like Talking Heads and the Police too (see recent Sting-HW thread),
and early 10,000 Maniacs were kinda similar, so it's not that weird!  Roxy
Music also.