10,000 Maniacs (named after the 1960s low-budget horror film Two Thousand Maniacs) are a multi-platinum alternative folk-pop rock band formed in in Jamestown, NY. In 1981, high school friends John Lombardo and Robert Buck joined a band originally named Still Life, then invited Natalie Merchant, a local sixteen-year-old ‘timid hippie girl’, to jam with them at a party.

Within a few years, the band was packing hipster clubs along the US east coast, including the famous 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia. Electra Records signed them, but their first album, written mainly by Lombardo, failed to make an impact. Their second album In My Tribe was written by the remaining members after Lombardo’s exit, and it gave the band their first mainstream success. “What’s The Matter Here?” and “Like The Weather” were minor US hits that eventually pushed the album to double platinum sales.

The follow-up Blind Man’s Zoo initially made a bigger impact than its predecessor in the US, reaching #13 and almost giving the band its first US top 40 hit with “Trouble Me” (also the band’s first UK hit), but was later called “a critical and financial disappointment” by Rolling Stone. Member Steve Gustafson later shared, “Most people around us thought that that was it, that it was over and we were never gonna make another record.”

After a year-long break, the band came back with 1992’s Our Time In Eden. It repeated the success of their second album by achieving double platinum sales, thanks to its top five Alternative Chart singles “These Are Days” and “Candy Everybody Wants” (also their highest-charting UK singles). The live MTV Unplugged followed and it went triple platinum thanks to a cover of Patti Smith’s “Because The Night” reaching #11 in the US.

However, Merchant had already announced her departure to begin a solo career a few months prior to the release of Unplugged. Lombardo returned, bringing vocalist & violinist Mary Ramsey with him and the band released Love Among The Ruins in 1997. Aside from a cover of Roxy Music’s “More Than This” reaching #25 in the US, the album made little impact.

The band took a three year hiatus when founding member Robert Buck passed away in 2000. Afterwards, the band continued to tour with members occasionally leaving and returning over the years, but new music output was minimal until the 2011 EP Triangles, 2013’s Music from the Motion Picture and 2015’s Twice Told Tales.