Music Review - 10,000 Maniacs - Music From the Motion Picture

Music From The Motion Picture - 10,000 Maniacs - The first album from the "alt icons" (I found that description several different places for the band) in 13 years. The band had just celebrated their 30th year together and decided to partner with their fans to fund the album.  Raising the needed funds they've created another classic Maniacs effort.  It's an album of firsts.  The first record with Jeff Erickson featured on lead guitar taking the late Rob Buck's place in the lineup.  Of course Mary Ramsey took over the primary vocals but in a change the ladies don't carry all the lead singing.  Erickson does some and founding member and keyboardist Dennis Drew makes his debut as well.  There's a nice diversity of music styles as always with the Maniacs.

They open with a nice kind of '70s Country/Rock feel with  "I Don't Love You Too".  They move into a more familiar 10,000 Maniacs sound with the next three cuts - "When We Walked on Cloud", "Gold" and "Triangles".  For me this is really the heart of the album.  When We Walked begins with a wonderful acoustic guitar intro then drops into a readily familiar Maniacs piano riff and Mary Ramsey's voice and violin.  "Gold" would be my choice for a first single.  Again it's classic Maniacs with a serious thoughtful lyric played against a bouncy tune.  This just screams for pop airplay somewhere.  The sound is a little different with Jeff Erickson singing. "Triangles" is the third cut in a row that begins with Jeff Erickson's acoustic guitar intro.  This time drummer Jerry Augustyniak is the first one to follow and his steady rhythm drives the music under Mary's singing. 

  The album also shows the time that has passed since the last one.  "Live for the Time of Your Life" and "Downhill" are not songs that they would have written in their '20s or '30s.  "Downhill" also marks the lead singing debut for keyboard player Dennis Drew who does a creditable job with this down tempo ballad to aging.  "Whipporwill" strikes me as another classic Maniacs style tune that takes the mundane and turns it into something special, maybe even other worldly. Then "It's a Beautiful Life" grabs a beat that feels a little Carribean and gives you the lift you just might need on a gray overcast winter day in western New York.  For reasons that I'm not sure I can explain "Fine Line" always makes me think of a kind of melodic, late '60s psychedelic kind of vibe.  "Tiny Arrows" is the only song that doesn't generate any particular feeling in me either way.  Nothing wrong with it but nothing that grabs me either.  The only tune that really fails for me is the last cut "Chautauqua Moon", an instrumental that displays Mary's virtuosity on the violin.  It comes off feeling rather experimental to me and just doesn't work for me at any level.

If you're waiting for the band to crank up and rock out you'll come away disappointed.  "Music From the Motion Picture" is the album of an older, more experience band.  You hear it not only in the music but the lyrics as well. This is is a mature reflective album that shows the confidence of a band that's been there, done that and isn't intent on meeting anyone's expectations other than their own.  Some folks have said that "Music From The Motion Picture" lacks any hits.  I think bassist Steven Gustafson responded best when he said "...we've been hearing that for 30 years".  10,000 Maniacs have always gone their own way, made their own music and this is more of the same.

Thank God.

Rating - **** Recommended

View From the Phlipside Radio - 10,000 Maniacs

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

I want to take a minute to get a bit of a jump on an event happening next week.  On Friday September 9 a retrospective of the 30 year career of Jamestown’s own 10,000 Maniacs will open at the 3rd on 3rd gallery in downtown Jamestown.  It seems like every time someone mentions famous folks who have risen from these streets it’s Lucy and Robert Jackson and Roger Tory Peterson and oh yeah, 10,000 Maniacs.  Call me a fan boy but I’d put them right behind Lucy.  I mean c’mon, let’s not get silly here.

Shortly after I first took over as the morning man at SE-93 a new album landed on my desk.  It was called “The Wishing Chair” and wonder of wonders it was by a bunch of local musicians and it was on a big time label, Elektra.  I put the album on and while I wasn’t blown away by everything on it I liked the musical sensibility and the amazing sound of Natalie Merchant’s voice.  So I started playing some of the tracks I liked on the air.  Sometime in those first couple years the band played a local concert and I got my first chance to see them up close and personal.  In fact 10,000 Maniacs was the first “big time” rock band I’d ever seen that way.  When their next album came out I had the feeling they’d hit on something.  Their earlier album had struck me as muddy with the music and vocals getting in each other’s way.  The next album was “In My Tribe” where producer Peter Asher had gotten the balance just right and the band sounded great.  From that album on 10,000 Maniacs would be more than just a local band.

But you know what?  In all this time since they’ve largely remained just a local band.  I’ve interviewed Steve Gustafson and or Dennis Drew a couple times and have always been impressed by how down to earth and easy to talk to they always are.  For the last couple years I’ve truly enjoyed working with Dennis here at WRFA.   Their dedication to their home town is a truly impressive and part of the reason why I still remain a 10,000 Maniacs fan.  My daughter’s first ever rock concert was a Christmas concert at the Reg.

These Are Days - 10,000 Maniacs 1981-2011 will run from September 9 through October 29 at the 3rd on 3rd.  The show includes all kinds of souvenirs and video tracing the band’s history from the not so mean streets of Jamestown, around the world and back.  Jamestown has a lot to be proud of and a certain group of young men and a young woman deserve to be recognized as part of our history.

Call that the View From the Phlipside