People who do not like them need not apply!
― OutdoorFish, Tuesday, 12 March 2013 00:57 (eleven years ago) link
"My Mother the War." Good riff. Moves. More smart than pretentious. (I do realize that no Maniacs fan is going to agree with me....)
― Michael Train, Tuesday, 12 March 2013 01:20 (eleven years ago) link
nabisco science: LAY OFF NATALIE MERCHANT
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 12 March 2013 01:21 (eleven years ago) link
Bring Me To Life
― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Tuesday, 12 March 2013 01:25 (eleven years ago) link
"can't ignore the train" is pretty great. another vote for john lombardo-era 10km.
― my cat is an eliane radigue (get bent), Tuesday, 12 March 2013 01:26 (eleven years ago) link
You Happy Puppet lyrics so accurate and great jaunty tune
― OutdoorFish, Tuesday, 12 March 2013 01:40 (eleven years ago) link
I had a prof who looked like an older Natalie Merchant.
― kafkaesque (c21m50nh3x460n), Tuesday, 12 March 2013 01:45 (eleven years ago) link
Haha this thread is so short!
I think it's interesting somehow that N Merchant was on the cusp of 30 when thy did Our Time in Eden.
― calstars, Friday, 17 October 2014 22:29 (nine years ago) link
'Hey Jack Kerouac'
― Jessie Fer Ark (Mobbed Up Ping Pong Psychos), Saturday, 18 October 2014 23:20 (nine years ago) link
and why..?I love the middle eightish part with no singing in it
― Jessie Fer Ark (Mobbed Up Ping Pong Psychos), Saturday, 18 October 2014 23:28 (nine years ago) link
"Headstrong"
I air drum to this song every time I play it.
― Johnny Fever, Saturday, 18 October 2014 23:59 (nine years ago) link
"Candy Everybody Wants", idk why, but there is this really great shot in the music video of Natalie Merchant spitting out a Froot Loop!!!
― rad het chilly poppers (Stevie D(eux)), Sunday, 19 October 2014 01:23 (nine years ago) link
"Don't Talk" maybe?
― bippity bup at the hotel california (Phil D.), Sunday, 19 October 2014 02:38 (nine years ago) link
Missed this thread when it first came out so thanks for the revive. Oh, so many favourites. Probably "Noah's Dove".
― goth colouring book (anagram), Monday, 20 October 2014 13:37 (nine years ago) link
"Jezebel" kicks, that's my fav. I love how she somehow sings in meter words that do not scan that way when you read it. she does this on a lot of songs but the chorus of "Jezebel", especially the last run through the chorus, is an exemplar of this.
well, this or "Planned Obsolescence".
― droit au butt (Euler), Monday, 20 October 2014 13:44 (nine years ago) link
Not sure I've ever heard much from these guys. Worth digging out the catalog?
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 20 October 2014 14:04 (nine years ago) link
From the very beginning up through Blind Man's Zoo, definitely. Some people love Our Time in Eden, but I wasn't crazy about it (though perhaps I should reinvestigate, as it's been 20+ years since I've listened to it).
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 20 October 2014 14:08 (nine years ago) link
in hs my friend and her bf and i made a video for "eat for two" for our video art class, so that i guessin the part of the song where "the eggman fell down off his shelf" featured my friend frustratedly trying to break an egg
i think natalie merchant was born 30
― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Monday, 20 October 2014 14:12 (nine years ago) link
it was actually a video production class, not video artthe narrative music video was an assignment we had and apparently this is the best idea we could come up with
― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Monday, 20 October 2014 14:14 (nine years ago) link
Listening to "In My Tribe," and it's a struggle. Just not my thing, I guess. It's like a pretentious, less interesting ... Kirsty MacColl?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 21 October 2014 14:49 (nine years ago) link
Maybe try the Hope Chest compilation? That's the very earliest of their recordings all in one place.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 21 October 2014 16:11 (nine years ago) link
Will try. That other stuff was sort of insufferable.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 21 October 2014 17:20 (nine years ago) link
I love love loved In My Tribe when it came out. Don't Talk was always my favorite but now Hey Jack Kerouac
― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, 21 October 2014 17:29 (nine years ago) link
You win a prize for thatFor telling lies like that
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 October 2014 17:30 (nine years ago) link
I was into In My Tribe when it came out, but I've bonded the most with Blind Man's Zoo and it's remained my favorite for 25 years.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 21 October 2014 17:31 (nine years ago) link
The first minute of "Planned Obsolescence" with the dub-influenced bass, organ, crazy guitar effects, and Merchant's frightened voice is spooky 4 a.m.-college-radio-in-1982 shit.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 October 2014 17:32 (nine years ago) link
So is all this stuff good, or is this nostalgia speaking? That is, if this is not already a part of my formative listening history, is it something I have any chance/need to get into on the cusp of 40?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 21 October 2014 17:37 (nine years ago) link
Well, you don't need to eat sunflower seeds, but they're alright if they're lying around.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 October 2014 17:38 (nine years ago) link
Faint praise.
"Planned Obsolescence" sounds OK, in a minor Martha and the Muffins sort of way. Will stick with Hope Chest a bit.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 21 October 2014 17:39 (nine years ago) link
This is "My Mother The War" for me, too. Love the New Order-y bass, the washes of noise guitar and Natalie's a match for early Stipe in the inscrutable mumblings department. I like plenty of their later stuff fine, but once Joe Boyd decided they were Fairport Convention and then Peter Asher started glossing things up even further, I began to lose interest. Still really love her voice.
― Deliciously hard yet very accessible (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, 21 October 2014 18:34 (nine years ago) link
it is not good imo
― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Tuesday, 21 October 2014 18:59 (nine years ago) link
Here are fifteen tracks, boring in a weird way or weirdly boring.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 17 February 2018 03:10 (six years ago) link
what for?
― Heavy Messages (jed_), Saturday, 17 February 2018 03:19 (six years ago) link
man this popped up on my shuffle today and it was possible to remember why they created such a stir in the college rock world at one point:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Be784nT5k
― campreverb, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 01:43 (five years ago) link
“These Are Days” is my favorite 10,000 Maniacs song (and I was heavily into this band as a teen, deep into all their shit).That song — their big, late-career “hit” — is kind of an arrestingly perfect single to me, even now.
― plant a twee or die (morrisp), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 02:49 (five years ago) link
I was deep into that “Verdi Cries” and “Poor De Cherico” shit, Holmes!
― plant a twee or die (morrisp), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 02:51 (five years ago) link
“Verdi Cries” is a gorgeous song.
― JoeStork, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 03:15 (five years ago) link
I don't consider myself THAT big a fan, but I can name at least a dozen songs which haven't even been mentioned here that I absolutely adore.
But Jezebel wins (that whole album is gorgeous)
― itsabot! (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 03:45 (five years ago) link
(Blind Man's Zoo was my very first CD)
― itsabot! (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 03:49 (five years ago) link
I love "These Are Days."
― banjoboy, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 05:55 (five years ago) link
"Scorpio Rising" would absolutely destroy on any mixtape of '80s rock tracks... what a song!
― good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Tuesday, 15 December 2020 06:15 (three years ago) link
(this song "Cotton Alley," which I didn't even remember, is also casually better than 99.999% of extant songs)
― good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Tuesday, 15 December 2020 06:41 (three years ago) link