10,000 Maniacs consists of Dennis Drew (keyboards), Jerome Ausugstyniak, John Lombardo (guitar), Mary Ramsey (vocals), Steven Gustafson (bass).
10,000 Maniacs is a U.S. rock band, formed in 1981 and active with various line-ups since that time. Perhaps the most well-known member has been Natalie Merchant, who left the band in 1993 to pursue a solo career.
The band was formed, as Still Life, in Jamestown, New York, by Steven Gustafson (then 23 years old and a bass player), Dennis Drew (23; keyboards) and Robert Buck (22; guitar), Terry Newhouse (Buck's ex-wife and a vocalist) and Chet Cardinale (drums). Gustafson invited Merchant, then aged 17, to do some vocals. John Lombardo (28; guitar) who was in a band called The Mills, used to play with Still Life occasionally and was invited to join permanently. Newhouse and Cardinale left the band in July, and Merchant became the main singer. Various drummers came and left. The band changed its name to Burn Victims and then to 10,000 Maniacs, after the low-budget horror movie Two Thousand Maniacs.
They performed as 10,000 Maniacs for the first time on September 7, 1981 ( Labor Day), with a line-up of Merchant, Lombardo, Buck, Gustafson, Drew, and Tim Edborg (drums). Edborg left and Bob "Bob O Matic" Wachter was on drums for most of the 1981 gigs. Tired of playing other people's songs, they started to write their own, usually with Merchant writing lyrics and Lombardo the music. In February-March 1982, with Jim Foti on drums, the band recorded an EP called Human Conflict Number Five. More gigs followed in 1982.
At the beginning of 1983, drummer Jerry Augustyniak (26) joined the band. The Maniacs met Augustyniak when they played in Buffalo, New York, where he was in a punk band called The Strains and he was invited to be part of the band. Between March and July they recorded songs for a second record, Secrets of the I Ching — their debut album — which was pressed by Mark Records for the band's own label, Christian Burial Music. The record was well-received by critics and it caught the attention of John Peel, a DJ at Radio BBC Radio 1 in London. One song, " My Mother the War" turned out to be a minor hit in the United Kingdom, and it entered the independent singles chart. During 1983 and 1984, touring was a way of life for the band and they also played some gigs in the UK. It was during this time that they lived in Athens, Georgia for a short while.
