10,000 Maniacs - Like the Weather

What this video is

Released in 1988 as the second single from 10,000 Maniacs' breakthrough album In My Tribe (1987), 'Like the Weather' marked the band's first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 (#68) and Album Rock Tracks chart (#37), signalling the mainstreaming of college-radio alternative rock. The Jamestown, NY-formed band, fronted by Natalie Merchant, occupied a culturally distinct space: thoughtful, literary, post-punk adjacent,…

Why it matters

A landmark moment in American college rock's transition to mainstream visibility, 'Like the Weather' demonstrated that literate, melody-driven alternative acts could chart without compromising their aesthetic sensibility. The song's upbeat music paired with depressive lyrics became a canonical…

The director

Adrian Charles Edmondson (born 24 January 1957, Bradford, West Yorkshire) is an English actor, comedian, writer, musician, and director who rose to fame as part of the British alternative comedy boom of the early 1980s. Best known for starring as Vyvyan in…