Babes in Toyland

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Babes in Toyland

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Rock band

Nearly every description of Babes in Toyland includes some form of the characterization "girl group." The three women who make up the band, however, prefer to be called a "rock band," rather than a "female rock band." In fact, there is nothing traditionally feminine in their aggressive, post-punk sound, which inspired the Riot Grrrls movement, a cadre of mostly young women who have set out to prove, among other things, that gender had nothing to do with the quality of music.

Though Babes in Toyland is considered a Minneapolis band, its history actually began in a small town in Oregon, where a high school student named Katherine Bjelland became best friends with a troubled California transplant named Courtney Love. After graduating from high school, Bjelland and Love briefly attended college. They then moved to San Francisco, where Katherine became known as Kat. They hadn’t planned to form a band—though Bjelland had started teaching herself how to play guitar when she was 19. But when Bjelland, Love, and their friend Jennifer Finch (who would go on

to join L7) caught an all-female punk band at a club one night, they decided to pick up instruments and give it a try. The three friends formed the band Sugar Baby Doll. But Bjelland soon decided to oust Love from the trio, effectively breaking up the band.

Minneapolis Beginnings
Remarkably, Bjelland and Love remained friends after this contentious event, deciding to pursue their musical careers in Minneapolis. By the end of 1987, they had met a cocktail waitress named Lori Barbero. Bjelland convinced Barbero that she could become a drummer. With Barbero on drums, Bjelland on guitar and vocals, and Love on bass, the first incarnation of Babes in Toyland was born. The name came from the Victor Herbert operetta (and 1961 Disney film), but as Bjelland would later explain in interview after interview, "Boys and girls are all babes in the universe."

A few months later, Bjelland once again kicked her longtime friend out of the band. Michelle Leon replaced Love on bass. Leon had only casually played her boyfriend’s bass guitar, but she was eager to join the band. "It felt so right from the very first," she told Neal Karlen in his book Babes in Toyland. "I didn’t want to just be in some band—I needed to be in this band. Though none of us knew how to read music, and Lori and I’d never really played our instruments, it was like we could understand the beat of each other’s pulses."

The trio’s friendship grew so close that they began to think of themselves as sisters. By then Babes in Toyland had made a name for themselves playing the Minneapolis club circuit. In 1990 they released their first LP, Spanking Machine, on Twin/Tone, a respected independent label based in Minneapolis. Shortly thereafter, Tim Carr, a representative of Warner Bros. Records, happened to see the band play in New York. A few months later, Carr signed them to a record contract. The band left on a European tour almost immediately.

Near Breakup and a Love-Hate Relationship
Babes in Toyland spent most of 1991 on the road expanding their fan base. Then, as they were preparing to go into the studio to record their first album for Reprise, a subsidiary of Warner Bros., Leon decided to quit the band. Refusing to squander the momentum they had gained on tour by simply letting the band disintegrate, Barbero and Bjelland recruited yet another bass player, Maureen Herman. Herman, who had been playing bass for Cherry Rodriquez in Chicago, knew the other Babes from when she had lived in Minneapolis. To solidify the new lineup, Babes in Toyland continued to perform before beginning recording sessions.

Bjelland married Stuart Spasm of the Australian punk band Lubricated Goat a few weeks before the release of Babes in Toyland’s first major-label album. The record was called Fontanelle, a reference to the soft spot on a newborn’s head.

In the meantime, Love had formed the band Hole and married Kurt Cobain, singer, guitarist, and songwriter for Nirvana, which would become enormously popular. Love took advantage of her new prominence to start a feud with Bjelland over who had started the "kinder-whore" look that both women favored—tattered baby-doll dresses, little-girl shoes, garish makeup, and wildly messy hair. Babes in Toyland responded with a staged combat between Bjelland and photographer Cindy Sherman, imitating Love, in the band’s first video, "Bruise Violet." The media war ultimately served to promote Babes in Toyland as much as Love.

At the end of the Fontanelle tour, Bjelland announced that she and her husband were moving to Seattle to form a new project, thus dissolving Babes in Toyland. But four days later, after a long, heart-to-heart talk with Barbero, Bjelland changed her mind about the band, if not Seattle. After Bjelland relocated west, she and Seattle resident Love reconciled. In the press, Love— notoriously prone to overblown pronouncements—often stated that the original lineup of Babes in Toyland, with her on bass, could have become the next Beatles.

The current lineup of Babes in Toyland hadn’t been doing too badly either: Spin named Fontanelle one of the year’s Top 20 albums, and Jon Pareles of the New York Times listed Babes in Toyland among 1992’s most notable groups.

Selected discography
Spanking Machine, Twin/Tone, 1990.
Fontanelle, Reprise, 1992.
Pain Killers (EP), Reprise, 1993.
(Contributors) If I Were a Carpenter, A&M, 1994.
Nemesister, Reprise, 1995.

Movies, Books, and MTV
In 1993 Babes in Toyland experienced another career surge, releasing an EP titled Pain Killers, which included a live version of “Bruise Violet.” MTV’s hit show Beavis and Butt-head started incorporating the “Bruise Violet” clip into its video segments, which increased the band’s exposure and album sales. That summer Babes in Toyland joined the renowned Lollapalooza summer festival tour.

The following year the trio had a hand in the film SFW, playing themselves as well as recording the picture’s title song. Not satisfied with this foray into filmdom, however, Babes in Toyland also cut a cover of Little Richard’s “The Girl Can’t Help It” for the movie Reform School Girls. Neal Karlen helped to further hype the band with his account of their story in his book Babes in Toyland: The Making and Selling of a Rock and Roll Band. And later in the year, the trio’s version of “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft” appeared on If I Were a Carpenter, a well-received homage to the 1970s pop band the Carpenters.

Before the recording of the band’s next album, Bjelland divorced Spasm and returned to Minneapolis. In early 1995 Babes in Toyland released Nemesister. The LP included the corrosively catchy first single, “Sweet 69,” and singular covers of disco stalwart Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family,” former Raspberry Eric Carmen’s 1975 hit “All By Myself,” and blues singer Billie Holiday’s “Deep Song.”

Over the years Babes in Toyland have developed a solid band chemistry and a distinctive musical identity. “We are not regular musicians,” Barbero told Billboard. “We don’t read and write music; we just do our own thing.”

Sources
Books
Karlen, Neal, Babes in Toyland: The Making and Selling of a Rock and Roll Band, Times Books/Random House, 1994.
The Trouser Press Record Guide, edited by Ira A. Robbins, Collier, 1992.

Periodicals
Billboard, July 10, 1993; September 4, 1993; March 18, 1995.
Entertainment Weekly, July 16, 1993; July 23, 1993; April 28, 1995.
Rolling Stone, April 18, 1991; May 18, 1995; June 15, 1995.
Stereo Review, November 1993; December 1994.
Wilson Library Bulletin, December 1994.
Additional information for this profile was obtained from Reprise Records press materials, 1995.
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  • Genres: Rock

Biography

Babes in Toyland is about as harsh as rock music gets -- guitarist Kat Bjelland screams and thrashes her guitar to the gut-pounding, throttling beat of bassist Maureen Herman and drummer Lori Barbero. Over their two albums and two EPs, the all-female trio offers no escape from their strongly female-oriented, but not necessarily feminist, rock.

Bjelland formed Babes in Toyland in 1987 in Minneapolis, after playing around San Francisco for several years in various bands which featured, at various times, Jennifer Finch of L7 and Courtney Love of Hole. After releasing a single on Sub Pop's singles club, Babes in Toyland came to the attention of Sonic Youth, who took them on a tour of Europe. Soon, they recorded their abrasive debut, Spanking Machine, with producer Jack Endino; one more independent EP followed before they signed to Reprise. Between labels, original bassist Michelle Leon left the group.

Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo produced their second album, Fontanelle, which showed no signs of concession to a major label. In early 1993, the band broke up for several days before re-forming to record the Painkillers EP and hitting the road with Lollapalooza 1993.

Even though Lollapalooza offered the group a boost in public exposure, they chose not to capitalize on it; instead, it took them nearly two years before they released a new record, Nemesisters, in 1995. With Babes in Toyland on hiatus, Bjelland formed Katastrophy Wife with husband Glen Mattson; in the spring of 2000, Reprise issued the Babes collection Lived. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Babes in Toyland (band)

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Babes in Toyland

A promotional shot of the band in 1992.
Background information
Origin Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Genres Alternative rock, punk rock
Years active 1987–2001
Labels Twin Tone, Southern, Strange Fruit, Reprise, Insipid
Associated acts Sugar Babydoll, Pagan Babies, Italian Whorenuns, Crunt, Koalas, Katastrophy Wife
Members
Kat Bjelland
Lori Barbero
Maureen Herman
Past members
Michelle Leon
Chris Holetz
Cindy Russell
Dana Cochrane
Jessie Farmer
Courtney Love

Babes in Toyland was an American alternative rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1987. The band was formed by Oregon native Kat Bjelland (lead vocals and guitar), with Lori Barbero (drums) and Michelle Leon (bass), who was later replaced by Maureen Herman in 1992. Courtney Love — a close friend and former bandmate of Bjelland when the two lived in Portland and San Francisco - had a very brief stint in the band in 1987 as a bass player, before being kicked out and forming Hole in 1989.[1]

Between 1989 and 1995, Babes in Toyland released three studio albums; Spanking Machine (1989), the commercially successful Fontanelle (1992), and Nemesisters (1995), before becoming inactive in 1997 and eventually disbanding in 2001. While the band was inspirational to some performers in the riot grrrl movement in the Pacific Northwest, Babes in Toyland never associated themselves with the movement.

Contents

History

Formation and early years (1987-1991)

Babes in Toyland formed in 1987, after frontwoman Kat Bjelland met drummer Lori Barbero at a friend's barbecue. Originally from Woodburn, Oregon and a former resident of San Francisco, Bjelland had moved to Minneapolis to form a band.[2] Over the following months, Bjelland convinced Barbero to play drums and formed Babes in Toyland in winter 1987. In its initial formation in 1987, in addition to Bjelland and Barbero, the band included Chris Holetz on bass and singer Cindy Russell.[3] After Holetz and Russell left, the band briefly recruited Bjelland's friend - and former bandmate of the band Pagan Babies - Courtney Love on bass. Love, who later went on to form the successful band Hole, only lasted a number of weeks before being kicked out by Bjelland. After Love's departure, Michelle Leon was recruited as bassist.[3] It has been noted that several songs from the Babes In Toyland's debut album shared lyrics and verses with several songs by Hole, most notably Hole's first several singles, including b-sides from "Retard Girl" and "Dicknail".[4] It is thought that Courtney Love and Bjelland had collaborated on songs in their previous bands and during Love's brief time in Babes In Toyland, which resulted in the sharing of the lyrics.

The band achieved their initial notoriety through Bjelland's "babydoll" image — sometimes referred to as the kinderwhore look — which contrasted dramatically with the raw power of her singing voice and her aggressive lyrics. After a number of live shows in 1988, the band released their first single, "Dust Cake Boy", through Sub Pop records' singles club in 1989. As the single reached significant underground success, Babes in Toyland entered the studio in 1989 to record their debut album. Originally titled Swamp Pussy, Spanking Machine was recorded with grunge producer Jack Endino at Seattle's Reciprocal Recording[5] and released in April 1990 on Minneapolis' Twin/Tone Records.[6]

Other bands interested in the underground music scene - most notably Sonic Youth - were fans of the album, so much so that Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore invited the band to perform on Sonic Youth's 1990 European tour[7] to promote their latest album, Goo. The band also performed alongside Sonic Youth at 1991's Reading Festival,[8][9] which was documented by Dave Markey's music documentary, 1991: The Year Punk Broke.

British DJ, John Peel, was also a fan of the album citing it as his "favourite album of 1990." During the band's tour with Sonic Youth in 1990, Babes in Toyland recorded a radio session for John Peel, one of the many Peel sessions. The band also did a second session with Peel in 1991, and the sessions were released as The Peel Sessions - the band's second EP - in 1992. The band's first EP, To Mother, was composed of outtakes from Spanking Machine and was released in 1991 and received critical acclaim entering the independent charts and staying there for a thirteen weeks, ten of which the EP held the number one spot.[10]

The band is profiled in the book "Babes in Toyland: The Making and Selling of a Rock and Roll Band" (ISBN 0812920589) by Neal Karlen, a journalist for the New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine. This was the first time a hardcover book had been written about an all-girl rock and roll group.

Fontanelle, Nemesisters and mainstream success (1992-1995)

After touring in 1991, the band entered the studio for a second time to record their major label follow-up to Spanking Machine. Bassist Michelle Leon left the group in December 1991, shortly before the recording of their second album, due to the death of her boyfriend, Joe Cole. Maureen Herman was recruited as her replacement. With this new line-up, Fontanelle was recorded in Cannon Falls, Minnesota and released in 1992, selling around 200,000 copies in the United States alone. The lead song on the album, "Bruise Violet," is said to be an attack on Courtney Love. The lyrics - which included the lines "you see the stars through eyes lit up with lies / you got your stories all twisted up in mine."[11] - supported this. However, in a more recent interview Bjelland has denied this, saying instead that "Violet" was the name of a muse to both her and Love. The song's video was shown on Beavis and Butt-Head, where the band was described as "chicks" who are "cool."[12]

In 1993, the band was chosen to take part in that year's Lollapalooza tour,[13] playing alongside such acts as Primus, Alice in Chains, Dinosaur Jr. and Rage Against the Machine. During dates at Lollapalooza, the band released their third and final EP, Painkillers, in June 1993, which was a re-recording of one of their most notable songs "He's My Thing", as well as outtakes from Fontanelle.

The band was the subject of the 1994 book Babes in Toyland: The Making and Selling of a Rock and Roll Band by Neal Karlen, which dealt with the band's signing to Warner and the recording of Fontanelle.[14] Bjelland described the book as being "like cartoon caricatures of us," while Herman said that Karlen "would make a great fiction writer."[15] The band also appeared in the 1995 documentary Not Bad for a Girl.[16]

On April 8, 1994, Babes in Toyland played a benefit show for Rock Against Domestic Violence with 7 Year Bitch, and Jack Off Jill in Miami at the Cameo Theater, the same day lead-singer of American grunge rock band Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, had been found dead in his Seattle home.[17] Around the same time, the band were featured on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, and were referenced in an episode of the sitcom Roseanne as well as an episode of Absolutely Fabulous.

More than a year later, in May 1995, the band released their final album, Nemesisters. Though receiving mixed reviews, the band described the album as "diverse", "experimental" and "spontaneous" and that the writing and recording process was "very different" as the band were working under pressure. Tours for the album took place throughout Europe - notably with a date at Denmark's Roskilde Festival - the United States, and Australia.

Herman's departure, Katastrophy Wife and breakup (1996-2001)

The band lost their contract with their record label when Herman left the band in 1996. Dana Cochrane, formerly of the band Mickey Finn, played bass with the band on live gigs in 1996 and 1997.[18] Original bassist Michelle Leon briefly rejoined the band for a short period in 1997, when Babes in Toyland were constantly breaking up and reforming. In 1998, the band was credited with the song Overtura: Astroantiquity/Attacatastrophy on the CD Songs of the Witchblade: A Soundtrack to the Comic Book, which Bjelland co-produced. Bjelland and Barbero played with a new bassist, Jessie Farmer, in 2000.[19]

However, a year earlier, Bjelland had formed a new band, Katastrophy Wife, which seemed to replace Babes in Toyland as her main musical project. Babes in Toyland performed a reunion show billed as "The Last Tour" on November 21, 2001 — which was released as a live album called Minneapolism - and this was not only the last Babes in Toyland show, but also the last official activity. Bjelland played a number of shows in Europe in 2002 under the title Babes in Toyland with a new drummer and bassist from the British band Angelica, however, Bjelland stopped using the name after Barbero and Herman raised legal issues.[20]

Members

  • Michelle Leon - bass (1987–1991, 1997)
  • Maureen Hermanbass (1991–1996)
  • Cindy Russell - vocals[3] (1987)
  • Chris Holetz - bass[3] (1987)
  • Courtney Love - bass (1987)

Discography

Studio albums and extended plays

Year Title Type Label US sales
1990 Spanking Machine Studio album Twin Tone Records 70,000
1991 To Mother EP Southern Records 50,000
1992 Fontanelle Studio album Reprise Records 220,000
1993 Painkillers EP 60,000
1995 Nemesisters Studio album 150,000

Compilation albums

Year Title Type
1992 The Peel Sessions Strange Fruit Records
1994 Dystopia Insipid Records
2000 Lived Almafame
Devil
Viled
Natural Babe Killers Recall Records
2001 Collectors Item Digimode Entertainment
The Further Adventures of Babes in Toyland Fuel 2000 Records
2004 The Best of Babes in Toyland and Kat Bjelland Warner Music Records

Singles

Year Title Album Label
1989 Dust Cake Boy Spanking Machine Treehouse Records
1990 House (None) Sub Pop
1991 Handsome and Gretel Fontanelle Insipid Records
1992 Bruise Violet Southern Records
1993 Catatonic To Mother Insipid Records
1995 Sweet '69 Nemesisters Reprise Records
We Are Family Nemesisters

Chart positions

Year Single Chart Peak position
1991 To Mother UK Indie Chart 1
1992 Fontanelle UK Albums Chart[21] 24
1993 Painkillers UK Albums Chart[21] 53
1995 "Sweet '69" Modern Rock Tracks 37
We Are Family Hot Dance Music/Club Play 22

Other contributions

Year Title Album Label
1989 "Watching Girl" Every Band Has A Shonen Knife Who Loves Them Giant Records
1991 "Handsome & Gretel" Indie Top 20 Volume 13 Beechwood Music
"Ripe" New Season - The Peel Sessions Strange Fruit
"Flesh Crawl" Teriyaki Asthma Vols. I-V C/Z Records
House The Grunge Years Sub Pop Records
1992 Handsome & Gretel Best Of Independent Beechwood Music
Sometimes Volume 4 Volmume
1993 Dirty Milk for Pussy Mad Queen Records
Dust Cake Boy Sonic Youth In 1991: The Year Punk Broke (VHS) Geffen Home Video
1994 Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft If I Were A Carpenter A&M Records
Say What You Want S.F.W.
1995 Sweet '69 Alternative Final Mix 11 Warner Music
More, More, More Spirit Of '73: Rock For Choice 550 Music
Sweet '69 Triple J: This Is Twelve - Too Louder Compilation Australian Broadcasting Corporation
1996 Handsome & Gretel (Live) Volume Fourteen - Reading '95 Special Volume
1998 Overtura: Astroantiquity Songs Of The Witchblade DreamWorks

Bibliography

Year Title Author Label
1991 'Babes in Toyland Lyric Book Babes in Toyland Twin Tone Records
1994 The Making & Selling of a Rock & Roll Band Neal Karlen Avon Books

See also

References

  1. ^ Shelton, Sonya. "Contemporary Musicians: Babes In Toyland Biography". E Notes. http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/babes-toyland-biography. Retrieved October 12, 2010. 
  2. ^ Taylor, Steve. A to X of Alternative Music. Continuum International Publishing Group. 2006.
  3. ^ a b c d Gaar, Gillian (2002). She's a Rebel (2 ed.). Seal Press. p. 389. ISBN 978-1-58005-078-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=m09vjqEmeX4C&pg=PA389. 
  4. ^ "Fork Down Throat" was performed as a Hole song in 1990 at their second and third shows, and verses from "Swamp Pussy" can be found in Hole's first recorded track, "Turpentine". Lines such as "spit to see the shine" and "my doll mouth to your deaf ear", which come from some of Hole's first singles, are found scattered in several songs from Spanking Machine as well as Fontanelle. It is possible that Love and Bjelland had written some of these songs/lines together.
  5. ^ Endino, Jack. Jack Endino Production Discography Retrieved from endino.com on June 11, 2010.
  6. ^ Discogs.com, Babes In Toyland - Spanking Machine at Discogs Retrieved on June 11, 2010.
  7. ^ Lawrence, Chris. sonic youth concert chronology - 1990 Retrieved on June 11, 2010.
  8. ^ fatreg.com, Reading Festival 1991 Retrieved on June 11, 2010.
  9. ^ phespirit, The Reading Festival Retrieved on June 11, 2010.
  10. ^ Southern Records, Babes in Toyland Retrieved from southern.com on June 11, 2010.
  11. ^ "Babes in Toyland". TrouserPress.com. http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=babes_in_toyland. Retrieved 2012-02-19. 
  12. ^ "Beavis and Butt-Head". Beavis-butthead.ru. 1997-10-10. http://www.beavis-butthead.ru/yellow_articles_episode.html. Retrieved 2012-02-19. 
  13. ^ "Dispatches Latter-Day Grunge". Time. 1993-07-12. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,978840,00.html. Retrieved 2010-04-26. 
  14. ^ "News Review: Babes in Toyland: The Making and Selling of a Rock and Roll Band – EW.com". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,303328,00.html. 
  15. ^ Herman, Maureen. Minneapolis Star Tribune, August 18, 1994.
  16. ^ "Not Bad for a Girl" film.com[dead link]
  17. ^ Baker, Greg. "The Hits Just Keep on Coming" Miami New Times, April 06, 1994.
  18. ^ Groebner, Simon Peter (1996-07-10), "MMA Cribsheet", City Pages, http://www.citypages.com/1996-07-10/music/mma-cribsheet/, retrieved 2009-12-10 
  19. ^ St. Paul Pioneer Press, November 24, 2000
  20. ^ Scholtes, Peter (2002-03-20), "Babes in Conflict", City Pages, http://www.citypages.com/2002-03-20/music/babes-in-conflict/, retrieved 2009-12-10 
  21. ^ a b Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 37. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 

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Herbert, Victor (American composer and conductor)
Painkillers (1993 Album by Babes in Toyland)
Fontanelle (1992 Album by Babes in Toyland)
Florence Roberts (Actor, Comedy/Drama)