Riot Grrrl Bands

Babes in Toyland

While Babes in Toyland is not a Riot Grrrl band, they are still considered a Femme Punk band. (As many other bands in this story are).

Babes in Toyland was an American alternative rock banned formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota 1987. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Kat Bjelland a native of Oregon, along with drummer Lori Barbero and bassist Michelle Leon, who was later replaced by Maureen Herman in 1992. Babes in Toyland released three studio albums: Spanking Machine (1990), followed by the commercially successful Fontanelle (1992), and Nemesisters (1995), before becoming inactive in 1997 and eventually disbanding in 2001.

In 2014, the band reunited, and the following year began performing live together for the first time in over a decade. They completed an international tour throughout 2015, during which bassist Herman was fired and replaced with Clara Salyer. The band later broke up in 2020.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. Bjelland was a self-taught guitarist, and at the time Barbero had no experience playing any instruments. In its initial formation in 1987, in addition to Bjelland and Barbero, the band included Kris Holetz on bass and singer Cindy Russell.

Following the departures of Holetz and Russell, it was believed that the band briefly recruited Bjelland's friend and former bandmate, Courtney Love, on bass, as Love claimed to have been "kicked out" of the band. However, during a 2015 interview, Bjelland and Barbero refuted this, with Barbero stating: "She lived in my house, and one time I think when we were rehearsing she came down and probably picked up something and tried to play and we were just like, "get out of here." However, Michelle Leon, who was hired as the group's bass player, claimed that she was briefly replaced by Love as bassist shortly after joining. After the group rehearsed with Love on "a couple" of occasions, Leon stated Barbero called her and asked her to re-join the band. 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".

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 early 1992, shortly after the death of her boyfriend, Joe Cole. Maureen Herman was recruited as her replacement. With this new line-up, the band signed with Warner Bros.'s Reprise Records. Their second studio album, Fontanelle was recorded in Cannon Falls, Minnesota and in New York City, and featured production from Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo.[21] Fontanelle was released in 1992, and sold over 250,000 copies in the United States alone. The lead single on the album, "Bruise Violet," is said to be an attack on Courtney Love. However, Bjelland denied this, saying instead that "Violet" was the name of a muse to both her and Love. A music video for "Bruise Violet" was shot in the SoHo loft of photographer Cindy Sherman, who also appears in the video as Bjelland's doppelganger. Sherman's photos appear on the covers of Fontanelle and the group's second EP, Painkillers, and the imagery was recreated on stage banners with the artist's permission.

In 1993, the band was chosen to take part in that year's Lollapalooza tour, 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. In 1994, journalist Neal Karlen began writing Babes in Toyland: The Making and Selling of a Rock and Roll Band, which dealt with the band's signing to Warner and the recording of Fontanelle. Commenting on the book in retrospect, Bjelland said: "I feel bad for [Karlen]. He told me he lost a lot of his notes halfway through, and he spent his advance. So he made a lot of it up. Part of it's true. But a lot of it's not. He's apologized."

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. Around the same time, the band were featured on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, and were referenced in a 1995 episode of the sitcom Roseanne

In May 1995, the band released their final album, Nemesisters. The album received mixed reviews, with Lorraine Ali of Spin writing: "With Nemesisters, Babes in Toyland's molten core seems to have somewhat solidified; this album ultimately lacks the conviction, depth, and even direction of its predecessors." The band described the recording process of the album "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.

The band lost their contract with their record label when Herman left the band due to hip problems in 1996. Dana Cochrane, formerly of the band Mickey Finn, played bass with the band on live gigs in 1996 and 1997. Original bassist Michelle Leon briefly rejoined the band for a short period in 1997, when Babes in Toyland were constantly breaking up and reforming and planning on releasing a fourth studio album. 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.

However, a year earlier, Bjelland had formed a new band, Katastrophy Wife. 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 at the time. 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.

The first song that I had ever heard from the band Babes in Toyland was one of their much more famous pieces Bruise Violet.

A//N: hey! I'm so sorry that it took so long for me to update, I've just had little to no inspiration to write. Please do forgive me!