Babes in Toyland

Kat Bjelland was a native of Woodburn, Oregon who moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota in the mid-1980’s with the intention of forming a band. Even the famously esoteric surroundings of Portland had failed to provide her with the right people to play music with despite many attempts to find them. However, Minneapolis proved to be a perfect fit for her, as shortly after she arrived in town, she met Lori Barbero at a barbeque held by a mutual friend of theirs. While a fan of punk rock, Barbero wasn’t an instrumentalist, but she got on so well with Bjelland that she was convinced to take up the drums and form a band with her. For nearly a year Bjelland and Barbero searched around for new additions to the bands line-up, before settling on Michelle Leon to play bass while Bjelland played guitar and sung lead vocals.

The band began performing live together in 1988, and their forceful, vitriolic live shows combined with Bjelland’s iconic “badydoll” look gained them a cult following all over the Pacific Northwest. By 1989, the band had released “Dust Cake Boy”, their first single, via the Sub Pop Records singles club, and almost immediately the band became underground sensations all over the country. Thanks to the singles success the band signed a record deal with Minneapolis’ Twin/Tone Records and “Spanking Machine”, their debut album, was released in April 1990. The album was hugely acclaimed, finding high profile fans in the form of Sonic Youth, who took the band out on their European tour of the same year in response, and Radio 1 legend John Peel, who named the album his favourite record of the year on his radio show.

This proved to be the set up for a highly succesful time for the band, even if it started out catastrophically. Leon’s boyfriend passed away shortly after recording began on the bands second album, and she left the band as a result in December 1991. However, the band were being hailed as one of the most vital bands in the world by that point, and they were able to recruit a substitute in the form of Maureen Herman without losing any of their copious forward momentum. The record, “Fontanelle” ended up being their commercial breakthrough, selling over 200’000 copies in the U.S alone, and landing them spots on high profile tours like the 1993 Lollapalooza festivals. However, the band’s interpersonal relations were on thin ice, and Herman left the band in 1996 soon after the release of their difficult third album “Nemesisters”.

For the next five years the band would only reunite for sporadic live shows, until they properly called it quits in 2001. However, thirteen years after the band’s split, they came back to play shows and write new records. This is far from a nostalgia trip as well, as their shows have been better received than they ever were originally, and with the trio arguably on the form of their lives right now, one can only imagine what they’ll come up with in the studio. Rock fans of all shapes and sizes will be overjoyed to see one of the most vital acts of their generation back and at the very top of their game, for that, Babes In Toyland come highly recommended.