Babes in Toyland by mdb

Babes in Toyland

by MDB

Babes in Toyland were a female trio from Minneapolis formed in 1987. They stuck around until 1997 and released three albums, the most successful of which was Fontanelle in 1992, produced by Lee Renaldo of Sonic Youth and released on Reprise Records, a division of Warner Music. The Babes’ albums sold pretty well (200k in the US), but Babes are only referenced a few times in the canon of girl rock books in the ML300s section on third libe. Even on jstor, the references to Babes are few and far between.

I recently got The Making & Selling of a Rock & Roll Band by Neal Karlen from interlibrary loan. A few key quotes from the women in the band: “We’re not a girl band, we’re just a band!” “We’re all babes in the universe, babies, not babes.” Their insistence to be understood as one of many rock bands is not so dissimilar from my own view towards Prom Queef. The Babes wanted to be viewed on the merit of their music, not on the merit of their gender. Revolutionary? At the time and in the Midwest, definitely.

This view was not a mistake for the Babes. Tim Carr, the wily A&R rep for Warner who “discovered” the Babes, cleverly marketed this angle by playing on both the femininity of the musicians and their insistence to be separate from their gender identity. Their songs contained many of the themes of Riot GRRRL: anger at men, fighting with women, jealousy, anger, anger… Their sound was clearly influenced by the grunge explosion of the time. Side note: Courtney Love was the original bassist for the Babes until best friend/rival/lead singer Kat Bjelland kicked her out. Babe’s hit single “Bruise Violet” is an ode to Courtney’s alleged crime of friendship: stealing Kat’s signature baby-doll dress and subsequent “kinderwhore” style.

So what happened? The Babes had a hardworking label rep, underground and touring cred, music and style, and (perhaps most significantly) star power from Lee Renaldo, Cindy Sherman (the artist who did their cover art), and famous DJ John Peel (who said Fontenelle was the best album of 1992). Why is it that their critical acclaim and moderate-to-high album sales did not leave them with a lasting legacy in the minds of humans like me? Or maybe just me?

I have an idea here, I think that the Babes moved too quickly from the underground touring circuit to the big leagues. Their forays into the big leagues, while high profile (a tour with Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and on the second Lollapolooza tour, commentary from Beevis and Butt-head), didn’t bolster their underground cred. Their underground and hip cred, (Lori Barbero, the drummer, was a scene mother in the metro area, and Cindy Sherman album art and music video cameo), did not translate into commercial sales. Tim Carr is not to be blamed for plucking the Babes from obscurity and elevating them to the big leagues; it was the grunge explosion, and everyone wanted to sign the next Nirvana. But were the Babes ready to be plucked? I do not think they were fully ripe, unlike their contemporaries, Lunachicks and L7 or even the famed Bratmobile, who released countless cassettes and EPs before finally releasing an LP or signing to a label. Babes in Toyland may have made a crucial mistake with their disassociation from Riot GRRRL.

They were contemporary, but the Babes were vocal in their assertion that they were not associated with the movement. Riot GRRRL, whatever you may think of it, was influential. The Babes were certainly influential, especially in Minneapolis, but perhaps their legacy would have been cemented had they been plucked when ripe, or aligned themselves with the Riot GRRRL powerhouse. The video for “Bruise Violet,” starring Cindy Sherman as Courtney Love, is a good place to start getting acquainted with these Babes.