Babes in Toyland/ Kat Bjelland fans

[idgiehkt]

I just found this short Painkillers doc on youtube today, it's about ten minutes long and the resolution sucks but it is fun and different to see the girls in action in the studio. I don't know what kind of stupid riot grrrl/spoken word b.s. Lori Barbero is doing in this but I never cared for her contribution to the band beyond the drums anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_DBY-RBktU

There's a lot of good stuff from Kat in here...coolest chic in the universe.

Babes for the uninitiated:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TSso0fyY8k
(Handsome and Gretel)

I'm not going to be around to kick this but I know there are a few other Kat/Babes fans around here so if they aren't on I guess it'll just die a grisly death while I go take a bath and do something weird to my hair.

(thanks/bye)

[Okiojira]

1. I haven't heard much out the Babes since the early 90s....

....when did Painkillers come out? I got into BIT circa "Fontanelle", but other than a brief spurt of fame courtesy of "Beavis & Butthead", haven't heard a peep from them since. The Painkillers footage looks like it must have been not too long after Fontanelle...

[idgiehkt]

2. here's the discography for Babes

http://www.google.com/musica?aid=ueBeglkPAvE&sa=X&oi=music&ct=result

Painkillers came out in 93, the band broke up and Kat has had various other bands since then like Crunt and Katastrohpy Wife and has also written some stuff with Courtney Love.

This CD set is a compilation of her work with Babes and the other bands that came out a couple of years ago:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002U87OE

I realized after I posted this it should have been in past tense but oh well. m

edit: that discocraphy is out of sync chronologically and there is one CD they had not on there called "Nemesisters"; that one sucked so bad I threw it in the trash. It was right before they broke up so that's probably why.

I never knew they were on Beavis and Butthead til I saw the video of it on youtube a couple of months ago; honestly I didn't even know they actually had that kind of mainstream recognition back then until now...they've mostly had a cult following of Kat worshippers like myself.

[Okiojira]

4. Cool! Thanks for bringing me up to speed...

...I vaguely remember when "Nemesisters" came out and seeing the cover art made me think that this was something their label had more or less "forced" them into - it seemed so...I dunno..."corporate rock"?? Sounds like I might have been right, judging by your negative reaction to that album.

I also saw them perform on MTV's 120 minutes - must have been in 1995-96 - but they didn't seem to have the same angry energy as they did on "Fontanelle"; the song they performed seemed kinda mundane in comparison with "Fontanelle". I think I went to bed at that point and didn't give the Babes much thought till recently, when I dragged my old copy of "Fontanelle" out of the archives.

[idgiehkt]

7. that 120 minutes is on youtube, lol

someone edited out the commercials and the videos so you just see their host parts, it's kind of neat actually.

Nemesisters...I don't know what happened with that. Kat was getting alot of flack from the riot grrrl types for whatever reason, if I remember correctly, it's been a while, and there was that ongoing feud with Courtney Love (the song on that album about it is "Black Widow", nice, huh?)

Did you ever hear "Spanking Machine"? That one is every bit as good as "Fonatanelle", but it's got more of a subtle, cummulative effect to it. My favorite Babes song of all time "Dust Cake Boy" is on that one, that song has probably saved me thousands of dollars on therapy over the years. I want to find a video of that so bad if there is one, there are several uploads of that that they did touring with Sonic Youth in Germany but the sound is terrible on it.

[Okiojira]

9. Thousands of dollars?!?

Damn, i should have listened to "Spanking Machine" years ago!!!

Obviously, that last comment ought to reveal that I have not heard "Spanking Machine" (except for tiny excerpts on iTunes).

I guess it's just serendipitous that this thread popped up right after I had just picked back up on BIT after many years. ("Bruise Violet" was a Courtney Love diatribe, correct?)

I should check out YouTube some more...

[idgiehkt]

10. yes, there is nothing like driving along in your car screaming along to

Dust Cake Boy. I don't know what it's about but she screams so beautifully on that song it's amazing. Of course, now my hearing is permanently affected by years of going around with Babes in Toyland blaring in my ears. If there was a video on you tube of it I'd post it, it drives me nuts there isnt' cause it really is their best song.

here's a small sample, it's not 'easily accessible' but once you get into it your hooked, when I see them referenced online nowadays so many times it's about this song, I think it touched a chord with people:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/clipserve/B0000018VN001010/0/ref=mu_sam_wma_001_010/002-

[Gold Metal Flake]

12. Spanking Machine and To Mother were both powerful recordings.

Fontanelle is also compelling but the guitar tone sucks. Flat and dimensionless as though she plugged into an effects pedal and went straight to the board. The earlier recordings had a killer sound with a swampy bluesy vibe. I listen to them often.

[idgiehkt]

15. thanks for that.

there is a really different sound between fontanelle and spanking machine but I don't have enough technical knowledge to understand it so thanks. It's funny you said 'swampy' since "Swamp Pussy" is on Spanking Machine. How do you feel about Lori Barbero's contributions to the CD's; I'm trying to figure out if I'm just being a Kat snob about this...

[Gold Metal Flake]

16. Swamp Pussy epitomises the sort of bluesy washboard attack...

...that just crawls up my spin and drives me crazy. Add unthrottled anger and passion and, well, it is the shit.
It's not just the title of the song that suggest "swampy" to me, but Ket's playing style at that point. A more pronounced example of this can be heard on Spit To See The Shine on To Mother. Just drives me nuts. Fontanelle has those great songs Jungle Train and Mother, Mother being to me the quintisential BIT song. I just wish I could hear it with Kat plugged into a Marshall 2205 and a full stack through a GT1 tube mic.

Lori Barbero is just more depressed than Kat LOL! I like Primus on To Mother, but she can really stop the flow dead sometimes.

[idgiehkt]

17. "stop the flow dead"

right about that, she's like depressive to Kat's manic. I love Mother... and one I really LOVE thought it probably shows how twisted I am is "Gone"; I guess that's more quintessential Kat's brain than anything else. I have played that song for hours sometimes...who'd have thought of using breaking glass and laughter as an instrument...

[idgiehkt]

11. sorry, I just saw the Bruise Violet question

YES and Kat and Courtney are denying everything now, which is so weird. Bruise Violet was like the opening salvo as far as I know and at the time they didn't deny it was about Courtney; she and Kat used to play in a band with Jennifer Finch from L7 when they first started out. Then Courtney answered with "Violet" on 'Live through this'; I actually posted that video earlier on another thread http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki4vC3hbpk4

then came Nemesisters and 'Black Widow'. But someone asked Kat about it fairly recently and she said no, that Bruise Violet wasn't about the Courtney/Kat feud. I don't know why the revisionist history since everyone knows that's what all those songs were about.

[cedahlia]

13. Spanking Machine is so great

Kat's lyrics are always incredible...and they are particularly so on Spanking Machine. I love the way she plays with words, and for some reason her writing strikes me as kind of a bizarre, brilliant blend of twisted Mother Goose rhymes and Shakespearean poetry (but maybe that's just me...I just think she's a lyrical genius!)

Examples:

"Suffering on the house that Jack built on a foundation of mudslides..."

"You're a writer...well you better write quick 'cause you're paper's on fire..."

"Oh, my soul, there's a hole..."

"So I put on my best Sunday dress, and I walked into this mess, posing as a ghost or something much less than a crazy old doll in a crazy old dress..."

Just brilliant!

:thumbsup:

[idgiehkt]

14. I know

I always pay so much attention to what she's doing with her voice that I haven't even read the lyrics that much. Thanks for posting those. I love in that doc how the lady was asking her about outer space and if it was scary to her and she said that the openess and the darkness and wideness were very comforting to her and that it was much less scary than being on the ground. Other lyrics I like from fontanelle:

Real Eyes:
3 seas between us and the very next bus
And it takes so long to get there
'Cause the now and here spells nowhere
Heretic-toc goes the Easter clock
Your friends they're really not
I can't take it any more...

I REALIZE I REAL EYES I REAL EYES YOUR LIES ARE IN YOUR OWN EYES

3 seized between us and the very next bus
Got a 30 dollar pocket built the plank
It begs to walk it
Every thought is mine or not
Just get your fingers off my spot

she's beautifully deranged.

And "Spun" which I really like as well:
I live inside all invited inside
Eyes flutter feathers my hairs fair like weather
I've blown my recovery
Living is nice when you're spun like a kite
Sugar and tea and cream
Looks like the sea is green with rivalry
Now that I know just what you're all about I want out!
I live inside all invited inside
Sugar and tea and cream
Looks like the sea is green with reverie
Life is real when you're dreaming
Life's a dream when you're reeling
Now I want out

[cedahlia]

3. Love, love, love the Babes!

They have been such an inspiration in my life...it's a shame they were so underrated. What a kickass ball of female energy they were...girls today could use some Babes in their lives, that's for sure.

Sounds like you're not particularly a fan of Lori's, but I met her once and she was very sweet. She even gave me a hug, which was quite a thrill for a (then) budding teenage punk rock chica. My friend and I slow danced to "Ariel" at that show...it's one of my favorite memories. :-)

Anyway, thanks for posting this...I do appreciate it, even though I only have a shitty dial-up connection, so it would probably take hours for me to download. It is cool to know they are kicking around YouTube, though!

[idgiehkt]

6. Lori kicks ass as a drummer, I just thought that her music was

really out of sync with the band. She had such a Janis Joplin type thing going on the songs that she did, which was really out of sync with the whole theme of what Kat was trying to get across, it was almost regressive. I always felt like she could have done that stuff on a side project and been alot more successful with it, since her songs were way more mainstream than the ones Kat did vocals on.

Babes have a cult following still, I think Kat especially is really getting credit for what she brought about in music. I just love to listen to her vocal gymnastics she's like a sonic train wreck or plane crash, lol. There is tons of Babes stuff on youtube, most uploaded by the same person. I love that Handsome and Gretel performance that I posted in the OP even though there's a weird skip in the first part and some lines are missing.

[aquaman]

5. I love Babes in Toyland

Actually saw them many moons ago at the 40 Watt in Athens, GA. Crazy show.

[idgiehkt]

8. wow.

I can't beleive you saw them in Athens. The coolest band in the coolest town. Woohoo!

[electricmonk]

18. Another Babes fan here

Saw them a couple times in Richmond, Va around '89 or '90. Both times I saw them Michelle was still in the band. There's a pretty cool book out called, Babes in Toyland: The Making and Selling of a Rock and Roll Band. It's been awhiole since I've read it but I seem to remember liking most of it.

[idgiehkt]

19. thanks for posting the pics, they are great!

I think Michele is so pretty, I love the cover of the Peel Sessions CD she's on. I got into them right around the time she left. I went right from mostly listening to music that was 20-25 years old to listening to Babes/Lunachicks/L7/Tribe 8/Hole/PJ Harvey(man she'd be pissed to be in this category, lol) etc.

[electricmonk]

20. I had a huge crush on Michelle

The Lunachicks are great. I've seen them at least 6 times but for some reason I never took photos at their shows. I was going to the last time I went to see them but we got there late and they were on their last song when we got into the club. That was a couple years ago when we they were touring with the Buzzcocks and Down By Law.

[idgiehkt]

21. sumpin' about her

I think this was taken on the Sonic Youth tour.

[cedahlia]

22. oooh, great pic!

Ah, those white fishnets...I wore white fishnets to my highschool graduation, way back the old 1990's. :-) Seeing them again makes me wanna get a pair...I'm sure mr. cedahlia would be thrilled if I did!

Seeing that pic also reminded me how much I wanted to be Kat Bjelland when I was a teenager. One of the coolest "babes" of all time, indeed!

Thanks for the memories, idgiehkt. <3