screams and thrashes her guitar to the gut-pounding, throttling beat of bassist
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