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Babes in Toyland: The Making and Selling of a Rock and Roll Band
This story of how a Minneapolis garage band was discovered by Warner Records' legendary Tim Carr and made a name for itself in the grunge rock scene takes a rare peek into the glamorous--and tough--world of rock and roll, as it follows this idealistic band on the road to fame and success.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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November 11, 2025
Major caveat to take into account while reading this book: Kat Bjelland has been quoted a few years ago saying that Neal Karlen lost a lot of his notes halfway through writing the book and made some stuff up. Her words were: ‘Part of it’s true. But a lot of it’s not. He’s apologized’.
I still wanted to read it because I love Babes in Toyland passionately, and I didn’t know much about them besides their music and vague stories of Kat’s feud with Courtney Love. I wanted to know what it had been like to be part of the band I once heard described as the ‘Minneapolis ragecore queens’…
So even knowing Karlen padded and embellished his tale, I will give him this: he knows how to weave a compelling yarn, because I was immediately hooked. Maybe he extrapolated some things and wrote about the band members as if they were characters in a novel instead of sticking to a traditional and more journalistic rock bio approach, but annoyingly, it works! Don’t we all want to think of our favorite rock stars as larger-than-life characters anyway?
This book is also the story of a specific moment in the life of Babes in Toyland: the recording of their major label debut ‘Fontanelle’, after releasing one record on a local indie label and a few years spent playing the underground music circuit. I was quite curious to read more about the band’s experience, as this transition from small indie labels to big corporate setup can be jarring and difficult, especially when a band wants to make sure they aren’t selling out and making compromises with suits who don’t understand their music. Add to that the additional struggle of being an all-female band in a very male-dominated industry: things can get sticky fast!
Karlen does a great job at capturing this strange flux period and the tensions, both personal and professional, that came along with it. The book addresses the so-called rivalry between Kat and Courtney Love a bit, and while I can see how juicy that must have sounded to the music press at the time, it is not the big deal that some people have made it out to be. The root of it seems to stem from Courtney imitating Kat’s aesthetic and fashion sense, but I know from personal experience that when female friends become very close (Kat has referred to Courtney as her ‘soul sister’; ladies, you know this is serious!), this sort of stylistic twining often ends up happening spontaneously, and I think people just read a lot into it. And if you listen to ‘Spanking Machine’ and ‘Pretty on the Inside’, there are also obvious similarities, but after those records, Babes in Toyland and Hole evolved more distinct sounds. It’s easy to read too much into that kind of thing, especially at a time when pitting female musicians against each other (instead of paying attention to their art, ahem!) seemed to be a national sport; the actual story of those bands is way more interesting than the rumor-mill garbage.
The coming and going of men who wanted to tell the band what to do constantly was so obnoxious. It’s pretty clear that Lee Ranaldo was not the right person to produce for the Babes, despite his indie rocker cred. There’s also a lot of emphasis on Tim Carr, the A&R guy who signed the band on a major label and worked to get the record done. Too much, really; I think that’s the book’s biggest flaw, because fans of Babes in Toyland don’t want to hear about the suits, we want to hear about the girls, the songs, the gigs! I appreciate that he fought to keep them on the label and figure out how to get the album recorded and give it as much exposure as possible, but he took a lot of page space. His chapters give the readers an interesting glimpse into how major labels work, and that’s both fascinating and slightly horrifying.
It needs to be said: Lori Barbero is an amazing human being: kind, supportive, loyal, positive, generous, determined. Holy shit, I want to be her bestie (or one of her many besties, I’m not jealous)! It was hard to read how much Maureen struggled, being the new girl in the band and having to live up to the standards Michelle had set for the bass, and Lori’s constant encouragement must have made a world of difference. That said, the internal drama in that band was quite intense, and while it’s a bummer we only got three albums from them, this was not a sustainable combo. I am very glad that we have the records we do, they are very important to me personally and had a massive influence on countless musicians, but the truth is that being in a band is really hard, and the story in this book is a prime example of how big business and genuine art will never really work together, even with the best of intentions.
Fans of the band will enjoy this, though I do wish it focused more on music and less on the drama. Still fun, and a little 90s music nostalgia treat that I can't resist.
I still wanted to read it because I love Babes in Toyland passionately, and I didn’t know much about them besides their music and vague stories of Kat’s feud with Courtney Love. I wanted to know what it had been like to be part of the band I once heard described as the ‘Minneapolis ragecore queens’…
So even knowing Karlen padded and embellished his tale, I will give him this: he knows how to weave a compelling yarn, because I was immediately hooked. Maybe he extrapolated some things and wrote about the band members as if they were characters in a novel instead of sticking to a traditional and more journalistic rock bio approach, but annoyingly, it works! Don’t we all want to think of our favorite rock stars as larger-than-life characters anyway?
This book is also the story of a specific moment in the life of Babes in Toyland: the recording of their major label debut ‘Fontanelle’, after releasing one record on a local indie label and a few years spent playing the underground music circuit. I was quite curious to read more about the band’s experience, as this transition from small indie labels to big corporate setup can be jarring and difficult, especially when a band wants to make sure they aren’t selling out and making compromises with suits who don’t understand their music. Add to that the additional struggle of being an all-female band in a very male-dominated industry: things can get sticky fast!
Karlen does a great job at capturing this strange flux period and the tensions, both personal and professional, that came along with it. The book addresses the so-called rivalry between Kat and Courtney Love a bit, and while I can see how juicy that must have sounded to the music press at the time, it is not the big deal that some people have made it out to be. The root of it seems to stem from Courtney imitating Kat’s aesthetic and fashion sense, but I know from personal experience that when female friends become very close (Kat has referred to Courtney as her ‘soul sister’; ladies, you know this is serious!), this sort of stylistic twining often ends up happening spontaneously, and I think people just read a lot into it. And if you listen to ‘Spanking Machine’ and ‘Pretty on the Inside’, there are also obvious similarities, but after those records, Babes in Toyland and Hole evolved more distinct sounds. It’s easy to read too much into that kind of thing, especially at a time when pitting female musicians against each other (instead of paying attention to their art, ahem!) seemed to be a national sport; the actual story of those bands is way more interesting than the rumor-mill garbage.
The coming and going of men who wanted to tell the band what to do constantly was so obnoxious. It’s pretty clear that Lee Ranaldo was not the right person to produce for the Babes, despite his indie rocker cred. There’s also a lot of emphasis on Tim Carr, the A&R guy who signed the band on a major label and worked to get the record done. Too much, really; I think that’s the book’s biggest flaw, because fans of Babes in Toyland don’t want to hear about the suits, we want to hear about the girls, the songs, the gigs! I appreciate that he fought to keep them on the label and figure out how to get the album recorded and give it as much exposure as possible, but he took a lot of page space. His chapters give the readers an interesting glimpse into how major labels work, and that’s both fascinating and slightly horrifying.
It needs to be said: Lori Barbero is an amazing human being: kind, supportive, loyal, positive, generous, determined. Holy shit, I want to be her bestie (or one of her many besties, I’m not jealous)! It was hard to read how much Maureen struggled, being the new girl in the band and having to live up to the standards Michelle had set for the bass, and Lori’s constant encouragement must have made a world of difference. That said, the internal drama in that band was quite intense, and while it’s a bummer we only got three albums from them, this was not a sustainable combo. I am very glad that we have the records we do, they are very important to me personally and had a massive influence on countless musicians, but the truth is that being in a band is really hard, and the story in this book is a prime example of how big business and genuine art will never really work together, even with the best of intentions.
Fans of the band will enjoy this, though I do wish it focused more on music and less on the drama. Still fun, and a little 90s music nostalgia treat that I can't resist.
February 27, 2016
Oh nostalgia. I'd forgotten all about this book. It always surprises me when I find something I've read that I haven't catalogued on GR yet.
This book reminds me of riot grrrl feuds, Courtney Love, babydoll dresses and the kinderwhore look (what a name for a look), violets, bad music, good music, high school, and the boyfriend I lent my Babes in Toyland cd to and never got it back from - collateral damage of that break up, along with my Nirvana Bleach cd. He did introduce me to the Violent Femmes so it was a fair trade. He was also one of the few guys I knew in high shool who was cool enough to like girl bands. Oh and I lost my virginity to him. Yeah, good times.
This book reminds me of riot grrrl feuds, Courtney Love, babydoll dresses and the kinderwhore look (what a name for a look), violets, bad music, good music, high school, and the boyfriend I lent my Babes in Toyland cd to and never got it back from - collateral damage of that break up, along with my Nirvana Bleach cd. He did introduce me to the Violent Femmes so it was a fair trade. He was also one of the few guys I knew in high shool who was cool enough to like girl bands. Oh and I lost my virginity to him. Yeah, good times.
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February 6, 2010I'll read any book about 90s music. This is any book. Fontanelle is a great fucking album.
September 24, 2012
Of course I think this book is cool because I like to obsess over every minute detail of my favorite bands...although Neal Karlen's story-telling often left me questioning the validity of what was going on. I didn't like how he spent a good chunk of the book talking about Mo (a & r guy) and the history of A&R men and how he gave so much credit to all these guys trying to keep BIT together. I don't blame Babes for wanting to break up and all of their drama with all the annoying guys coming in and trying to take over. Duh... but I guess the title is more true than I wanted it to be, it's about the Making and Selling of a Rock and Roll band and since they were on a major label it was hardly about Kat Bjelland , Lori Barbero, and Maureen Hermann. It's a leave it all up to the guys story.
July 21, 2014
If you're interested in the music industry, the 1990s and the rise and marketing of 'alternative' music and culture, and the intersection of corporate and pop culture (which I am, as it happens), this is a good book for you. If you want an in-depth treatment of Babes and Toyland's history, catalogue and members, you'll likely be disappointed. The book is much more focused on the A&R man who 'discovered' and signed Babes in Toyland, his personal process, and how he spent several years convincing the band to sign a record deal with a major label, and then spent several more overseeing the production and release of their first release for that label, and then spent a few more years after that holding the band together, often involving himself in their interpersonal relations and smoothing over their internal disputes. The A&R guy and many of his colleagues and bosses are better drawn than the members of the band, who are rendered rather superficially, and little time is spent on the meaning of the band's actual sound or music. I never got a sense of why the author even wanted to write about Babes in Toyland, though according to his biography, he, like the band, is from Minneapolis. The book sort of feels like it could have been about any band; the author could have written about Soul Asylum, probably, and wound up with a relatively similar book. I suppose the only real difference would have been that with Soul Asylum, the author wouldn't have been able to capitalize on the 'women in rock as novelty' trope, an issue that never really gets addressed in the book in any meaningful or satisfactory way. Again, if you're interested in the industry, pick this up. If you're interested in Babes in Toyland, you might be better off waiting for someone (and hopefully not a dude) to write a 33 1/3 series book about one of their LPs.
November 27, 2007
As books about bands go, I guess this was alright. But I must admit that I don't read band biographies that often. I was very happy to learn what I did about Lori Barbero, that she was this generous music lover who let everyone and anyone who came through Minneapolis crash at her place and how she taught herself to play drums...I dig her. I was bummed that the portrayal of Kat Bjelland turned out to be so negative. I really wanted to absolutely love her.
Anyway, I'm writing this over ten years after I read the book. I was in my 20's when I read it...I'm in my 30's, married, with kids and educated with a career now. Big difference. I don't know what I would think of the book now.
I still love their music though.
Anyway, I'm writing this over ten years after I read the book. I was in my 20's when I read it...I'm in my 30's, married, with kids and educated with a career now. Big difference. I don't know what I would think of the book now.
I still love their music though.
May 24, 2021
I love Babes in Toyland and their concert was one of my favorite concerts I've been to (and I go to a lot of concerts). I wanted to like this book at bit more, but it did remind me of how much I love this band. Kat seems like an asshole though. Not sure she is, but it's how she was portrayed in the book. And conversely, the book made me like Courtney Love a lot more. After the concert was over, my friend and I looked at each other and said "Wow, that drummer is a bad bitch"- said with the utmost respect and admiration. That opinion stands. Lori is the hero of this story.
March 27, 2014
Had to give a shout out to this one. Just reread it for the ??? time. A great chronicle of women who wanted to rock and roll, and of the inner workings of an industry that is at times great and at times cutthroat. Very well written, and kudos to the author and to these women for following their dreams.
June 1, 2023
The most exciting parts by far are the recording and watching carr trying to convince corporate in this utterly unlistenable but talented band. The members themselves come off as boring boring boring. Not saying they are but if theres anything of interest behind them i didnt read it here.
Ok , Lollapalooza sounds fun!
Ok , Lollapalooza sounds fun!
July 4, 2007
Read this around the time I was desperately trying to be a riotgrrl in suburbia. Really great story. Had no prior knowledge of Lee Rinaldo's involvement with the Babes. Kat is so fucking cool.
January 5, 2009
I liked this book. I read it for research for some of my own writing and found it very helpful. I only wish that the book was more up to date.
February 10, 2013
Finally had to time to read this after having the book for ten years! Neal Karlen and his chronicles of one of the best bands from the 90s and pre Riot Grrrl rules!
December 11, 2014
sucks - but had interesting gossip I never knew before
November 12, 2023
This mediocre rating is for the book, not the band, of course. I read this when I was a teenager. The author seems to kind of make the band members out to be the characters he created for himself in his own head, I wish he had dug a little deeper in trying to actually make a more fair assessment of them. Most artists are complicated and conflicted and multi faceted, and we see no glimpses of that in this book. The cover art is great though!
February 9, 2025
I enjoyed reading about Babes in Toyland in their heyday, but at times the dialogue feels phony, and the book goes on far too long about record execs when all I really want to hear about is Kat, Lori, Maureen, and Michelle.
January 12, 2026
I love reading about bands, that’s all there is to it
January 10, 2011
I picked up Babes in Toyland's CD "Fontanelle" cause I heard Courtney Love used to play with Kat so I thought I'd give it a listen. With me liking alot of genre of music and always giving bands a few listens before I judge, I thought their music was so terrible I just couldn't listen to it all or even try and listen to it again. I'm not sure why I picked up this book to read about their band when I disliked their cd/music?? I guess I figured since it was a swap and figured I could get some juicy gossip about Courtney Love, I gave it try. The book was not to bad. I would rate it more of a 3 1/2 stars if there was half star ratings. I learned more about Tim Carr who also help jump start the thrash band Megadeth in the 80's. In the 90's his next big excitement major pickup who he fought and dedicated all his time for was the Babes in Toyland girl band. Reading the book about them you get to know the girls and their personalities. The Competitiveness (Singer) Kat had to be better than Courtney Love (which they both had this love/hate best- friend relationship) & their war over who started the Baby Doll dress look. The books shows how hard a girl band has to work to be considered taken seriously. The battle of being the new bass player replacing the original bass player and continuing to see interviews and magazine articles years later seeing old band line-up photos with the old bass player. Lots of information on how hard it is to be in a all girl band against all the odds. It's good they had a good hearted drummer (Lori) in the band who worked her ass off to keep the band afloat.
August 26, 2009
I loved some loud screamy music in my high school days and I did enjoy Babes in Toyland. However, when I read this in 10th grade, I thought that they over-dramatized a lot of small incidents and that maybe they should have picked a different band to write about. I liked it enough to have my mom read it... not sure what I was thinking on that one. I am pretty sure I made her listen to "Handsome and Gretel" off of Fontanelle to give her some idea of who she was reading about. After that, she was a little more weary of my mix tapes.
January 22, 2008
I love Kat Bjelland's from the ovaries YOWL. I enjoyed this book so much I read it three or four times. So why three stars? Kat is the only person in this book who resonates with me. I would have liked to have read more about her friendship with Courtney Love and how it turned sour. Also...more cheap tawdry sex would have been appreciated.
June 6, 2010
At the time I read this, I thought this book was incredibly awesome. In hindsight, it seemed a bit premature to write a fairly extensive book on a band that, while riding the crest of the wave of "grrrl" power rock bands, never amounted to much (success wise or artistically) beyond "Fontanelle" or the mythic feud between Kat Bjelland and Courtney Love.
February 11, 2007
probably one of the best band-biographies i have ever read
April 7, 2011
This is like the first book I ever WANTED to read and couldn't put down
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews