The last studio album Nemesister was released on May 9, 1995. In consideration of their past albums, this one was quite different. There are other songs before this album; that was more of head banging, deep, dark sound that you could not really understand. The album Nemesister was different, it was more understanding, slower and it does not seem to have an aggressive tone. Now not all their songs are this was in the last album, such as “Sweet ‘69” or “Oh Yeah! ” or “Memory”. Oppose to some of these songs “Hello” or “Ariel”. The Babes in Toyland have not had an actual show sense 1996 which led to their last show.
The last show that the Babes in Toyland performed together was in November of 2001 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jessie Farmer replaced Maureen Herman in 1996 because she was living in a different city and going back and forth got harder and harder. Jessie Farmer was not in the band long. After Maureen Herman left it started to go downhill from there, because Kat Bjelland stared to focus more on her other band Katastrophy Wife and her family. But Jessie Farmer played with Kat Bjelland and Lori Barbero at their last performance.
In 1996 when Maureen Herman was replaced she focused mostly on writing and music and her daughter that was conceived by a gang rap. Because this happened she ending up leaning towards alcohol and crack. She was diagnosed with PTSD and a major case of depression disorder all from one person who changed her life. PTSD is a post-dramatic stress disorder that was triggered when she was raped. She wrote a letter to Todd Akin because he wrote a theory stating that you cannot get pregnant by rape. Maureen Herman had proved him wrong and wanted to show him. “Dear Mr. Akin, They say that Missouri is the “Show Me” state.
Well, I’d like you to meet my daughter. I’d like to show you how dead wrong you are when you say that a woman cannot get pregnant from rape. I’m writing this letter to let you know that you definitely can, because it happened to me, and I have a nine-year-old to prove It. ” “She is also coming out with her first book “It’s a Memoir, Motherfucker” that will be published in July 2016 by MacMillan. ” After Babes in Toyland broke up the primary band members like Kat Bjelland formed the band Katastrophy Wife. Lori Barbero played in multiple bands. Maureen Herman started running “Project Noise”.
Lori Barbero was also suffering from alcoholism. It got to the point where she ended up running her vehicle through her garage then into her house. She also was in a serious accident at a store where an employee dropped a sixty-three pound box on her from a ladder. Katastrophy Wife is a band that was formed by Kat Bjelland and her now ex-husband Glenn Mattson in which she had her son Henry in 1999. Project noise is a non-profit production company that seeks to help charities by making videos. In 2002 Kat Bjelland toured in Europe with members not from Babes in Toyland, but members from a band called Angelica.
This might have not been a problem but she was using the Babes in Toyland name. Kat Bjelland had to stop using the name after Lori Barbero and Maureen Herman threatened to have legal authorities involved. Kat Bjelland was also in the hospital for a long period of time with schizoaffective disorder. Maureen Herman and Kat Bjelland had planned to get together to travel down to Wisconsin to revisit Maureen’s lake home. When Kat had asked Maureen if she wanted to play. That’s when the first talk about getting the band back together started.
That’s when they contacted Lori Barbero and talked to her about doing a “little” reunion show. They never thought that it would come to this. after not seeing each other for almost fifteen years and finally deciding that they are doing a reunion show, they have go back and relearn there songs once again because they have not played those songs in over eighteen years. They have not yet figured out if they want to make new songs or even come out with a new album because they are just getting ready for the reunion show and relearning and hoping that people still want to listen to them.
Another reason why they have not figured out if they want to make news songs is because there are so many people who have not gotten a chance to hear them play and many people want to hear the songs that they know and they just want to hear their older music. So many tours now have started because of what they thought would be a little tour. When the band got back together they played there first reunion show at Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles, on February 12, 2014. The members that were primarily in the band before did the reunion show; Kat Bjelland, Lori Barbero, and Maureen Herman.
According to this Rolling Stones article Kat Bjelland said, “I said I’d never, ever do a reunion,” Bjelland reveals in a phone call from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, where she’s awaiting a flight to L. A. for the latest Babes practice session. “When I was younger, I thought, ‘Once it’s done, it’s done. ‘ I just got older and changed my mind, I guess. My son is 15, and I wanted him to see us play. I’ve played in bands after Babes in Toyland, but I missed my friends. ” The Babes in Toyland reunion would have never been possible without the three men from the company Powersniff.
One of the men that helped make the reunion show was Chris Skarakis. He hired Maureen Herman for a music company called “Fuzz” during the 2000s. Ever since this Chris has asked Maureen if the Babes in Toyland were ever going to do a reunion show? He also said if they ever wanted to that he would love to be a part of it. Sense August the Babes in Toyland have had monthly practices that have been paid for by Powersniff. Maureen Herman was one of the primary members in the Babes in Toyland until personal differences came up and Kat Bjelland and Lori Barbero decided to tour with someone else.
The person who ended up replacing Maureen Herman was Clara Salyer. The first concert Clara Salyer performed in with the Babes in Toyland was August 27, 2015 in St. Louis. They have five upcoming concerts in North Dakota, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. And many more to come in the future if all goes well. Being that Kat Bjelland has been studying herbalism and has been writing music sense Katastrophy Wife ended with pathology and diseases and anatomy, I wonder what could come out of this if they ever make news songs or even an album.