Babes in Toyland - 1990 - Spanking Machine

 

In 1989, Glen and I were living on the east side of St. Paul in what was then, and may still be, a very violent neighborhood. We had the bottom half of a duplex that cost us $390 a month. Even in 1989, that was dirt cheap. We had our own cig machine. And the times, they were-a-changin'.  Glen was always ahead of the times in music, one of the foundations of our friendship (and if you are reading this, likely the foundation of ours as well), and one day he came home with a single by this highly influential Minneapolis band. It was "Dust Cake Boy" and I think Glen saw them open for the Butthole Surfers or something, I can't remember. I also remember him, or was it someone else, saying that Kat Bjelland introduced a song live with telling the audience to suck her dick, all while wearing a baby-doll look that the Japanese hipsters would go all-in on about 15 years later. This was the "Riot Grrrl" movement before it ever happened, a label they have understandably resisted... they just rocked in a way that would chip pain, or your teeth. Some of my favorite bands are what I call "palate cleansers", and Babes in Toyland are the epitome of that. I love them to death.

...