BABES IN TOYLAND: THE BBC JOHN PEEL SESSIONS 1990-1992 (2001)
1) Catatonic; 2) Ripe; 3)
Primus; 4) Spit To See The Shine; 5) Pearl; 6) Dogg; 7) Laugh My Head Off; 8)
Mad Pilot; 9) Handsome & Gretel; 10) Blood; 11) Mother; 12) Dirty; 13)
Jungle Train; 14) Right Now; 15) Sometimes; 16) Magick Flute.
For a band that only lasted for half a decade,
releasing but three spotty LPs and leaving behind a rather ambiguous
reputation, Babes In Toyland have a rather inadequate slew of «posthumous»
archive releases and compilations — including, among other things, a trilogy of live compilations creatively
called Devil, Lived, and Viled, published
in 2000 by some obscure indie label or other. (Only mentioning these because
there is no way I am ever going to review that many live albums from this kind
of band — I can only guess that one of the label executives simply had a major crush
on Kat Bjelland, which may be understood).
In any case, only a small part of this backlog
is easily available these days. One of the earliest and most important is this
set of live performances recorded for John Peel, who was a major fan of Spanking Machine and did much to
promote the band in the early stages of their career. In fact, the original Peel Sessions, a brief EP with only eight tracks, was released as
early as 1992; this here edition from 2001 is an expanded version that adds
material from a couple of later sessions, the last one already with Maureen
Herman replacing Michelle Leon on bass. Given John Peel's popularity and
importance, this is quite likely the way that many European audiences heard
the band in the first place — so, at the very least, The Peel Sessions have some historical importance. And at most,
they are kinda fun.
Could have actually been much more fun, though,
if not for the questionable track list: apparently, the idea behind this BBC
exposure was primarily to promote the latest and freshest, and this means that
(a) there is virtually no material from their first and best, Spanking Machine, except, of course,
for the one worst song on that album (ʽDoggʼ); (b) the performances of songs
from To Mother and Fontanelle are, in general, quite close
to the studio originals, with no time to rehearse any variations. In fact, the
track lengths are so eerily close to the respective lengths for the studio
versions that I had to doublecheck whether this could be some sort of ruse —
but no, these are indeed alternate takes. In fact, for those who dislike their
Babes wrapped in studio echo, these versions might seem preferable — guitars
and vocals slap you in the face on an «immediate» level, without having to
break through any further mixing conventions.
Only two songs out of sixteen are unavailable
elsewhere: ʽDirtyʼ, memorable for being based on the riff of ʽHey Bulldogʼ
transposed for grunge guitar (no great fun in any other respect), and ʽSometimesʼ,
built on a swift descending pattern similar to ʽRipeʼ, but disappointingly
sagging in the slowed-down bridge parts. Both qualify as standard-fare,
listenable Fontanelle-era songs, but
not as trademark solid examples of the «Bjelland hysterics».
One must keep in mind that 99% of whatever the
Babes recorded live, they recorded in shoddy lo-fi quality, be it a local club
gig or a major festival appearance, so if you are really interested in
assessing their tightness as a live unit, this is your best bet, and they were pretty tight whenever they paid
attention to it — the fifteen-second intro to ʽSometimesʼ, for instance, should
alone be sufficient to dispel any rumors of Bjelland's unprofessionalism and
anti-musicality: I'm sure Pete Townshend would have loved that chuggy descending
riff and the subtle chord variations on each bar. The downside to this fine
sound quality is that you also get to hear Lori Barbero's vocals on ʽDoggʼ in
all of their unbridled ugliness, but nothing comes without a price, I guess.
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