Musicians - Kat Bjelland

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	Musicians - Kat Bjelland

Kat Bjelland

(Katherine Bjelland, born December 8, 1963) was the lead singer and guitarist of the rock band Babes in Toyland.

Childhood

Though most associate Bjelland with the music scene that sprung up in the city of Minneapolis, she was actually born in Salem, Oregon and grew up in nearby Woodburn, Oregon.

She attended Woodburn High School where she was a popular student and cheerleader. It was while a teenager that Bjelland became interested in music. Her uncle taught her to play guitar, and her first performance was at a small bar in Woodburn called Flight 99.

Early career

Shortly after graduation from high school in the early 1980s, Bjelland moved to Portland, Oregon, where she formed a series of bands, first The Neurotics and then an all-female band called The Venarays, which Bjelland has described as "rock with a '60s edge":

:After the Neurotics I got this band together with my best friends, so it was an all-girl band. We were called the Venarays. The name came from the word venary which means actively hunting out sex! We began as a way of having fun with each other.

After quitting The Venarays, Bjelland formed a band with a new friend, Courtney Love, and bassist Jennifer Finch. Love went on to form the band Hole, while Finch would be part of L7. The band went by several names, including Sugar Babylon, Sugar Babydoll and Sugar Bunnyfarm. Despite the band's key position in the riot grrl family tree, Bjelland has downplayed the significance of the band itself: "We only played a couple of shows. It was the smallest thing I’ve ever done musically."

Around 1985, Bjelland and Love formed a new band called Pagan Babies. When Love left, this lineup played under the name Italian WhoreNuns.

All of these bands were short-lived and garnered little attention in the Portland music scene. Demo versions of songs that Bjelland and Love worked on together, including "Best Sunday Dress", which was later played by Hole on numerous occasions, are available on various Hole fan sites.

Babes in Toyland

In the mid-1980s, Bjelland moved from Portland to Minneapolis, where she would eventually form Babes in Toyland, becoming their lead singer and guitarist. Babes in Toyland would achieve minor success in the early 1990s as part of the Riot Grrrl movement in music. Babes in Toyland's debut single on Treehouse Records ("Dust Cake Boy" b/w "Spit to See the Shine") was an instant success. Bjelland's pro-female approach soon earned her recognition as a feminist icon. Riot Grrrl bands such as Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Sleater-Kinney have all given respect to Bjelland and named her as a main influence, while less political female bands like Jack Off Jill, 7 Year Bitch and Fluffy have also cited Bjelland and Babes in Toyland as a major inspiration. The Babes' career peaked in mainstream exposure when they headlined the Lollapalooza tour in 1993.

Crunt

Earlier in 1993, Bjelland had begun a side project called Crunt with new husband Stuart Gray (aka Stu Spasm), formerly of Lubricated Goat. Bjelland played bass and Gray guitar, while Russell Simins of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion was the drummer. In February 1994, the band released a self-titled debut, along with its first single, "Swine". For a time there was talk that Crunt would replace Babes in Toyland as Bjelland's main project, but by the time Bjelland and Gray divorced in January 1995, Crunt was over.

Courtney Love and the Kinderwhore controversy

Love and Bjelland have had a long and complex relationship. They are sometimes referred to as "friends/enemies." In 1992, Bjelland accused Love of stealing the Kinderwhore look, which was marked by a combination of lacy lingerie and school girl clothing.

Bjelland and Love eventually made amends. Bjelland collaborated with Love on the track "I Think That I Would Die" on Hole's second album, Live Through This. In a recent interview, Bjelland was asked if the song "Bruise Violet" was written about Courtney Love. Her response was no, and that "Violet" was a muse that both she and Love wrote about.

Katastrophy Wife and current projects

With Babes in Toyland playing only sporadically in the late 1990s, Bjelland started the band Katastrophy Wife in 2000. Katastrophy Wife have so far released two albums, Amusia and All Kneel. Bjelland has also done some soundtrack work. In a recent update to the Katastrophy Wife website, Bjelland reported that "Katastrophy Wife have had a few incarnations but from here on I will only re-incarnate my self."

She produced the album The Seven Year Itch for the band Angelica, released in 2002.

Bjelland has been married twice, to Lubricated Goat singer/guitarist Stu Spasm (Stuart Gray) and to Katastrophy Wife drummer Glenn Mattson. She and Mattson have a son named Henry.

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