Maureen Herman
Encyclopedia
Maureen Herman was from 1992 until 1996 the bass player for the Minneapolis
-based Babes in Toyland
.
, and attended Libertyville High School
. She worked on the high school paper Drops of Ink with Tom Morello
of Rage Against the Machine
and The Nightwatchman
, Adam Jones
of Tool
, and Jim Naureckas
, editor at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
(FAIR).
Herman was introduced to punk, new wave, and alternative culture at an early age through schoolmate and high school friend Stephanie Brown, whose brother was an album cover artist for clients like Warner Bros.
, Beserkley Records
, The Tubes
, and The Stranglers
. Through this connection, she attended her first rock concert at age twelve, where she saw The Stranglers and met Hugh Cornwell
. Shortly after, she saw and met The Tubes, and was given a rudimentary drum lesson by Prairie Prince
.
Midway through her senior year of high school, Herman moved to Prior Lake, Minnesota
, though her high school diploma is from Libertyville High School.
She attended the University of Minnesota
, with a major of Film Studies and minor in Journalism, and lived in Minneapolis. In January 1985, during freshman year winter break at University of Minnesota, Herman went back to Illinois to help produce a horror spoof, The Season of the Snow Bitch, with LHS alumni, notably Morello and Jones, whose band the Electric Sheep
provided the soundtrack for the video.
Through Shannon Selberg
, vocalist for Minneapolis noise rock band Cows, Herman met the other members of Babes in Toyland
prior to their formation as a band. In 1988, after her brother injured his hand in a restaurant pasta machine accident, Herman inherited his bass guitar
and started her first band, M&M Stigmata. The band booked a show before writing any songs or having a practice. Babes in Toyland's Kat Bjelland
was in attendance at the band's debut at Minneapolis' Uptown Bar, where the three-piece band's singer and guitarist showed up impaired and unable to play the guitar. Bjelland recorded the show, which was played with drums, bass, and vocals only.
In 1989, Herman moved to Chicago
, where she quickly became part of the burgeoning indie scene that included Steve Albini
, The Jesus Lizard
, Touch and Go Records
, and the beginnings of the Billions Booking Agency. In 1992, while attending Columbia College Chicago
and working in the English Department, Herman was invited to replace Babes in Toyland's departing bassist Michelle Leon. At the time, Herman was the bassist for Chicago band Cherry Rodriguez.
Herman described her initiation into the band (Harmony Central, 8/23/00):
She played on the band's albums Fontanelle
and Nemesisters
and the Painkillers
EP. She sang lead vocals on the Nemesisters cut "Killer on the Road". Allmusic described her bass playing as a "gut-pounding, throttling beat".
Herman was again reunited with her Libertyville High School classmates Morello and Jones on 1993's Lollapalooza
, when Babes in Toyland, Rage Against the Machine, and Tool were all playing the alternative rock tour that year.
She recounted her state of mind when she quit the band after four years, citing health issues (South Loop Review, Vol. 1):
After Herman left, the band played sporadically with other bassists for several years, but never released another studio album.
magazine and freelance journalist for Rolling Stone
. In 1998, Herman started her own company, Pollyanna, which was involved in the music business in various forms, including management, booking, promotion, publicity, and music publishing. In 2000, she produced Hank Williams III
's CMT-circulated video "You're the Reason", directed by P.W. Long.
In June 2006, Herman joined San Francisco start-up Fuzz, a music, technology, and e-commerce platform and social networking community where she began as Senior Director of Business Development. In March 2008, Herman became editor-in-chief of Fuzz editorial section The Fix.
In June 2008, Herman changed to an advisory position at Fuzz and founded non-profit venture Project Noise Foundation, which she started with former Fuzz colleague Chris Skarakis. In spring of 2008, Project Noise partnered with Morello, Amnesty International
, and Axis of Justice
on The Nightwatchman
's Justice Tour, featuring artists Perry Farrell
, Ben Harper
, and Wayne Kramer
, among others. The tour aimed to spotlight regional social justice causes and activism combined with music in two-day events across the U.S.
In September 2009, Herman moved to Los Angeles to continue as executive director of Project Noise. The Foundation produced a short video for fellow nonprofit, Jail Guitar Doors.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
-based Babes in Toyland
Babes in Toyland (band)
Babes in Toyland was an American alternative rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1987. The band was formed by Oregon native Kat Bjelland , with Lori Barbero and Michelle Leon , who was later replaced by Maureen Herman in 1992...
.
Early years
Herman was raised in Libertyville, IllinoisLibertyville, Illinois
Libertyville is an affluent northern suburb of Chicago in Lake County, Illinois, United States. It is located west of Lake Michigan on the Des Plaines River. The 2000 census population was 20,742; the 2005 estimate was 21,760...
, and attended Libertyville High School
Libertyville High School
Libertyville High School, or LHS, is a public four-year high school located in Libertyville, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States...
. She worked on the high school paper Drops of Ink with Tom Morello
Tom Morello
Thomas Baptiste "Tom" Morello is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist best known for his tenure with the bands Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, his acoustic solo act The Nightwatchman, and his newest group, Street Sweeper Social Club...
of Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...
and The Nightwatchman
The Nightwatchman
The Nightwatchman is the alter-ego and solo act of Rage Against the Machine, Street Sweeper Social Club and former Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello...
, Adam Jones
Adam Jones (musician)
Adam Thomas Jones is a three time Grammy Award-winning Welsh-American musician and visual artist, best known for his position as the guitarist for Grammy-Award winning band Tool. Jones has been rated the 75th Greatest Guitarist of all time by the Rolling Stone and placed 9th in Guitar World's Top...
of Tool
Tool (band)
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour...
, and Jim Naureckas
Jim Naureckas
Jim Naureckas is the editor of Extra!, the magazine of FAIR .He graduated from Stanford University in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in political science...
, editor at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting is a progressive media criticism organization based in New York City, founded in 1986.FAIR describes itself on its website as "the national media watch group" and defines its mission as working to "invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity...
(FAIR).
Herman was introduced to punk, new wave, and alternative culture at an early age through schoolmate and high school friend Stephanie Brown, whose brother was an album cover artist for clients like Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, Beserkley Records
Beserkley Records
Beserkley Records was an independent record label based in Berkeley, California, from 1973 to 1984. Beserkely is usually regarded as a powerpop & rock and roll label; during the seventies, the band released albums by Earth Quake, Greg Kihn, Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, The Rubinoos, and...
, The Tubes
The Tubes
The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band, whose 1975 debut album included the hit single, "White Punks on Dope". During its first fifteen years or so, the band's live performances combined quasi-pornography with wild satires of media, consumerism, and politics...
, and The Stranglers
The Stranglers
The Stranglers are an English punk/rock music group.Scoring some 23 UK top 40 singles and 17 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are the longest-surviving and most "continuously successful" band to have originated in the UK punk scene of the mid to late 1970s...
. Through this connection, she attended her first rock concert at age twelve, where she saw The Stranglers and met Hugh Cornwell
Hugh Cornwell
Hugh Alan Cornwell is an English musician and songwriter, best known for being the vocalist and guitarist for the punk/new wave group, The Stranglers, from 1974 to 1990.-Career:...
. Shortly after, she saw and met The Tubes, and was given a rudimentary drum lesson by Prairie Prince
Prairie Prince
Prairie Prince is a rock drummer. He was a member of The Tubes and a founding member of Journey...
.
Midway through her senior year of high school, Herman moved to Prior Lake, Minnesota
Prior Lake, Minnesota
In 2007, there are an estimated 19,319 residents. The population density was 1,207 people per square mile . There were 5,791 housing units at an average density of 428.9 per square mile . The racial makeup of the city was 94.5% White, 0.8% African American, 2.1% Native American, 0.9% Asian, 0.3%...
, though her high school diploma is from Libertyville High School.
She attended the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
, with a major of Film Studies and minor in Journalism, and lived in Minneapolis. In January 1985, during freshman year winter break at University of Minnesota, Herman went back to Illinois to help produce a horror spoof, The Season of the Snow Bitch, with LHS alumni, notably Morello and Jones, whose band the Electric Sheep
Electric Sheep (band)
Electric Sheep was a garage band that included Adam Jones and Tom Morello...
provided the soundtrack for the video.
Through Shannon Selberg
Shannon Selberg
Shannon Selberg is a noise/punk rock musician known for his unusual antics on stage. Formerly the frontman for the Minneapolis-based group The Cows, Selberg provided lead vocals, trumpet, bugle and hardcore guitar...
, vocalist for Minneapolis noise rock band Cows, Herman met the other members of Babes in Toyland
Babes in Toyland (band)
Babes in Toyland was an American alternative rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1987. The band was formed by Oregon native Kat Bjelland , with Lori Barbero and Michelle Leon , who was later replaced by Maureen Herman in 1992...
prior to their formation as a band. In 1988, after her brother injured his hand in a restaurant pasta machine accident, Herman inherited his bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and started her first band, M&M Stigmata. The band booked a show before writing any songs or having a practice. Babes in Toyland's Kat Bjelland
Kat Bjelland
Katherine "Kat" Bjelland is an American musician who is currently the lead singer-guitarist of the band Katastrophy Wife, and is the former lead singer and guitarist of the punk rock band Babes in Toyland....
was in attendance at the band's debut at Minneapolis' Uptown Bar, where the three-piece band's singer and guitarist showed up impaired and unable to play the guitar. Bjelland recorded the show, which was played with drums, bass, and vocals only.
In 1989, Herman moved to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, where she quickly became part of the burgeoning indie scene that included Steve Albini
Steve Albini
Steven Frank Albini is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman, and Flour, and is currently a member of Shellac...
, The Jesus Lizard
The Jesus Lizard
The Jesus Lizard was an American alternative rock and noise rock band formed in 1987 in Austin, Texas. They were "a leading noise rock band in the American independent underground…[who] turned out a series of independent records filled with scathing, disembowelling, guitar-driven pseudo-industrial...
, Touch and Go Records
Touch and Go Records
Touch and Go Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, USA.After its genesis as a hand-made fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s alternative and underground rock scenes, Touch & Go carved out a reputation for releasing adventurous...
, and the beginnings of the Billions Booking Agency. In 1992, while attending Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...
and working in the English Department, Herman was invited to replace Babes in Toyland's departing bassist Michelle Leon. At the time, Herman was the bassist for Chicago band Cherry Rodriguez.
Babes in Toyland
Maureen Herman replaced former Babes in Toyland's Leon in 1992.Herman described her initiation into the band (Harmony Central, 8/23/00):
- An old friend phoned with news that the bassist had quit the band and asked if I'd like to join. That band, Babes in Toyland, had just signed to RepriseReprise RecordsReprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
and was about to record their major label debut. I joined. In two weeks I was on tour, with a recording session scheduled immediately after we got off the road.
She played on the band's albums Fontanelle
Fontanelle (album)
Fontanelle is the second studio album by the American punk rock band Babes in Toyland, released on August 11, 1992. It was the band's first release on a major label , and their first recording to feature Maureen Herman on bass.-Background and production:After extensive touring throughout 1991, the...
and Nemesisters
Nemesisters
Nemesisters is the third and final studio album recorded by Babes in Toyland. It was produced by Tim Mac, and released 5 May 1995 by Reprise Records.-Track listings:All song by Babes in Toyland, except as noted:#"Hello" - 4:45#"Oh Yeah!" - 3:16...
and the Painkillers
Painkillers (album)
Painkillers is the second EP recorded by Babes in Toyland. It consists of a re-recording "He's My Thing", outtakes from Fontanelle, and a live version of the tracks from Fontanelle, titled "Fontanellette", recorded at CBGB's...
EP. She sang lead vocals on the Nemesisters cut "Killer on the Road". Allmusic described her bass playing as a "gut-pounding, throttling beat".
Herman was again reunited with her Libertyville High School classmates Morello and Jones on 1993's Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
, when Babes in Toyland, Rage Against the Machine, and Tool were all playing the alternative rock tour that year.
She recounted her state of mind when she quit the band after four years, citing health issues (South Loop Review, Vol. 1):
- I couldn't remember the last time I had enjoyed music either as a player or a listener. It had been far too long. Warner Bros.Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
and the rest of their dysfunctional familyDysfunctional familyA dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often abuse on the part of individual members occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is...
had chewed up all the good parts, leaving only the greedy, ugly parts exposed.
After Herman left, the band played sporadically with other bassists for several years, but never released another studio album.
Post-Babes
Herman went on to work as associate editor for MusicianMusician (magazine)
Musician was a monthly magazine that covered news and information about American popular music. Initially called "Music America", it was founded in 1976 by Sam Holdsworth and Gordon Baird. The two friends borrowed $20,000 from relatives and started the publication in a barn in Colorado...
magazine and freelance journalist for Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
. In 1998, Herman started her own company, Pollyanna, which was involved in the music business in various forms, including management, booking, promotion, publicity, and music publishing. In 2000, she produced Hank Williams III
Hank Williams III
Shelton Hank Williams, known as Hank 3 , is a neotraditional country and punk metal singer, drummer, bassist, and guitarist. In addition to his honky tonk recordings, Williams' style alternates among country, punk and metal...
's CMT-circulated video "You're the Reason", directed by P.W. Long.
In June 2006, Herman joined San Francisco start-up Fuzz, a music, technology, and e-commerce platform and social networking community where she began as Senior Director of Business Development. In March 2008, Herman became editor-in-chief of Fuzz editorial section The Fix.
In June 2008, Herman changed to an advisory position at Fuzz and founded non-profit venture Project Noise Foundation, which she started with former Fuzz colleague Chris Skarakis. In spring of 2008, Project Noise partnered with Morello, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, and Axis of Justice
Axis of Justice
Axis of Justice is a non-profit organization co-founded by Serj Tankian and Tom Morello. Its purpose is to bring together musicians, fans of music, and grassroots progressivism to fight for social justice together.-Formation:...
on The Nightwatchman
The Nightwatchman
The Nightwatchman is the alter-ego and solo act of Rage Against the Machine, Street Sweeper Social Club and former Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello...
's Justice Tour, featuring artists Perry Farrell
Perry Farrell
Perry Farrell is the frontman for the alternative rock band Jane's Addiction. Farrell created the touring festival Lollapalooza as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction in 1991; it has since evolved into an annual destination festival. Farrell continues to produce Lollapalooza with partners William...
, Ben Harper
Ben Harper
Benjamin Chase "Ben" Harper is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents...
, and Wayne Kramer
Wayne Kramer (guitarist)
Wayne Kramer is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and film and television scorer....
, among others. The tour aimed to spotlight regional social justice causes and activism combined with music in two-day events across the U.S.
In September 2009, Herman moved to Los Angeles to continue as executive director of Project Noise. The Foundation produced a short video for fellow nonprofit, Jail Guitar Doors.
External links
- Fuzz: Maureen Herman
- Fuzz: Babes in Toyland
- [ Allmusic: Babes in Toyland]
- "Great Managers & How to Find Them", Harmony Central, August 23, 2000
- "Yeah... Why Not...", South Loop Review, Vol. 1
- Project Noise