Music / Jack Off Jill

Probably the happiest you'll ever see them.

Influences:

• Marilyn Manson, Hole, Babes in Toyland, Nine Inch Nails, Black Sabbath, Coven, Alice Cooper, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, Joan Jett.

Jack Off Jill (JOJ) is a "riot goth" band, formed in 1992. They were named by Jessicka's friend Marilyn Manson and, for the most part, their music and aesthetics match his.

They only released two albums before they broke up in mid-2000, after being Screwed by the Label, and because of tensions in the band that caused the constantly changing lineup. They reunited in 2015, and toured throughout the year.

They achieved most of their critical acclaim long after their breakup, the band being called "riot-goth legends" and "cult heroes", and Clear Hearts, Grey Flowers being praised as "excellent, yet underappreciated".

Lead singer Jessicka Addams is nowadays mostly focussed on her art career and good friends with Lyn-Z Way. Michelle Oliver and Tenny Arslanyan went on to perform in the band Set to Zero, and Robin Moulder is active with the music project TCR.

Past members:

• Jessicka Addams – vocals, lyrics (1992-2000, 2015)
• Michelle Inhell (Michelle Oliver) – guitars (1992-1996, 2015)
• Tenni Ah-Cha-Cha (Tenni Arslanyan) – drums (1992-1996, 2015)
• Robin "Agent" Moulder – bass, piano, keyboards on "My Cat"^note  credited as the "big white dancing beav (1992-2000)
• Lauracet Simpson – drums (1996-1997)
• Ho Ho Spade (Jeff Tucci) – guitars (1996-1997)
• Scott Putesky – guitar (1997-1998)
• Claudia Rossi – drums (1997-1999)
• Clint Walsh – guitars (1999-2000)
• Helen Storer – bass (2000, 2015)

Discography:

• Children 5 and Up (EP) (1993)
• Cannibal Songbook (EP) (1995)
• Sexless Demons and Scars (1997)
• Clear Hearts, Grey Flowers (2000)
• Humid Teenage Mediocrity^note A compilation of old Jack Off Jill demos collected from 1992 to 1996 (2006)

When I am Queen on royal trope made out of parts of broken bones...:

• A God Am I: "Losing His Touch".
  "Now/now I'm god/'cause your god/is just losing his touch"
  • Inverted with "Devil With the Black Dress On", since she compares herself to, well, the devil.
• Atomic F-Bomb: "Girlscout".
  "FUCK what I want/FUCK what I need..."
  • "Author Unknown"
  "Here's your answer/it's still FUCK YOU!!!"
• Album Title Drop: Clear Hearts Grey Flowers is both the name of their second album and the 14th track on said album.
• Badass Boast: Practically all of "When I Am Queen"
  "When I am queen/I will insist/with perfect scars upon my wrists/that everything you once held dear/is taken away from you"
  • The chorus of "Cinnamon Spider"
• Blasphemous Boast: "Losing His Touch".
  "Hey there, dead God
  You're lost and jaded
  You're lost and faded
  You've become the sheep you hated!"
• Black Magician Girl: "Cinnamon Spider" and "Witch Hunt" are about witchcraft, and a lot of Jessicka's iconography invokes witchcraft till this day.
• Body Horror: Invoked in "Choke", "Strawberry Gashes", "Cherry Scented" and "Cockroach Waltz", as well as their liveshows.
• Book Ends: The outro to "Angels Fuck", the last track on Sexless Demons and Scars, is a piano tune. This same piano tune is used the intro for "When I Am Queen", the first track on Clear Hearts Grey Flowers.
  • Clear Hearts, Grey Flowers begins and ends with static and distortion, it also shows up in "Witch Hunt".
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: "My Cat".
  "My cat is handsome/he can play the guitar/he can break my arm in seven places!"
  • "Boy Grinder".
  "We all... like it more... when we... GET RAPED!"
• Burn the Witch!: "Witch Hunt" ends with this, as shown in the header above.
  • Mentioned in "Cinnamon Spider".
• Call-Back: "Angels Fuck, Devils Kiss" ends "Sexless Demons and Scars" with an eerie piano tune, "When I Am Queen" opens "Clear Hearts, Grey Flowers" with the same tune.
• Careful with That Axe: In almost every song. What else do you expext from a riot grrrl band?
  • Addams tones this down in her second band Scarling, but it still happens sometimes.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Jessicka used to put on a persona like this during liveshows, repeating mantras to herself or singing little off-hand lyrics as introductions to songs.
• Cluster F-Bomb: "Angels Fuck".
  "FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK ME!"
• Country Matters: On occasion, "Cumdumpster" is probably the best example.
  • "Hypocrite" turns this into a Cluster C-Bomb.
• Cover Version: The Cure's "Lovesong." For some reason Robert Smith credits Jessicka's second band scarling. as one of his favorites, despite her decision to combine Careful with That Axe with this song.
• Crapsack World: "Lollirot", "Bruises are Back in Style", "Working With Meat," "Boy Grinder".
• Creepy Circus Music: "Witch Hunt".
• Creepy Child: Jessicka's voice and any little girls appearing in her visual artwork.
  • The cover of Clear Hearts Grey Flowers, a painting by Mark Ryden, shows all three members looking like this.
• Death Seeker: "Strawberry Gashes" is about one.
• Death Song: "Witch Hunt" is about burning oneself alive. "Poor Impulse Control" is about slowly destroying oneself.
• Destructive Romance: One of Jack Off Jill's most common lyrical themes is abusive relationships, most often written from the victim's perspective ("Surgery", "Angels Fuck"), although abusers get their fair share as well.
  "One bullet in this gun, not sure if it's for you or me."
• Double Entendre: "My Cat".
  "He may not be an actor, but he's a pussy superstar!"
• Eagleland: "Bruises are Back in Style" and "Confederate Fag", both being Type 2.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Humid Teenage Mediocrity is a compilation of old Jack Off Jill demos and songs that were never released, some of them for good reason since they were lacking in structure and their lyrics were nonsense. "Don't Wake The Baby", "Chocolate Chicken" and "Yellow Brick Road", for example. Nontheless, it's worth to give it a listen, there are some hidden gems in there.
• Ephebophile: "Boy Grinder".
  "Little teenage boy... that we wanna... fuck."
• Fake-Out Fade-Out: "American Made". Arguably, both albums classify as examples, since they both feature a secret hidden track.
• Fading into the Next Song: "Strawberry Gashes" transitions into "Author Unknown, "Underjoyed" transitions into "Surgery".
• Femme Fatale: "Cherry Scented".
• God Is Evil: "Losing His Touch".
• Goth: JOJ's aesthetic and fanbase is this. They're often cited as Goth Rock too, but musically they could also be classified as Alternative Metal.
• Grief Song: "Vivica" (at least metaphorically), and "Poor Impulse Control" for oneself.
• He Who Fights Monsters: "Surgery" is about an abuse victim becoming corrupted by their abuser.
• Hidden Depths: Jessicka is also a talented painter and has worked on exhibitions with Lyn-Z Way.
• Hidden Track: "Angels Fuck" and "Lovesong", the latter after 66 silent tracks that are 6 seconds long each.
  • For the longest time, "Cockroach Waltz" was sort of one, as it was a very popular song by the band but for the longest time exclusively available on an extremely rare, old EP that was only released on cassette tapes during the band's very early years, which effectively led to it becoming folklore. Only with Humid Teenage Mediocrity did we finally get an accessible, proper digital release of the song.
• Humans Are Bastards: "Lollirot" describes humans as "rotten from the inside".
• I Just Want to Be Loved: "Angels Fuck, Devils Kiss".
  "Everybody's got/a little someone to trust/but me"
  • "Losing His Touch"
  "...because God/never loved me this much"
• Intentionally Awkward Title: The band name. Word of God has it that Jessicka had originally wanted to name the band "Jack In Jill," but Marilyn Manson convinced her to go with "Jack Off Jill" instead. This trope is equally applicable to either of those options.
  • As far as songtitles go, "Cumdumpster", "Spit and Rape", "French Kiss The Elderly" and "Confederate Fag" definitely count.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: "Witch Hunt" and the intro to "Choke", the latter of which features a girl choking.
• It's All About Me: Robin. It's one of the reasons the band broke up.
• Kill It with Fire: "Witch Hunt" and "Cherry Scented".
• Last Note Nightmare: "Witch Hunt" ends with Jessicka screaming as she's burned alive, with her screams getting raspier as she burns. It comes out of nowhere for first-time listeners.
  • "American Made" ends with a Jump Scare.
  • "Angels Fuck" ends with Jessicka screaming about being hurt so bad by someone that she's never going to getting better. To make it extra jarring, it's the last thing we hear on the album.
• Lighter and Softer: "Vivica" and the cover of "Love Song".
  • Some of the demos, like "American Made" or "My Cat" with some interesting lyric changes.
    • Inverted with the demos for "Lollirot", which leans far more into Metal than the studio album version, and "Girl Scout", which features an eerie electronic sound effect during the bridge and outro, as well as layering voice effects that add to the horror.
• Love Martyr: "Rabbiteen" and "Strawberry Gashes".
• Madness Mantra: "Clear Hearts, Grey Flowers".
  "This is what you want/this is what you get"
  • The chorus of "When I Am Queen".
  "Drown, drown, drown myself..."
• Mortality Phobia: "Fear of Dying", obviously.
• Murder Ballad: "Witch Hunt" as a suicide ballad, "Choke", and "When I Am Queen".

  "When I am queen, on royal throne made out of parts of broken bones
  of all the devils I have known, that suck the angels dry
  When I am queen I'll have my way, I'll make it drowning Dollie day
  and all the tears that we have cried will suck back in our eyes"

• Nobody Loves the Bassist: Averted with Robin, not for lack of trying.
• Non-Appearing Title: A few, including "Rabbiteen," "Working With Meat" or "Cockroach Waltz".
• Ominous Music Box Tune: "Choke" and "Working With Meat"^note the demo version both use the same intro, possibly due to an editing mistake.
• One-Word Title: 'Lollirot', 'Vivica', 'Underjoyed', 'Surgery', 'Hypocrite', 'Horrible', 'Kringle', 'Choke', 'Cumdumpster', 'Girlscout', 'Swollen', and 'Covet'.
• Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: "Strawberry Gashes". "Surgery" can be interpreted as this.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Discussed in many songs, typical for their feminist lyrics as a Riot Grrrl band.
• Religion Rant Song: "Losing His Touch". God and religion are mentioned in several other songs, like "Bruises Are Back In Style" and "Spit And Rape," but in those cases the blasphemy is more to punctuate rants about other aspects of society.
• Revolving Door Band: Their reunion lineup is probably the longest, and it only lasted for about six months.
• Riot Grrrl: Since this band was female-fronted and aggressive and occasionally wrote feminism-soaked lyrics about rape, and they happened to be active in the 1990s, the association with this scene was basically inevitable. JOJ's attitude, if not their music, is more in line with that of bands like Babes In Toyland and Hole. All three bands made liberal use of Careful with That Axe vocals, and Jessicka tended to wear a slightly less messy, more gothic version of the "kinderwhore" style popularized by Courtney Love and Kat Bjelland. However, JOJ didn't reject the Riot Grrrl label with the others' vehemence; Jessicka does embrace the description "riot goth."
• Sanity Slippage Song: Their whole discography. "Witch Hunt", "Surgery", "Everything's Brown" or "Angels Fuck" are notable examples.
• Self-Backing Vocalist: Jessicka.
• Self-Harm: Discussed in several songs, such as "Poor Impulse Control" or "Strawberry Gashes".
  • Jessicka used to do this on stage, once even going as far as to knock a glass bottle against her head.
• Siamese Twin Songs: "Strawberry Gashes" ends with extremely high screeching distorted guitars that lead into "Author Unknown".
• Shout-Out:
  • For one of the reunion shows, Jessicka recreated a certain scene from Carrie on stage, and performed the rest of the set covered in (hopefully) fake blood.
  • "Yellow Brick Road" is one to The Wizard of Oz.
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: "Vivica" and the cover of "Love Song" are both more acoustic-based.
• Take That!: "Author Unknown" was written as a direct response to Marilyn Manson's autobiography, in which she's essentially Demoted to Extra... It's basically the goth version of a disstrack, which is surprising, considering that the band toured as support for Manson for years. They've since patched things up.
• That Liar Lies: "Rabbiteen" takes this almost to Narm levels.
• The Power of Love: Why did the band reunite? One of the members saw a shrine at a gas station, made by one of their newer fans, told the others about it, and they eventually decided it was time to get back together. The best part? They played their first reunion show in Asheville, North Carolina; where they found the shrine.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Subverted by the band; even after everything, they still asked Robin about reuniting. She refused.
  • "Nazi Halo".
  • "Author Unknown", ultimately subverted in real life (see above).
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Discussed in "Poor Impulse Control", as the title says.
• Troubled Abuser: "Girl Scout".

  "Will you love me any less if I hurt you any more?"

• Unusual Euphemism: "Underjoyed", for clinical depression.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Marilyn Manson.
  • And Robin.
• What Have I Become?: "Cockroach Waltz".

  "I am a part of you
  You made me want...
  I am a part of you
  I was you once
  I don't want this"

• Word Salad Lyrics: Most of their songs. Though some particular examples stand out:
  • "Chocolate Chicken":
    "The chicken blows, yeah
    Let's stab ourselves, yeah
    Chicken and chocolate praying
    Stormtrooper got the blues
    They suck him off on plastic cock
    And who the hell are you
    The chicken knows, yeah
    Just how it goes, yeah"''
  • "Bruises are Back in Style":
    "If love is a taxi, the devil will drive
    If hatred is English, then I speak in jive
    If this is a fuck, then I'll run for a mile"
• Word Salad Title: Plenty. For example, "Cinnamon Spider", "Cockroach Waltz", "French Kiss The Elderly", "Nazi Halo"...
• Woman Scorned: Applies to many of JOJ's songs.
  • "When I Am Queen" (see Badass Boast).
  • "Clear Hearts Gray Flowers".
    Your mouth is like a funeral
    Where kisses go to die
    I'm not the girl that stopped and stared
    I'm not the girl that lied
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: Jessicka.