Wikipedia

Jessicka

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 81.107.48.120 (talk) at 18:31, 13 February 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

You must add a |reason= parameter to this Cleanup template – replace it with {{Cleanup|September 2005|reason=<Fill reason here>}}, or remove the Cleanup template.

Jessicka

Jessicka is best known for her bands Jack Off Jill and Scarling.

Early life

Jessicka, born Jessica Fodera, grew up in the small town of Sunrise, Florida. Jessicka was raised as an only child by her mother Nancy after she had divorced her husband, Joseph. Nancy, a native of Brooklyn, New York, had recently moved to Florida in order to give herself and her daughter a better life. Nancy enrolled the precocious three-year-old in a local Montessori school, where she excelled in art and music. After discovering her daughter's true passion, Nancy quickly enrolled Jessicka in Horizon Elementary School's gifted program where she excelled in theatre, art, and creative writing. In middle school Jessicka joined her school's chorus group and found that she had natural singing ability, but was soon bored singing tired standards and Christmas carols. By the time she entered high school Jessicka had immersed herself in music, Goth-culture, and feminist literature. She often wrote the word "cunt" on her knuckles, and began to drift from what would be considered the norm; by seventeen she decided it was time to start her own band.

Jack Off Jill

After a few failed attempts at starting a band, Jessicka met Michelle Inhell, Tenni Ah Cha Cha, and Agent Moulder in 1991, and the first incarnation of Jack off Jill was born. Jessicka's band got their start when they began opening for fellow Floridian and long time friend Marilyn Manson and his shock-rock outfit, Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids. The fierce foursome quickly became one of the most exciting and controversial underground bands during their heyday and it wasn't much of a surprise. With gut-wrenching lyrics, angelic to banshee-like delivery, catchy songs, and shocking on-stage antics that included stripping young men on stage while the band and crowd taunted the exposed fans, as well as covering the audience with spit and real blood and candy-covered razors. Jessicka spent a night in jail when she and Manson were arrested after a 1994 concert in Jacksonville, Florida, after being accused by the town's Christian Coalition for breaking the town's adult entertainment codes. Though she never claimed to be a shock rocker, she was often labeled as one. Jack Off Jill had more in common with riot grrl acts such as Babes in Toyland than they did with Marilyn Manson, the band with whom Jack Off Jill would later be constantly compared. It did not help that Jessicka's rumored friendship with Manson's notorious ex Missi Romero and long relationship with Twiggy Ramirez (real name Jeordie White), bass guitarist for the now infamous band, was also in the spotlight. It is said that most of Twiggy's signature grade-school ghoulie, dead girl, kindergoth look was taken from her, making critics' comparisons draw even closer.

Jack Off Jill released several independent records: "Children 5 and Up", "The Boygrinder Sessions", "Cannibal Song Book", (produced by JOJ and Manson) "Cockroach Waltz", and several 7" singles on Jessicka's own label Rectum Records, all before her 21st birthday. It was not until she played a benefit show with legendary Minneapolis based grrl band Babes in Toyland and 7 Year Bitch from Seattle, that Jack Off Jill caught the eye of record labels. Drummer Lori Barbero from Babes wanted to sign them to her now defunct Minneapolis label Spanish Fly, but it was not to be. Soon afterwards Jack Off Jill caught the eyes and ears of Risk Records, who signed them in January 1997. They replaced both Ah Cha Cha and Inhell with new members because they were not ready to leave Florida. The band released their first national 7" "Girl Scout"/"American Made" in Marchon September 9, their full-length Sexless Demons and Scars (produced by Don Fleming of Sonic Youth and Hole) was released to an awaiting mainstream public.

After a moderate underground success and touring with Lords of Acid and playing to sold-out crowds in 1997, they headed to Los Angeles and completed 1998's Covetous Creature a remix EP of songs from Sexless Demons and Scars with the help of SMP (Scott Putesky) founding member of Marilyn Manson and new drummer Claudia Rossi. The new manifestation of Jack Off Jill hit the road on a national tour with Psychotica, joined along the way by Switchblade Symphony.

Stronger lyrics and a growing musical maturity were evident in the evolution of the band's new songs which were road-tested in March of 1999 when they were asked to take the opening slot on the Marilyn Manson / Monster Magnet / Hole tour after Hole departed. The two core members, Jessicka and Robin, enlisted the help of Los Angeles musicians Clint Walsh and Norm Block for the tour. In 2000, after another small lineup change to include Helen Storer of Fluffy fame, JOJ released their second full-length CD, Clear Hearts Grey Flowers on Risk Records (produced by Chris Vrenna of Tweaker and Nine Inch Nails) right as the label was preparing to close its doors. Due to pressure, poor publicity for CHGF, several line up changes, tension between founding members Jessicka and Robin, and management problems; Jack Off Jill called it quits in late 2000.

Scarling.

After taking a break, Jessicka formed her new band, Scarling., in September 2002. She and guitarist Christian Hejnal began rehearsing and recording in a San Fernando Valley performance space; after the pair had written a number of songs together, they began a search for additional band members and eventually cemented the lineup of Fodera, Hejnal, drummer Garey Snider, bassist Kyle Lime, and second guitarist Rickey Lime.

Scarling.'s debut single, "Band Aid Covers the Bullet Hole", was produced by Chris Vrenna and released on March 19 2003 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label. Its cover featured an illustration entitled "Wound 39" by artist Mark Ryden. In April of 2004 Scarling released their debut album, Sweet Heart Dealer, a seven-song, thity-three-minute amalgamation of sound and texture which again utilized the team of Ryden and Vrenna.

Scarling.'s sound is influenced by My Bloody Valentine, Loop, Lush, Pixies, Sonic Youth and The Cure, as well as by the 1990s riot grrl scene that also inspired Jack off Jill. The band has been described in the press as everything from a "batch of Goth-inclined neo-hipsters" to "The Addams Family in Wonderland" and "Sonic Youth on Paxil", but the Los Angeles-based band's most prized review to date is "like the Cure with bigger distortion pedals and a violent case of PMS."

In the autumn of 2004, Scarling. was invited to join the lineup of the Robert Smith-curated Curiosa Festival, performing on select West Coast dates alongside Interpol, The Rapture, Mogwai, Cursive, The Cooper Temple Clause, Head Automatica, and their own idols, The Cure. Smith described the band's music as "dark, desperate, chaotic, gorgeous pop music, the sound of the end of the world". Three weeks before Scarling. joined the Curiosa tour, longtime drummer Garey Snider Quit and was replaced by current drummer Beth Gordon. Sweet Heart Dealer was nominated for the 2004 Shortlist Music Prize by Robert Smith.

After a series of 7" singles on Sympathy, Scarling. announced in early 2005 that their second album, So Long, Scarecrow, would appear later that year; it was preceded by the single "We Are The Music Makers" and was released on August 23 2005. Scarecrow was produced by Rob Campanella, formerly of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, at his studio, Committee to Keep Music Evil Headquarters. The album features the band's new bass player, Derik Snell.

Discography

Albums/CDs

Singles/EPs

  • Band Aid Covers the Bullet Hole (7", Sympathy for the Record Industry, 2003):
Band Aid Covers the Bullet Hole / H/C
  • Band Aid Covers the Bullet Hole (CD, Sympathy for the Record Industry, 2003):
Band Aid Covers the Bullet Hole / H/C / Creep
  • Crispin Glover (7", Sympathy for the Record Industry, 2004):
Crispin Glover / Love Becomes a Ghost
  • Crispin Glover (7", Sympathy for the Record Industry, 2004):
Crispin Glover / Art Of Pretension
  • Scarling / The Willowz (split 7", Sympathy for the Record Industry, 2005):
Scarling. — We Are the Music Makers / The Willowz — Break Me Down
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jessicka&oldid=39486870"