ishyface | This is long overdue, my fronds. (Reply)

I was poking around the Internets recently, like you do, and discovered (MUCH TO MY DISMAY) that nobody seems to have written a Jessicka Addams primer yet!

This is not okay. Therefore, I give you:

Say Hello To My Little Friend: A Jessicka Addams Primer

Jessicka Addams (formerly Jessicka Fodera or just plain Jessicka) is a singer and visual artist from Florida. She's a former suburban goth kid who loves Bikini Kill, comic books, and covering things with blood. And she says that if she weren't in a band she'd be illustrating children's books.

She may, in fact, be the lost Way sister.

Above is a bb!Jessicka, on the bottom left with the big hair and the dress that is not just pink but PIIIIIIIINK. Apparently Jessicka was pretty popular in high school (she was voted homecoming queen) but really hated it and eventually started hanging out with the art freaks instead, a la Mean Girls. It was around this time that she started getting into bands.

And covering things in blood.

Jessicka used to be in a band called Jack Off Jill, a goth-metal outfit that put out three albums (Humid Teenage Mediocrity, Sexless Demons and Scars, and Clear Hearts Grey Flowers). They disbanded in 2000 after going through more lineup changes than you can shake a stick at. Here are some pictures of them!

And here are a few of their songs.

"My Cat," 1998:

(As far as I know that was their only official video, so the rest of these will have to be fanvids, unfortunately.)

"Lollirot," 1998:

"Girlscout," 1998:

"Strawberry Gashes," 2000:

"Underjoyed," 2000:

JOJ was one of my favourite bands in middle/high school, and I think a lot of former suburban baby bats can say the same: they were bratty and dark and funny and angry and pretty much everything awesome and embarrassing ever. Jessicka said in interviews from the JOJ period that she really wanted to be a female version of KISS, making shock rock and putting on wild performances, and while that shock element is pretty evident in their earlier stuff, their last (and best) album is way more focused and introspective.

Regardless, I think this live clip in which Jessicka is heckled and proceeds to heckle back best sums up the band as a whole.

A few years after JOJ imploded- after swearing she'd never work in the music industry again- Jessicka started another band called scarling. with a totally different sound. Less KISS, more My Bloody Valentine. they've put out one LP, Sweet Heart Dealer, and one full-length, So Long Scarecrow. Last I checked the lineup was Jessicka on vocals, Christian Hejnal on guitar, Rickey Lime on guitar, Beth Gordon on drums, and Derik Snell on bass, but the band is currently on hiatus and they've had quite a few lineup changes so it's anyone's guess who's on the next album, really. Here are some pictures of them!

And here are some of their songs!

"Band-Aid Covers The Bullethole," 2003:

(That song is pretty much one of my favourite songs in all the world, jsyk.)

"Baby Dracula," 2003:

"Bummer," 2005:

(If this song sounds at all familiar that's probably because it was featured on an episode of The L Word. Yeah, lesbian soap operas are about as high profile as these guys get.)

"Caribou And Cake," 2005:

They also covered "Creep" by Radiohead. Since it's one of the few Radiohead covers I actually like I felt I had to include it, even though it's in an Anne Rice vid:

Robert Smith is a fan: "Scarling. make dark, desperate, chaotic, gorgeous pop music, the sound of the end of the world. And I love it." Considering the Cure is Jessicka's favourite band, I'm guessing she must have been pretty pleased about that.

Nowadays Jessicka is working more on art than music, although a new scarling. album is apparently upcoming.

... that counts as art, shut up. >.>

FACTS ABOUT JESSICKA

- She is a Scorpio.

- She's thirty-four.

- She has described herself as "a combination of John Waters, Laura Palmer, and Karen Walker."

- She started singing when she was three, and was encouraged by her grandmother. MUCH LIKE SOME OTHER GOTH WEIRDO WE KNOW AND LOVE.

- She used to be what she calls a "zaftig cherub" and is vocally opposed to fatphobia, in the music industry and elsewhere.

- If she could kill any celebrity it would be either Dave Navarro or "Hugh Hefner though I'd have to kill him in some ironic poetic way. Maybe having him choke on a giant Viagra pill or having little girls smother him with thousands of breasts implants until he suffocated to death." Hands up if you would pay to see that!

- She's bisexual and has spoken about her opposition to Proposition 8 and other discriminatory legislation. She also identifies as a "fruit fly." What she's said on the subject:

I am indeed bisexual. I'm everything; sexual, coastal, political, controversial. I think if you find your comfortable sexual preference then that's excellent. Everybody knows that I'm a huge fan of gay men and drag queens and would not be who I am today without their help, support, and make-up tips.

Note: scarling.'s guitarist Rickey Lime is an out lesbian, and also a severe hottie.

Hellooooooo, ~~Nurse~~ Rickey.

- She's married to Christian, scarling.'s lead guitarist. His former last name was Hejnal; about a year after getting married they both changed it to Addams, presumably in reference to the Addams Family. They are quite a cute couple!

Christian is working on the new Alice in Wonderland film, which is one of the reasons why scarling. is on hiatus.

- She has a kitty named Alexander, and wrote a song named after him called "Alexander the Burn Victim."

- She's writing a book. I can't find much information on this anywhere- supposedly she's put it aside for the moment- but I think it bears mentioning. :)

- She's a feminist. Here's what she says about that:

There are plenty of female artists that I consider feminist, Le Tigre, Peaches, Sleater Kinney, PJ Harvey—the list is endless. I think there's certain stigma attached to the word "feminist". I feel a lot of people confuse feminist with man-hater which is not the correct definition by any means. Webster's defines feminism as:

1 : the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes
2 : organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests

So until people see the difference between a feminist and a man-hater I think there will always be a certain assumption when a female artist considers herself one and says it in print. Yes, I do consider myself a feminist and I am saying it in print.

And here's a clip where she talks about feminism in relation to the music industry:

- She's "religiously celibate except in LA, NOLA, FLA, because there is certainly no God in any of those places."

- She uses a lot of smiley faces and *motions* online, which makes her about ten thousand times more precious.

- She thinks that zombies are kind of jerks.

- She dated Twiggy Ramirez from Marilyn Manson. Their relationship was pretty tumultuous (he cheated on her with Courtney Love at one point) and earned her a (negative) mention in Manson's autobiography Long Hard Road Out Of Hell. Allegations that Twiggy copied her look are ~~self-evident~~ unfounded.

- She is friends with Roman Dirge, creator of the comic series Lenore, and is slated to voice its titular character in an upcoming film.

- She used to force herself to stay awake for days in order to hallucinate naturally. It was during these hallucenogenic periods that she wrote songs like "Lollirot" and "Cinnamon Spider," which, really, it explains a lot.

- She is inspired by "Christian Addams, things that go crash in the dark, vintage fashion, Justin Pearce, sweets, poorly drawn rabbits, lemons, Sigur Ros, Charlie White, John Waters, blue pills, Jennifer Syme, cotton candy, tiny masks, Robert Smith, heart candy, Francine Shane, Mark Ryden, love, bruises and 3rd degree burns, Melissa Hirschenson, Babycat, animals who wear hats, wine, all night TV, Marion Peck, cold nights, rainy days, sleep, depression, Siamese twins, extra limbs, missing limbs, teeth, hardware stores, Kevin Shields, kittens, gay bars, LA opportunists, the movie Palindromes, director Todd Solondz, and daytime television."

- She's been friends with Marilyn Manson for years, for a given value of "friends." (As mentioned above, she turns up in Long Hard Road Out Of Hell, but apparently she's forgiven him for that.) Here is a clip from some weird home movie they made that involves Disney World and Mr. Manson's penis:

God, they are such BABIES there. Manson even looks like a human being!

Anyway. Legend has it that one night they made a bet that whoever could go without sleep the longest would be America's next great rock star. He stayed awake for twenty minutes more. She's still good friends with his ex-wife Dita von Teese as well.

- She is also friends with J.D. Samson of Le Tigre! She knows EVERYONE, apparently.

- She may or may not have dated Crispin Glover and Jennifer Syme. Not at the same time, presumably.

- She likes Anchorman.

- She was in a movie with Naomi Watts called Ellie Parker. It is... well, look at it:

Yeeeeeeeeeeah.

LINKS WITH BANDOM

- She is besties with Audrey Kitching, who dated Brendon Urie and hangs out with pretty much every bandom person either. They do photoshoots together quite often.

- She's a fan of Jhonen Vasquez (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Squee!), who did the artwork for Mindless Self Indulgence's last album, If.

- She is friends with Lyn-Z, Chantal Claret, and Frances Bean Cobain. (Sometimes they even get pedicures together.) She's also friends with Alicia, probably from hanging out with Lyn-Z.

- Out of everyone in bandom, she seems to be closest to Lyn-Z, which makes sense since they are both artsy wee darlings. They share a studio, have art shows together, and tweet adorable things to one another a lot. They are pretty much the most unbearably precious besties every and people should write many many stories about them getting drunk and making art together ~~and then boning~~.

LOOKIDDEM. *hearteyes*

- She and good ol' Garry Way go to the same parties. I had a picture of that somewhere but it disappeared. (

youidiotkid, do you still have it?) They hang out in other places too! I will take this as a sign that they are best friends, because it pleases me.

- She is friends with Jess from the Veronicas. This does not really count as a bandom link, since the only connection the Veronicas have to bandom is that one picture where they're sandwiching Bert McCracken (I swear to God this exists, I did not make it up, I just can't find it right now), but, you know. PEOPLE COULD WRITE FIC ABOUT THAT.

OTHER PICTURES I COULDN'T REALLY FIND A PLACE FOR THROUGHOUT THIS PRIMER BUT WANTED TO POST ANYWAY 'CAUSE GOSH, EN'T SHE PRETTY?