My last Important Life Band post was back in September, when I wrote about my love of Hole, so I think I'm due to make another one. Who am I fangirling over this time? Why, Jack Off Jill!
Jack Off Jill had already broke up by the time I discovered them, when I was 15. I actually first heard of them through my love of another band, My Ruin - yes, I think we can assume I'll be talking about them on this blog at some point. At the time, My Ruin's vocalist Tairrie B was good friends with JOJ's vocalist Jessicka (I don't know what happened between them, I still love them both so *shrug*) and Tairrie had posted an interview she did with Jessicka on the My Ruin website. I can only imagine how many times I read it while it was still online, but I loved reading what they had to say.
I'd just started reading this interview for the first time when I realised, hey, this is the Jessicka who sings on the My Ruin song "Miss Anne Thrope"!. Quite proud of myself for connecting those dots, I read on.
That weekend, I was idly flicking through the unimpressive CD section in my local HMV when I saw the Sexless Demons and Scars album. It was the most excited I'd felt all day and, despite not having actually heard any JOJ songs, I bought it.
As soon as I got home, I put the album on while simultaneously falling in love with it and joining JOJ fan communities on LiveJournal (ah, the good old days!). It might sound a bit strange, but I quite liked the fact that Jessicka's voice is high-pitched. A lot of female-fronted bands I was listening to had more husky or aggressive vocals, which I loved singing (or shouting) along to, but also felt a bit silly while I did, because my voice is very much on the softer end of the spectrum. I guess it helped me to feel a bit more comfortable with my own singing voice.
Naturally, this album was on regular rotation for me... I'd often listen to it through my headphones at school while glaring at people :)
One of my friends got me the Clear Hearts, Grey Flowers album for my 16th birthday and, while it could be seen as a bit of a jump, sound-wise, from SSDAS, I loved it just as much. I actually quite like that these two albums have such different moods, I still go through phases of which one I play the most. On a side note, this also led to my liking of Mark Ryden's artwork!
I also started to play bass when I was 16, starting by learning mostly Hole and JOJ songs. It was quite a proud moment when I could say I'd learned to play every song on SSDAS.
I feel like JOJ were the exact sound that I wanted to hear in my angsty kinda-goth-mid-teens. "Angsty" usually has quite negative connotations, but I don't mean in that way at all. It gave me something to relate to and Jessicka's screams playing loudly was a nice way or purging some of my negative feelings - Angel's Fuck was particularly good for this.
These days, while I guess some might still call me "angsty" (though I'd hope they'd be more respectful with regards to my mental health problems), listening to JOJ tends to make me feel happy. Even though I listened to them a lot when I was feeling terrible, they also remind me of happier memories from that period.
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