''Clear Hearts Grey Flowers'' is the second and final studio album by

Jack Off Jill Jack Off Jill was an American gothic rock band from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, founded in 1992 by vocalist Jessicka, drummer Tenni Ah-Cha-Cha, bassist/keyboardist Agent Moulder, and guitarist Michelle Inhell. Though these four women were the init ...

, released on July 17, 2000 through 404 Music and Risk Records. It was produced by

Chris Vrenna Chris Vrenna (born February 23, 1967 in Erie, Pennsylvania) is an American musician, producer, engineer, remixer, songwriter, programmer, and founder of the electronic band Tweaker. Vrenna played drums for the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails ...

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band ...

/ Tweaker. Due to the closure of Risk Records in January 2000 and the breakup of Jack Off Jill shortly after the album's release, ''Clear Hearts Grey Flowers'' received minimal promotion. However, the album's popularity grew through the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

and

word of mouth Word of mouth, or ''viva voce'', is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one pe ...

and helped cement Jack Off Jill a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

in the years following its release. ''Clear Hearts Grey Flowers'' was issued on vinyl for the first time by

Sympathy For The Record Industry Sympathy for the Record Industry (also known as Sympathy Records or Sympathy 4 the R.I.) is a mainly independent garage rock and punk label formed in 1988 by Long Gone John. The first Sympathy release was the Lazy Cowgirls' ''Radio Cowgirl'' LP ...

in 2006.

Release

''Clear Hearts Grey Flowers'' was intended for release on March 14, 2000. However, in December 1999, it became apparent that the band's label, the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

-based Risk Records (a subsidiary of Risk Music Group), was deeply in debt from investing too much money in unsuccessful alternative rock acts. After trying and failing to sell Jack Off Jill "for ludicrous amounts of money" to major record labels, Risk Records went bankrupt in January 2000, which resulted in all of the label's staff, including the band's A&R rep, being laid off. Subsequently, Jack Off Jill and ''Clear Hearts Grey Flowers'' were transferred over to 404 Music, another Risk Music Group label based in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. On April 10, 2000, Jack Off Jill performed a showcase of the album at The Troubadour in Los Angeles, California, with

filling in on drums. This performance turned out to be Jack Off Jill's final show before their breakup, with

Jessicka Jessicka Addams (born Jessica Fodera on October 23, 1975) is an American visual artist and retired musician. Best known by her stage name Jessicka, she was the frontwoman for the alternative rock band Jack Off Jill, and later for the noise-po ...

stating that the band had no plans to tour in support of the album. 404 Music did little to promote ''Clear Hearts Grey Flowers'', which was released on July 17, 2000. In August 2000, Jack Off Jill officially broke up, with Jessicka citing "the stress of years of bad decisions, our record company being very unstable, the deterioration of mine and my bass players partnership, and the fact that we just couldn’t and didn’t want to fake it."

Artwork

The cover of ''Clear Hearts, Grey Flowers'' is a painting by

Mark Ryden Mark Ryden (born January 20, 1963) is an American painter who is considered to be part of the Lowbrow (or Pop Surrealist) art movement.Ken Johnson"Mark Ryden: ‘The Gay 90s: Old Tyme Art Show" ''The New York Times'', May 6, 2010. Retrieved 2013 ...

with the same name. The blonde woman in the album's cover art was speculated to be either: * a representation of guitarist

Helen Storer Helen Storer is an English bassist, guitarist and singer-songwriter from Cheshire, England. She began her musical career as a teenager in the high-profile punk rock band Fluffy who were signed to Hut/Virgin Records by Tom Zutaut of Geffen. Fl ...

of the UK

all-female band An all-female band is a musical group in popular music that is exclusively composed of female musicians. This is distinct from a girl group, in which the female members are solely vocalists, though this terminology is not universally followed. While ...

Fluffy, who joined Jack Off Jill onstage once for their farewell performance at The Troubadour in

in April 2000. On Jack Off Jill's website it said Storer was the blonde; or * Michelle Inhell, the band's original guitarist, who temporarily rejoined Jack Off Jill and cowrote two songs on this album. Singer

later revealed on her website that she had sketched the concept for Mark Ryden and that the third woman was actually supposed to be a combination of both Inhell and Storer, who were both blonde at the time of the recording.Jessicka FA

April, 2003

Track listing

Note *Tracks 15-65 are blank, 0:06 each.

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. Jack Off Jill *

– vocals * Robin Moulder, Robin "Agent" Moulder – bass, piano * Clinton Walsh – guitars * Norm Block – drums Production *

–

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

* Rich Moulder – engineering * Bill Kennedy – mixing * James Murray – mixing assistant * Tom Baker – masteringManagement * Rhian Gittins –

management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

(for Big PD Entertainment, Inc.) * A&R – none * Jeremy Mohr –

legal representation In a civil proceeding or criminal prosecution under the common law or under statute, a defendant may raise a defense (or defence) in an effort to avert civil legal liability, liability or criminal conviction. A defense is put forward by a par ...

(for Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Hertz & Goldring, LLP) * Ken Hertz – legal representation (for Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Hertz & Goldring, LLP) Artwork *

– cover artwork * Wendy Sherman – packaging design * James Kenefick –

website design Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code a ...

References

{{Authority control Jack Off Jill albums 2000 albums Albums produced by Chris Vrenna Riot grrrl albums Alternative rock albums by American artists Gothic rock albums by American artists Albums with cover art by Mark Ryden