Jack Off Jill – Cockroach Waltz

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  General Comment:I actually thought of it as a song about the relationship between Jessicka and Twiggy. "We look like each other" (Twiggy borrowing her clothes and look) and "We poison each other but we know that nobody cares" describes the riot grrl and rock scenes they were part of at the time.
  
  "Help me shut out painful world/When insect boy becomes a girl" These lines remind me of Star No Star, where the words boy and girl are used a lot, which has been interpreted to be about Jessicka and Twiggy.
  
  But regardless, this is a great song and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm completely wrong and it has a darker meaning such as incest.

  Flag Spinsteron April 16, 2009   Link

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  My Interpretation:This doesn't have to be a sexual relationship. That's not what I see it as.
  
  "We hide in the cupboards
  And under the stairs
  We poison each other
  But we know that nobody cares"
  See, my dad and I don't like to be in the same room as each other. We're also kind of 'back stabbing' verbally to each other, but "nobody cares".
  
  "We look at each other
  With a compound eye
  See something that's nothing
  And then start to cry"
  We're related, one compound eye. We also see alot of things the same way, but we wont admit it.
  But...we both realize that. I cry about it sometimes...by myself.
  
  
  
  "You made me
  I am a part of you
  You made me want
  I am a part of you
  I liked you once"
  Obviously, I am a part of you...we're related.
  "I liked you once"
  I use to be a daddy's girl.
  
  
  "We look like each other
  Sew you to my chest
  Then say that I won't
  Faithfully, as I fuck all the rest"
  I do look more like my dad than my twin.
  I have borderline personality disorder, and I'm a nutcase in relationships. I've slept with lots of people, that I shouldn't have...
  
  "Crawl quick past each other
  The cord starts to break
  I gave you too much
  That's my big mistake"
  We move quickly past each other..try not to get into conversation.
  Too much time around each other, and we may act like we're nice. Like we use to. But it's a mistake because my dad is a heartless, sexist, ass. He loves to badger, pick at and make things difficult for you.
  

  Flag katelatexon April 08, 2009   Link

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• +1
  General Comment:could be based on the relationship btw a child and parent. Perhaps the child is old now and is very distant, or minimally-emotionally-tied to the parent. When I read the lyrics I saw a person who remembers something good about this parent, but realizes he/she was really no good.
  That's how I saw it, but is not neccessarily how I would interpret it =P

  Flag torturedsoulon May 31, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:[continued from above!]
  
  Oh, and I think saying "we look like each other" is derisively robbing the ones the song is about of their individuality...
  
  As in, they're cockroaches... they're dirty, they're all the same, they might love each other and cheat on each other but it doesn't matter, they die and no one notices or cares because there are tons more of them, they don't even care themselves because they can't, they're cruel, one is pretty much the same of the next to the extent that they're almost the exact same thing, one is part of another, made by another, and may as well be the other... I think it's generally just a dark comparison between that, and human relationships.

  Flag orangefriendon April 07, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:I think this song is actually mostly abstract. There's a relationship going on, clearly. But by turning the relationship she's singing about into something between insects, I think she's making a general statement about how cold and heartless they were. She's also generally adding an atmosphere of disgust to the attachment and the people she describes (the "I" and the "you") just by the fact that she's talking about cockroaches, which are associated with disease and filth.

  Flag orangefriendon April 07, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:Probably an obvious one, but "We look like each other" implies that they are related.

  Flag Crammondon January 02, 2007   Link

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• +1
  General Comment:like one of the previous posters, i think it's about incest. her father. she says that she dropped her last name, fodera, because she isn't fond of the person it belongs to. and these lines:
  
  we hide in the cupboards
  and under the stairs
  
  see something that's nothing
  and then start to cry
  
  you made me
  i am a part of you
  
  i liked you once (until you started abusing me, maybe?)
  
  we look like each other
  sew you to my chest
  then say that i won't
  faithfully, as i fuck all the rest (the whole thing, like how fathers get all protective of their "little girls" when they get old enough to start having boyfriends and stuff. and the possessiveness that comes with incest, "no-one will ever love you as much as i do, and i'm going to prove it to you by having sex with you." but then the girl rebels and has lots of casual sex with people she doesn't care about because she's so messed up from the abuse.)
  
  i don't want this
  i want this
  i don't want this
  i want this (understandable confusion...)
  
  no clue what it means, but i love this line anyway:
  
  help-me-shut-out-pain-ful-world
  when-in-sect-boy-be-comes-a-girl
  
  this line. oh dear.
  
  cockroach will rise, will crash, will burn
  
  now this is probably totally weird of me to think. but has anyone read marilyn manson's autobiography, the long hard road out of hell? as you probably know if you're a spooky kids/jack off jill fan, manson was pretty involved with the beginning of jessicka's band. and in that book, he catches his grandfather masturbating, "i turned my head away, too late to keep from imagining the white pus squeezing out of his yellow, wrinkled penis like the insides of a squashed cockroach." ok, TECHNICALLY he's comparing the SEMEN to cockroach GUTS, not the actual penis to a cockroach. but still, it makes me think of that, "cockroach will rise" and i'll leave that to your imagination...and then whole situation blows up, "crashes, burns." like that other line, see something that's nothing/and then start to cry. like a family member maybe saw something suspicous and they tried to convince themselves it was nothing.
  
  
  
  anyway. it's a great song, one of their best.

  Flag daisycakeon October 06, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:Oh, something I forgot to add in my last post..another reason why I think this song might be about incest is the lyrics [See something that's nothing
  And then start to cry] Are they having regrets about the whole thing because they know that it will never work out or because it dosn't feel right?

  Flag PhasedxIronyon August 10, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:Hm..this song is definitely about a relationship of some sorts. At first I thought the song might be about a boy who loved a girl [You loved me once] but she didn't feel the same way [I liked you once]. Another possibility could be that the song is about incest, and maybe they didn't want anyone to know so they kept it a secrect. [we hide in the cupboards and under the stairs]. Yet another possiblity is that the song is about two outcasts or maybe drugs or addiction of some sort. [we posion eachother but we know that nobody cares]. I'm probaly wrong. I love Jessika's voice in this song, it sounds so tiny..it reminds me of an insect. Whatever the song is about, it's a beautiful song, very morbid and lovely.

  Flag PhasedxIronyon August 10, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:Intern- nothing really about "cockroaches", i think. More like... outcasts. "We poison eachother- but we know, that nobody cares" could indicate drug usage, of the depressed.. eh. i don't know. i fucking DREAM of these song means.. ehhh.

  Flag Akawonkabaron July 18, 2006   Link

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