JFA

Formed in Phoenix, Arizona in 1981, punk legends JFA—short for Jodie Foster's Army—came together through vocalist Brian Brannon, guitarist Don Redondo, bassist Mike Cornielius, and drummer Mike Sversvold. Isolated from the fading scenes in New York and the U.K. plus the dominant Los Angeles punk surge of the 1980s, the band forged its own skatepunk approach that honored the suburban freedom sun-scorched skaters found while carving empty pools and desert pipes. The group played regularly around Phoenix throughout the early 1980s. By 1985 it had issued multiple releases on Placebo, starting with the debut 7-inch Blatant Localism, now a prized collector's item, followed by the 12-inch Valley of the Yakes, an untitled 12-inch, the Mad Gardens 12-inch, and the Live 1984 Tour 12-inch. These early Placebo recordings enjoyed strong success while stretching punk conventions further than most efforts of the period. Although they delivered the expected hard edge, restlessness, and noise, the tracks also ventured into fresh experiments and stylistic shifts, notably surf textures rarely heard in punk at the time. JFA kept issuing material on Placebo into the late 1980s, including the 7-inch My Movie and the 12-inch Nowhere Blossoms. As the Phoenix and Los Angeles punk scenes cooled and Placebo Records went bankrupt, the still-active band found itself without a label. Brannon relocated to the Bay Area in 1990 to join Thrasher Magazine yet continued working with Redondo and new members Bruce Taylor on bass and Mike Tracy on drums. The lineup cut several singles and splits for various imprints, among them the band's own Buzzkill. The revamped group performed occasionally in Los Angeles, where Redondo had settled, to the approval of Southern California punk audiences, until Brannon himself moved south to join them. In 2000 JFA delivered its first full-length since Placebo's collapse, Only Live Once on Hurricane Records. Like earlier work, the album displays both adventurousness and aggression—qualities that have rarely appeared together in such balance for these veteran skatepunks. Surf textures, keyboard passages, clever lyrics, and fierce loyalty to skating culture and lifestyle have always set the band apart and earned respect among punk listeners everywhere.