Michael Cornelius: Jr. Chemist & Skate Punk Turned Father Figure
After Cornelius attended early local punk shows with a couple of fellow ASU students in the late 70s, he was inspired to start his own band. He and two art students formed Jr. Chemists.
"Jr. Chemists were a childlike exploration of punk music," he explains. "We did not have loud distorted guitars and didn't play real instruments, but played broken leftover instruments."
The art-inspired troupe was short-lived, however, when during one of their late night performances at The Hate House, Cornelius decided to start a punk band. He saw a young skater, Brian Brannon, in the audience, and auditioned him by asking him if he could scream.
Brannon got the job and Cornelius formed Jody Foster's Army. JFA, as they were called, played super short, fast songs regularly at local venues, and released their Blatant Localism EP on Phoenix's Placebo Records in 1981. Along the way, they also became one of Phoenix's most popular skate punk bands, a label self-placed on the band because all the members were skaters and often hit the skate parks.
Today, some 30-plus years later, he considers himself a veteran skateboarder. "You never really quit." [Read More]