“Juliet Foxtrot Kilo (jfk to you) was a four piece rock band from Danbury, CT.  Formed from the ashes of the disintegrated Daybed (the loud rock band version of the group, active from 2000-2001),when former members Matthew Kohnle and Joseph Russo (both guitar and vocals) enlisted Peter Powers (Drums) and Matthew Corsak (Bass).  

 

The band worked well together, quickly coming up with a set  and hopping on stage within one month of forming.  This meant that initially, the band were playing many songs that had been performed previously with the defunct Daybed.  JFK however, quickly made these songs their own.  

 

“JFK as a band just seemed to wake up one morning and work together perfectly, almost eerily so. “ says Matt Kohnle, “a major difference with this band and many of the other bands I had been in, was the emphasis on live work.  From the first month, it seemed we were always playing out, never really focussing on the recording end of things. “

 

JFK songs in many ways showed this, as most of them could have worked as show stoppers.  JFK employed incredibly dynamic arrangements and were quite unashamed of being bombastic.  Most importantly, however, was the fact that JFK also displayed a melodic edge missing from many of their peers.  Though capable of melting your face off, JFK was certainly not a metal band, and definitely not “emo”.

 

Matt Kohnle puts it like this: “We were a strange group in that we never really got down to our influences, or at least we never really discussed them.  Joe may have seen us as some new version of Wire, or something akin to say Television, while Matt Corsak would be all about XTC or even Tears for Fears... I might hear some weird lil Yes bit or something in what we were doing and away we all went, happy as clams imagining what we thought this band sounded like.”

 

“Our emphasis on shows gave us a real edge in the sense that that was where we felt most comfortable.  New songs would be rehearsed and popped into the set in a matter of days; before lyrics were even written.  I must admit that there are almost no lyrics to many of our songs... just mumbled phrases taking full advantage of whatever poor sound systems we played through. And yet perversely, there are vocal harmonies!  Joe and I would find certain phrases during the chorus of many songs to sing harmony on!  It really was a strange and surreal way of working!” recalls Matt Kohnle.

 

After about a solid year or so of working (the highlight being a coveted 7:00pm spot at 2002’s Gasball festival) the band began to slowly wind it’s way down.  JFK did manage to record what would become an aborted album with drummer Pete Power’s brother engineering, but the momentum began to slow when Matt Kohnle decided it was time to do other things.  

 

“It was getting old, or at least for me, the Danbury scene was.  I personally wanted to move into a recording studio and hide from the world.  The live thing was getting to me, and I was losing interest in playing sweaty shows till all hours of the night in the same bars over and over.   After gasball, it all seemed redundant.  I left a few months later.”

 

While the band was no more, various members still on occasion would play together.  Pete Powers and Matt Corsak spent time in Human Vice Patrol together, while Matt Kohnle, Pete Powers and Joe Russo formed Darling a few years later.  Pete Powers and Joe Russo are currently performing in Danbury together in the Salt Water Swells.

 

 

JFK recently reunited for fun and performed two songs at Danbury’s Cousin Larry’s, and although the band had not played with one another in several years, never mind the fact that they had not even practiced for the show (all members relearned their parts on their own, and hoped for the best), it was clear that it still worked... and worked well.  This lead to an offer to play the 2nd annual Safe To Swim weekend festival in Danbury, and that lead to the group revisiting their long aborted full length album begun in summer 2002.   As Matthew Kohnle describes, this event will most likely be the last show the band will do.  

 

You can hear Juliet foxtrot kilo in its final statement on their new record, “hear a lie”, on shoddy merchandise records... “

 

                                                                            

Juliet Foxtrot Kilo

  “Hear A Lie”

                               SMCD302