Jarcrew
| Jarcrew | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Ammanford, Wales |
| Genres | Dance-punk |
| Years active | 1999–2005, 2014-present |
| Labels | Gut Records |
| Associated acts | Future of the Left, Truckers of Husk, Fluff Tongue, Touchstone Pictures, me and machine |
| Members | Kelson Mathias Rich Williams Tom Clark Rhodri Thomas Hywel Evans (2005, 2014-present) Ben Milner (1999-2004) (2014-present) |
| Past members | Ben Milner (1999–2004) |
Jarcrew was a five-piece dance-punk band from Ammanford, Wales. They were a relatively well known underground band (Jarcrew never enjoyed mainstream success) for approximately five years between 2000 and their early 2005 split. They played a bizarre mixture of electronica/house and prog-rock/punk/funk that baffled audiences up and down the UK (despite their somewhat unapproachable commercial nature they were offered some very lucrative support slots, including an elusive support for Scots rockers Biffy Clyro). Since disbanding, several Jarcrew off-shoots have emerged, most notably Future of the Left, a band that contained Jarcrew frontman Kelson alongside ex-mclusky members Andrew Falkous and Jack Egglestone. In 2014, the band reformed for a charity fundraiser and have since made a number of other appearances.
Starting in a Welsh mining town, Jarcrew qualified for assistance under the Community Music Wales scheme (a system established to assist bands coming out of Wales, be it with monetary support or the release of a record to start a band off on the right track). In 2001 they released their first single, "Paris and The New Math" on Complete Control Music (Community Music Wales' record label, the same label that was responsible for the very first People in Planes release back when they were known as Robots in the Sky) soon followed by the band's debut album Breakdance Euphoria Kids (a line from track 8 of Breakdance Euphoria Kids, "Money Shot") and the single "Capobaby". The album wound up in the hands of Gut Records who offered to remaster the recording (as it was deemed too acerbic and not radio friendly enough for general release). Only half the album was eventually remixed, with the original recordings being used for the rest of the album and single. The band agreed to this and with that, they were signed to a national label and were touring up and down the country, as well as providing radio sessions to the likes of BBC and XFM in London (the latter of which can still be found on the XFM website).
19 December 2004 saw the band's final show (with support from People in Planes in a small venue in Cardiff) and early 2005 saw the promise of a new album, which the band assured the world was completely written and ready to be recorded (which was evident from the amount of unfamiliar material the band threw into their set from as early as 2003, shortly after their first – and last – album was remixed and re-released by Gut Records). Hot on the heels of this news came the news that Jarcrew had disbanded. No official reason was cited; most commonly cited is that the band split due to Rhodri Thomas becoming a fully-fledged Jehovah's Witness.
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