Jarcrew

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JARCREW were from Ammanford, a mining village nestled at the bottom of the black mountains in South Wales. These five school friends formed the band in 1999 when they were aged just 17, this was before they were able to play any instruments!
Starting with a keyboard and half a drum kit they progressed to performing in sheds and friends back gardens. Jarcrew were then picked up by Complete Control Music, based in Cardiff, on the strength of a playing 1Live upstairs in an Irish pub in Cardiff.
After being given time to hone their skills, Jarcrews first single, Squadron ..9, was released in 2001. Later that year the band recorded their first full album, Breakdance Euphoria Kids, at Dreamworld Studio and Magic Plastic Studio, The album was recorded in just two weeks on a shoestring budget towards the end of 2001.
The first single released from Breakdance Euphoria Kids (the albums name was taken from a line on track 8, "Money Shot") was Paris and The New Math. Already a live favourite, with its metronomic rhythmic chug and dislocated moves and speech, Paris was a fantastic, schizophrenic blast of cosmic, melodic, spiky punk rock. It was a call to arms to everyone who cant dance. Jarcrew wanted to make you dance, you see. And if you couldnt dance, Jarcrew wanted you to make up your own moves. In this respect lead singer Kelson Mathais was the inspired pied piper.
Breakdance Euphoria Kids was released in June 2002 and was reviewed favourably by the UKs rock press. The band then began a rigorous touring schedule, playing every toilet venue in the UK! This bout of touring was quickly followed up by the release of the second single from Breakdance Euphoria, the truly wonderful Capobaby.
Capobaby was released on 16th September 2002, with B-sides Boy Wonda and Sad French Death Metal. Capobaby, accurately described as a cross section Breakdance Euphoria Kids crammed into four-and-a-half minutes, is both beautiful and ugly at the same time, both sonically wired yet utterly chilled. It all made sense, regardless that the bands sound was completely twisted.
Capobaby upheld the bands lyrical ethos at the time, as Kelson explained, The lyrics dont mean anything whatsoever. Weve never sat down and said lets write a song about such-and-such. Its just free association: no overall goal or point. Its just atmosphere rather than the message.
By now the UKs press was really starting to recognise Jarcrew as a band overflowing with original ideas and an insane, creative energy on record - and on stage. Big things were being predicted. NME and Kerrang! were starting to give the band the attention they fully deserved, however it was Rock Sound magazine that really picked up on the band first of all, offering them their first feature and hailing Jarcrew as one of their hot tips for 2003.
Jarcrew are light years ahead of one-trick pony noisemongers currently cluttering up the live scene Kerrang!
You wait ages for a decent rock band from Walesand then Jarcrew come along and answer all you prayers. NME
This headfuck-cum-work of genius travels into refreshingly uncharted territory that will either lead to whacky self-destruction or universal adoration Rock Sound
Over the next year the band would play countless celebrated live gigs. If you were lucky enough to witness a Jarcrew show you couldnt help but notice the crowds sense of genuine anticipation and buzz of excitement as the band turned up, plugged in and literally freaked out. Within months Jarcrew would be hailed as one of the UKs top 10 live acts by NME, and frontman Kelsons live performances were earning him a reputation as a real star in the making.
Eventually, after interest from dozens of labels, the band signed to Gut Records in the Summer of 2003.
Jarcrew were not the most obviously commercial proposition, however, with everyone working in earnest towards making it happen the bands first album was to be re-released, but only after it had been remixed by Clive Goddard, who had previously worked with Killing Joke and Badly Drawn Boy among others.
Due to what can only be described as some of the most explosive live shows witnessed by human beings, Jarcrew had by now also started to build a considerable live following around the UK, and had soon recorded live sessions for BBC Radio 1 and XFM Radio.
Its fair to say that Iggy Pop may have shat himself had he seen Kelson in full flow. Whilst Jarcrew supported acts such as Biffly Clyro, Million Dead, Alec Empire, Mclusky & The Fall, Kelson freaked out like a psychopathic Mick Jagger. The phrase, Freaky Dancing has never before been used more accurately. Kelson really put his money where his mouth is and said at the time, If people dont dance at our gigs Ill go over and piss them off.
However, rather than upset people, Kelson captivated his audience with his own brand of rock n roll behaviour. Be it moon-walking through the wreckage of a freshly trashed ghetto blaster or singing & dancing less than an inch from the face of a random victim in the crowd, stealing fans cigarettes, swapping audience members hats or stroking his microphone on the laps of horrified/delighted girls, Kelson knew how to shake it up, make it new and patent it as Jarcrew. Meanwhile, drummer Rod, who could have had his own fan club, was becoming infamous for launching himself from the drum kit on to the shoulders of Kelson invariably whilst wearing his skin-tight flamed print thong, emblazoned with the words Hot Rod!
Paris And The New Math was re-released through Gut records in October 2003, and enjoyed something of a resurgence thanks to the video being heavily playlisted on MTV2, and was subsequently voted by the viewers into the Top 10 favourite videos for over two months. MTV2 presenter Zane Lowe even adopted Kelsons distinctive dance moves live on air. Its great!, admitted guitarist Tom Clark at the time. We'd never complain about something like that, even if it is one of our older songs. Its probably the only commercial sounding song Jarcrew will EVER do, so for something as big as MTV2 to pick up on it is quite something. And the video was dirt cheap too! Kerrang TV refused to show it because the video was too low budget, so for MTV2 to still play it is quite amazing. Its funny really because when we were kids we always used to watch bands videos and think we could do so much better.
Elsewhere, Jarcrews ultra cool t-shirts started cropping up in the most unlikely places, including the backs of Premiership footballers & Million Dead videos!
The newly remixed Jarcrew album was release on November 3rd 2003. The album was for some reason given a new title and was released as simply JARCREW. In addition to the rock press greeting the album with much praise, the national newspapers were starting to pick up on the buzz Jarcrew were creating.
a blinding debut. NME
A strident energetic noise-fest Q magazine
One of the most innovative UK debut albums in years. Rock Sound
A lip-smacking prospect The Daily Mirror
Enough ideas for 5 albums - The Daily Express
Some of the most exciting Welsh music since The Furries debut The Guardian.
A boundless surge of ideas, a manic creativity and crucially - a desire not to sound like every other noisemonger. Respect. Kerrang!
indicative of a twisted genius at work. Powerplay
As ambitious as Napoleon Playlouder.com
With hopes high for 2004, Jarcrew featured in The Sunday Times, who were highlighting the bands to watch for the forthcoming year. Meanwhile, Jarcrew prepared for their first headlining tour of the UK. However, right at the end of 2003 the band parted company with bassist Ben Milner. Although reported as an amicable split, this was far from the truth.
By the time the UK tour started in January 2004 Jarcrew had become a four-piece band. Not wishing to cancel the tour, and not having the time to find a suitable replacement for Ben, the band hit the road as a four-piece, with guitarists Rich Williams and Tom Clark splitting bass duties (and sometimes leaving the bass out completely!). As dysfunctional as this scenario may sound, it somehow worked but only just! The tour was a success, and included Kerrang! magazine sponsored dates in Iceland with Minus, and incendiary show supporting old friends The Lost Prophets at a sold-out Londons Astoria in March 2004.
As the year unfolded the band started getting down to the serious business of finishing and recording the material for the bands second album.
Much new material had been played regularly throughout the bands live shows during the previous year and several demos recorded. Much of this material was simply fantastic, as anyone who has been lucky enough to hear it will testify. Several of these songs were recorded with original bassist Ben, but after Milners departure a prolific spell of songwriting resulted.
To many observers the new album was shaping up quite nicely and the UKs national music press was by now becoming increasingly desperate for the new album to be completed in order to keep up the momentum already gathered.
In August 2004 Jarcrew played at The Compass Point Festival in Cardiff and unveiled a new bassist as "Ricardo" - who, according to Kelson, did not speak a word of English but was "fluent in the language of rock". Ricardo was in fact Hywel Evans. The show was simply fantastic, and was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in Wales.
While everything seemed to be going in the right direction, 2004 was actually proving to be a difficult and testing time for the band, the new album seemed to be taking forever to complete.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall, but on December 19th 2004 saw Jarcrew play their last ever gig at Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff (with support from long-time friends People In Planes) and early 2005 started with the completion of the bands new album at the top of their priorities.
Sadly, in February 2005 came the news that Jarcrew had disbanded. No official reason has ever been given for the band splitting up. There was no final show. The 2nd album was never completed or released.
Its slightly ironic that Jarcrew, who were supported by the likes of Bloc Party and The Kaiser Chiefs when they were all playing the same circuit together, would be the band that didnt quite make it all the way.
If you know Jarcrew, then you cant help but hearing there influence on other bands out there right now (think Forward Russia, Test Icicles and The Automatic, the list goes on)
Quite simply, Jarcrew were fucking awesome and very very much ahead of their time.