The Crew (15)

The Crew (15) played lounges and bars in the Independence, Missouri area for 15 years. Spawned from a local motorcycle club of the same name in 1957, it featured Charlie Downs (drums), Joe Gaston (vocals), Michael Carver (bongos), and brothers Ron (guitar) and Chuck (bass) Hammer. By day, Carver and Gaston worked as lathe operators at Prier Brass, the home of Brass in an industrial part of town off Truman Road in Kansas City, Missouri. At the behest of owner Geo. Hodes, Jr., The Crew began rehearsing in his trailer after work. A model mobile recording unit was procured and the percussion-driven nonsense jam "The Jaguar Hunt" was created on the spot and recorded in one take, with Gaston delivering culturally inept gibberish over Ron Hammer's surfy guitar stabs. The track appeared as the B-Side to the inaugural Brass single in 1961. Carver left the band soon after and two later singles were cut at Brass. The group continued to play into the mid-'70s before scattering after the death of Ron Hammer.