Nashville four-piece Yammer Jaw released their debut EP, Burth, on September 18. It’s a noisy, riff-heavy dose of post-hardcore: aggressive and unpredictable, driven by thunderous drums and rumbling bass with shouted trade-off vocals and sharp turns in structure. Lyrically, the songs take on political division, mental health, social media addiction, and economic struggle. The record would sit comfortably next to The Jesus Lizard, Fugazi, Quicksand, and Drive Like Jehu.

The band’s story starts with guitarists Chris Clark and Stephen Small, who spent years together in the hardcore band Sheep Shifter, throwing beer and breaking mic stands across Nashville’s underground. In 2023, after the pandemic reminded them how much they missed making music together, they linked up with drummer Richie Townsend (War Brides) and bassist Ian Sundstrom (Waxed). It took three years for that idea to become Yammer Jaw.

“It’s kinda taken us a while to get to the point that we are now,” Clark says. “We had someone else in the band who was doing vocals. Very long story short, things just didn’t really pan out, so we decided to basically just start over. Stephen and Ian are gonna do vocals. I jump in sometimes. We had several songs written for the most part with our previous vocalist, but some of it changed, and one of the songs we don’t play anymore. Once we started jamming together with the new final unit, we wrote some more stuff. The process has stayed the same the entire time, but now things are moving along a lot smoother.”

The release comes in at nine tracks and 27 minutes. Burth is either a short LP or a long EP, and Clark isn’t sure it matters. “We’ve called it an EP, but I don’t know,” he says. “These days it seems like bands are putting out records they call a full record, and they’re only 18 minutes long. Call it whatever you want.”

The EP’s singles, “Cuckin’ Round” and “Gun,” both show a dynamic range in post-hardcore intensity showcasing lightning fast guitar riffs and vocal arrangements that are as eccentric as they are bold. Think of the intensity of Hot Snakes mixed with the heaviness of Backlisters.

The band held its record release show on Tuesday, September 22, at Drkmttr, on a bill with Iron Lung and a few local acts. The finished vinyl wasn’t ready in time and is still in production, but test pressings in plain white sleeves were, and the band sold a few so fans could see the etching. Yammer Jaw sounded different from the rest of the bill, and Small says the other acts leaned closer to Iron Lung’s sound than theirs. “We’re more of a post-hardcore band, I think, when you look at the rest of the stuff there,” he says. “We were a bit unexpected. But we had a lot of friends there, and we got a really, really good response. I can’t wait to play another.”

There’s no shortage of new material. Clark says the band has “maybe three or four halfway-written” new songs, plus years’ worth of recorded ideas on the back burner. “I’d like to resurrect some stuff from a while ago,” he says.

For now, the focus is on hitting the road. “I think just getting out and playing regionally,” Clark says. “We have a lot of friends who we play with in Nashville that like to do a lot of little, you know, two, three, four day runs, in the Southeast or maybe up kinda towards Michigan and back down.” Small adds: “Gotta get up there.”

No Nashville interview is complete without asking about food. Townsend names hot chicken as the regional dish, though he says the city’s food scene is broadening: “We’re becoming more of a melting pot for different styles of cuisine, but there’s not a ton of variety yet.” He also recommends Folk and Pizza Lolo. Clark, who lives just outside the city, will chase down any Thai restaurant he hasn’t tried, but Townsend has a clear favorite: “For Thai food, International Market is my absolute favorite.” Small’s complaint is a shortage of Italian restaurants, though he says “there’s a couple of pretty good ones.”

Burth is out now on all streaming platforms, with vinyl, CD, and cassette on the way. It was engineered and mixed by Shibby Poole and mastered and etched by Dan Emery. Orders are open now. Get yours here.

Live photo:  Victor J. Reed

Featured photo by:  Diana Lee Zadlo