Yammer Jaw Share New Single “Gun” 

Yammer Jaw, the new project from members of Waxed, Sheep Shifter, and War Brides, has shared a video for their second single, “Gun,” premiering exclusively today on Fecking Bahamas. The track is off their debut EP, Burth, out September 18.

“Gun” takes aim at the way status gets measured by the weapons you possess. “There’s this idea that owning a gun makes you somebody. That it says something about your worth as a man,” says Yammer Jaw’s bassist Ian Sundstrom. “We wanted to write a song that sits inside that logic instead of just pointing at it from the outside.”

“When coping mechanisms distort your self-awareness to the point that your gun becomes core to your personality, it’s time for an intervention,” adds guitarist Stephen Small. “No one says you can’t protect yourself, but owning a gun doesn’t make you better than anyone else.”

Gripped by the anxiety of the modern world, Yammer Jaw doesn’t so much make noise as get provoked into it. Scratching guitars, hulking bass, deafening drums, and vocal cords tearing loose come at you relentless and unforgiving — a heavy dose of post-hardcore with a nod to metalcore, driven by caustic, traded vocals and rhythms that keep your toes tapping despite themselves. Burth channels that same nerve into a full-length statement: scorched-earth riffs and feral vocal trades that confront division, mental health, and the grind of capitalism head-on rather than tiptoeing around them, turning every uncomfortable truth into a full-throated, snarling roar.

The Yammer Jaw’s’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 Murfreesboro and Nashville’s underground before the band ended in 2018. The pandemic reminded them how important it was to make music together, and in 2023 the two went looking for what came next, linking up with drummer Richie Townsend (War Brides) and bassist Ian Sundstrum (Waxed), who completed the lineup that would become Yammer Jaw. What started as a brainstorm between friends slowly turned into a band with a sound all its own, taking almost three years and plenty of obstacles to arrive at this point.

Their Yammer Jaw’s’s sound draws from a lineage of bands unafraid of sharp edges and stranger turns: the tension and control of Fugazi, the angular chaos of Drive Like Jehu and Faraquet, the low-end menace of Jesus Lizard and Quicksand, the violence of Converge, and the unexpected swagger of Thin Lizzy and David Bowie. Onstage and on record, that mix plays out through Chris, Ian, and Stephen trading off vocal duties — screaming, rolling, calling and responding to one another — over riffs that move from breakneck speed to feedback-drenched breakdowns without warning.

Lyrically, songs dig into a divided political landscape, the toll of mental health struggles, the slow rot of social media addiction, wealth inequality, and the daily grind of surviving under capitalism.

The EP is available for pre-order now on vinyl, CD, and cassette. The vinyl edition is limited to 100 translucent purple copies and includes a full-color booklet with lyric art. Burth was engineered and mixed by Shibby Poole and mastered and etched by Dan Emery at Black Matter.

Nashville Scene called their recent set with Latter “a set punctuated with bursts of frenetic energy, sliding between shreddy, technical guitar and hard-hitting rhythms.” Yammer Jaw will celebrate Burth‘s release with a show alongside Iron Lung at DRKMTTR in Nashville on September 22.