Sapwood & Bear Faces Frontperson Jason Brown Unveils Hardcore-minded Ear Nail with Blistering Anti-Establishment "Head of State" (self-released)
It was
Winter 2013
and
was still rapidly rising through the ranks of
Billboard
's
Hot 100
chart. I'll never forget the first time I met
Jason Brown
, it was up in the
Shop Rite
break room and said, "what's up,
Macklemore
?" I don't think it was in a particularly nice way, but regardless, we still became friends. I worked as a baker and
Jason
was checker at the front-end registers and eventually, worked his way back to frozen foods department. I soon learned about
Jason
's rapping alter-ego,
"Jason Brownies"
and he, knowing I ran an online music publication, was constantly passing me CD-R mixtapes and hand-made cassette tapes of his musical musings. He eventually hung up his "2 turntables and a microphone" in exchange for fuzzed out
Garage Rock
guitars and lush
Indie Rock
-minded melodies and formed solo projects/bands
Bear Faces
and
Sapwood
, which both still appear to be active, in one form or another.
recorded and released four EP's between 2015-2017 with their latest,
Impulse Control
, being released as recently as February 3, 2017.
<a href="http://earnail.bandcamp.com/track/head-of-state">Head of State by Ear Nail</a>
Sapwood, on the other hand, feverishly recorded and self-released a staggering five full-length albums and two EP's—
Does Anything Last?
quietly released on September 10th—all recorded at Brown's home studio,
The Shed
.
Sapwood
's
page additionally includes a string of pre-
Sapwood
releases simply attributed to
"Jason Brown."
Sometime in-between these various releases with a rotating cast of friends and players,
Jason Brown
unleashed a #RARE
Shop Rite
-only beat CD-R as
"Hood Vermin,"
a short-lived
DOOM/Viktor Vaughn
-esque production alias and two mini-albums from his
Experimental
band,
. Now, it's a number of years later and I work for a local county government office and
Jason
stocks bread amidst the shelves of
Shop Rite
and other local vendors; we still stay in touch, frequently talk music, and go diggin' for records once in a while.
Jason Brown
formed his latest solo venture,
Ear Nail
, in light of recent events going down in Washington and unfortunately, across
The Nation
.
Ear Nail
draws stylistic influence and inspiration from
Black Flag
, The Misfits,
Iggy & The Stooges
, and Minor Threat/Fugazi, as well as predecessors
Bear Faces
and
Sapwood
, naturally.
Ear Nail
's roaring debut single,
"Head of State,"
is currently available to stream on
and an EP is currently in-the-works. I'll just let
Jason Brownies
take it from here...
"'Ear Nail" was some dumb joke from that 1,000 Ways to Die In The West movie. My dad said I should name my band that and I was [like] "holy sh*t, that actually would be cool!" I've been listening to nothing but Black Flag (Greg Ginn is an animal on guitar and he is my spirit animal) and The Stooges'Fun House album lately. Stuff like Sex Pistols and Dead Kennedys, too. I wrote some songs that are anti-Trump, anti-nazi, and anti-cop a while ago and thought that "Ear Nail" sounds like a Punk enough name to carry out that message; so, I finally recorded "Head of State" and it came out exactly the way I wanted it to. "Head of State" is about wanting Trump's head on a stake. I played and recorded all the instruments on my 4-track machine and had my friends do backing vocals. I'm working on some new songs [this week]. I'll probably make three or four more songs to add to that and call it the Head of State EP or something."
- Jason Brown (Ear Nail)