Jason and the Beast is a Jekyll and Hyde story of poetry and hip-hop battling it out in the mind of one man. Jason Braun, poet/actor was the frontman for the experimental hip-hop group Jupiter Jazz. Jason selected, cajoled, and bribed veteran St. Louis musicians from such bands as The Floating City, Ghost in Light, Jupiter Jazz, Arts and Sciences, and Ruhig to produce and co-produce the beats for the forthcoming album “The Beast in the Bookhouse.†The album is a full-length experiment of sonnets, hip-hop, genera-defying groves, and exerts from Shakespearean monologues over congos and Atari-synth.
Click here to view the Birth of the Beast EP comic book and lyrics.
Interview on ToastedRav.com
KDHX's Literature for the Halibut calls Jason and the Beast "One part Shakespeare, One part Snoop Dogg."
The Riverfront Times describes Jason's poetry as "bluesy syncopation and hallucinations of grace triggered by lust and liquor."
“First Flight Records flagshippers The Floating City call their sound "baroque-rock." With guitar squalls and layers of strings and keys, the band's moody, languorous post-rock builds like early Radiohead and emotes like the cream of the now-defunct Rockville Records (i.e., Uncle Tupelo) at its heyday.†Julie Seabaugh, The Riverfront Times
"Since reconfiguring itself as a trio, Ghost in Light has become quite comfortable (and more adept) at integrating doses of throttling post-rock and dynamic volume shifts with its quieter moments. Buzzing keyboards, harmonic latticework and spidery riffs abound." — Annie Zaleski, The Riverfront Times
“The St. Louis ensemble Jupiter Jazz offers one of the more intriguing and experimental musical blends on the contemporary scene, blending rap and spoken word inserts with funk, fusion and jazz-based instrumentals. The results are something that truly doesn’t sound remotely like anything you’ll hear on either the traditional acoustic music front or the established hip-hop scene.†Ron Wynn, Nashville City Paper
"With apologies to our musical friends in Hair, this is the dawning of the age of Jupiter. Ju-pi-ter! Jupiter Jazz performs its own fusion of live hip-hop and spoken-word poetry. JJ has played with B.B. King, the Black Crowes, the Wallflowers, 4th Avenue Jones and Robert Randolph, so it's shocking that this is the group's very first CD...The stars have aligned!" Kristyn Pomranz, The Riverfront Times
