Nashville punks Snõõper conduct their gigs like arts and crafts teachers on acid. Puppets and props abound: You’ll find singer Blair Tramel hulking over a papier-mâché globe doing bicep curls with a giant dumbbell, or dancing amid a troupe of cat marionettes. Tramel and guitarist Connor Cummins started recording together in 2020, capturing their spry, speedy cuts to 8-track and releasing them on DIY labels. As pandemic restrictions lifted, the duo beefed-up their outfit, enlisting guitarist Ian Teeple, drummer Cam Sarrett, and bassist Happy Haugen to amplify their scuzzy sound—and to add more jostling bodies to the stage.
On “Pod,” the lead single from their debut LP Super Snõõper, the quintet have a compact tantrum about the confines of lockdown. The song sounds like a pep rally hijacked by cheerleaders: “Big shot/I got a question/Who sees/Society’s infection?,” Tramel shouts tartly over chugging guitar. Sarrett’s kick drum thumps like punches landing on a heavy bag, and a neon synth solo sounds like a ship’s motherboard going haywire. “Pod” is cramped, frantic, and a little bratty; what better song to memorialize the anxiety of lockdown? But in accordance with the Theater of Snõõper, it is also a heck of a good time.
