Snooper at Soft Junk, 4/14/2023
Before their first album Super Snooper even hits the New Arrivals bin — that’s happening today, by the way — Nashville’s Snooper has made a name for themselves halfway around the globe in Australia. How, you might ask? With help from the international network of DIY punk, using tools like YouTube, Bandcamp and social media as the digital connective tissue between scenes. Likeminded weirdos no longer see geography as a limitation of what a community can be.
YouTube channel Harakiri Diat is a big supporter of the Aussie bands Snooper played with on their June tour of Oz. But over the past several years, the channel has boosted international underground breakout artists like Germany’s Pisse, Russia’s The End of Electronics and Belarus’ Molchat Doma (who have since immigrated to Los Angeles). With its more than 100,000 followers, the channel makes the global punk community feel a little more tightly knit.
Right now, it seems there are many lines running back and forth between Tennessee and the Australian underground. Sydney’s Gee Tee has released numerous records on Tennessee-based labels, with a new one on the way via Goner Records in Memphis. Similarly, Research Reactor Corp. has a compilation tape on Snooper’s Electric Outlet imprint and a live 12-inch on Nashville’s Sweet Time Records.
Ian Teeple, who plays in Snooper’s live incarnation, is the central figure in Kansas City’s Silicone Prairie. That band’s magnificent 2021 LP My Life on the Silicone Prairie was co-released by Feel It Records in the U.S. and Sydney’s Computer Human in Australia. The year before, Computer Human released Snooper’s debut 7-inch Music for Spies.
Two shows on Snooper’s Australia tour featured Sydney power-pop unit Tee Vee Repairmann. TVR is one of a slew of Aussie bands set to play Gonerfest 20 in Memphis, which runs from Sept. 28 through Oct. 1. High-octane Sydney outfit 1-800-MIKEY, Melbourne Birdmen revivalists CIVIC and Sydney’s answer to Turbonegro, aka C.O.F.F.I.N, are also among those you’ll see at Gonerfest — and very likely at soon-to-be-announced shows around Nashville in the week or two on either side of the festival.
Right after their sprint across Australia, Snooper took a run up the West Coast, and they haven’t announced any new dates yet. But you can’t bet they won’t sit still for too long; note the recent release of G.U.N., the self-titled LP from a Nashville hardcore outfit Cummins also plays with. You may even have chances to catch them playing with some of their Aussie associates, so there is no time like the present to get familiar with the ever-expanding network the much-celebrated Snoops are part of. To that end, we’ve assembled a collection of videos and Bandcamp releases to help you out.
