Second Spirit is a one-man hardcore band from East Nashville, TN that makes aggressive music meant to connect with the very core of anger and rage. It's an eclectic sound that is as two-stepping youth crew as it is metal, as thrashy as it is spacey. Their debut album, titled The Weight Of Just Living is written, performed, recorded, and mixed entirely by the band's frontman Jared Colby. The Weight is not your average, by-the-books type listen - it explores a lot of different styles of the genre, and also places a big focus on songwriting, too.  

   Although currently located in East Nashville, this whole story starts in the great city of Worcester, MA - the mecca of hardcore. Writer/producer/engineer Jared Colby grew up in the Worcester/Boston scene in the late 90's, into the 00's. Jared grew up playing and writing in a bunch of different bands of all different genres and touring by the age of 14. He also grew up recording and producing bands in different studios all over the northeast (Outbreak, The Sleeping, Youth Attack). During this time, he had always wanted to make a record that blended his favorite parts of aggressive music with a pop writer's format - traditional verse/chorus style and hooky parts that would really give the listener something to hold on to. A record that is just as much influenced by The Hope Conspiracy and American Nightmare as it is Nirvana and Soundgarden. So in 2011, he started to write this record by himself with a drum machine and a Les Paul. Realizing that he liked the process of working alone for such an intimate project, he decided he wanted to play every instrument, perform all vocals, and record it himself as well. After rescuing a very neglected Slingerland drum kit out of an attic in Connecticut and scraping together some borrowed cymbals, he got to work at Trapdoor Studios, his home studio on the outskirts of Worcester. By the end of the year, Jared had written and recorded about 90% of The Weight of Just Living. Come 2012, he moved to Nashville, TN - along with the recording studio. He quickly found himself getting very busy writing, recording and touring with soul/R&B band Alanna Royale - so Second Spirit was seemingly put on the shelf, and this whole thing sat unfinished. Years and years later, he was cleaning out hard drives in the studio and decided to put an ear on this record he started way back in 2011. After a thorough listen, he realized that he was still very excited about these songs and decided they needed to be finished and released into the world. So Jared finished the last bit of vocals and promptly mixed it at his home studio, Love House.

   Jared has always been the type of person to share music and art when he did not have the right words to say exactly what he was feeling within a conversation, and there is plenty of that style of vulnerability on The Weight of Just Living. From the topic of having to walk away from toxic friends on the record's fast-paced opener "Brotherless", to the ongoing issue of police brutality and gun violence in america on both "Turn Cold" and "Pig Farm". The latter actually features a sample of Chris Matthews from MSNBC speaking about the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011 that sadly is just as relevant and accurate in 2021.

   "This record is about expressing my deepest feelings out loud and trying to leave the past behind me, where it belongs. You know, as you get older - the more you know about the people closest to you, your surroundings, politics, religion, even the hardcore scene - the more disappointment and sadness grows within you. Having to live with that is tough." explains Jared Colby. "The title of the record is meant to have a double meaning. Not only does everyone on this planet feel a weight of just trying to live through their day without getting sucked into the bullshit, but there is also a massive weight in living JUSTLY. Being the bigger man, doing the right thing. It's very hard to carry yourself in that way all the time."

Snõõper (the Project) began as a collaboration between local Nashville punk mainstay Connor Cummins and Blair Tramel, an early education teacher with a sideline in wickedly funny animation and art. As their cassette tapes and homemade videos began to find scattered fans around the world, the duo brought the Project to the live stage in late 2021 and Snõõper (the Band) was born.

Featuring one of the wildest live shows out there, as well a maelstrom of puppets, 8 bit animation, papier-mâché, whistles, flashing lights and a whirling dervish of bodies, Snõõper commits the live act to a studio setting and sets the stage for one of the most promising punk debut albums in decades. 

But don’t take our word for it; here’s Henry Rollins, at-length on the magic of Snõõper:

In the briefest of descriptions, Snõõper is a band who, in a 33 1/3 rpm world, make 45 rpm music they play at 78 and it completely works.

Even at this incredible speed, Snõõper (the kinetic duo of musician Connor Cummins and visual/video artist, Blair Tramel)  is super precise instrumentally and skillfully melodic vocally, even though, again, they’re flooring it almost the entire time. The overall effect is a megadose of extremely cool and unique songs that while at the speed of tomorrow, would lose their overwhelming fun factor if played any differently.
As far as Snõõper vinyl, there’s been three 7” records: 2020’s Music For Spies, the Snõõper EP released in 2021 and last year’s Town Topic EP. All of them are great but you’d be well advised not to sit down once you’ve put a side on, as you’ll be getting up to flip the record over all too soon. Snõõper’s music isn’t for sitting around to anyway.

Diverging from their regular two person line-up, for Super Snooper, Connor and Blair brought on drummer Cam Sarrett, bassist Happy Haugen and Ian Teeple on second guitar. The results do justice to the music and has evolved Snõõper’s sound exponentially.

On the fourth listen to Super Snooper now and a new evaluation springs forth: Snõõper don’t play fast. They play at the speed of Snõõper. The band is so tight, the songs so ready for the Bonneville Salt Lake Flats testing site, one might conclude Snõõper’s just leapin’ and lopin’, to borrow the title of Sonny Clark’s excellent 1962 Blue Note LP.

Snõõper’s completely happening 11-23-22 thirty-four song 27:22 set at Nashville’s Exit/In, mercifully recorded and released so you can back up your witness testimony as to how smokin’ the show was with actual audio verification is further proof of how totally ripping this band is and brings to mind a topic insinuated by the live recording but proven true by Super Snooper. Given the brief but awesome glimpses into Snõõper’s music afforded by the aforementioned 7”s, one might wonder if the group could hold the line for a full album. The answer is an enthusiastic yes. Super Snooper is great great great and you might find yourself playing it over and over as it gets better and better the more you do. 

Speaking selfishly, I want Snõõper to hurry up and make another album. This is a really cool record.
- Henry Rollins

Snõõper’s debut studio album “Super Snõõper” will be released globally on Third Man Records on July 14, 2023.