PUP’S NEW VIDEO FOR “MORBID STUFF” FILMED LIVE IN LONDON ON HANDHELD CAMERAS BY 19 FANS
WATCH AND SHARE “MORBID STUFF” LIVE HERE
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES BEGIN FEB 20
THIRD ALBUM, MORBID STUFF, NOMINATED FOR 2020 JUNO AWARD
"Morbid Stuff just still sounds like friends having fun and making catchy, cathartic punk anthems for teens and almost-adults alike — offering a brief, but much needed respite from the hell that is everyday life...their strongest album to date." - Exclaim! (9/10)
“Morbid Stuff is one of the best fast-and-loud records you’ll hear this year...While they’re filed under “punk” at the record store, that label doesn’t begin to do them justice.” - Georgia Straight
“A stupidly catchy and thoroughly good-humoured collection of shout-along anthems...the album is like a big, warm hug from a close friend who’s finally lured you out of your darkened apartment after three days in bed telling you you’re not alone, you’re not the first person to be sad and you will get through this,” - Toronto Star
(“Morbid Stuff” Live In London)
Following the end of the band’s recent world tour, a run that had them on the road for 9 months, PUP today share the video for “Morbid Stuff”, recorded live and shot on cheap handheld cameras handed out to 19 gig-goers the band personally connected with in advance of their recent London dates. As premiered yesterday on the fans’ social media accounts, the clip showcases the sweat-stained euphoria of the band’s shows and once again captures the unique bond between PUP and the people that come to their gigs, screaming every word.
WATCH AND SHARE “MORBID STUFF” LIVE HERE
Taken from the critically-acclaimed album of the same name – which was was recently nominated for a 2020 JUNO Award and was the #1 Album of 2019 on !earshot’s year end charts – today’s release isn’t the first time they’ve collaborated on visuals with fans, for the “Free At Last” video, which served as a love letter to their fans, the band called on people to record their own versions of a song not-yet-released, supplying only chords and lyrics to hilarious and impressive results.
Redefining the relationship between artist and fans, they’ve often let fans feel as much a part of PUP as the four people onstage, creating zines that connect on a more intimate level than social media, used in the past to leak information of upcoming releases like the single “Kids” through fans all pushed via their fan-facing Little Dipper label imprint.
Beginning February 20 the band will head back out on the road for a run of North American tour dates with festival stops this summer at Coachella, Boston Calling, Shaky Knees, and more. Full dates can be found below. It was recently announce that following 9 months touring last year, the band had offset the entire tour’s emissions through Less.ca. To raise the funds necessary, vocalist Stefan Babcock set to create 50 personalized one-of-a-kind tattoos for specific fans, all of which he’d connected with directly, again blurring the line between the band and its fans.
MORE ABOUT MORBID STUFF
Formed in Toronto five years ago, PUP, comprised of Stefan Babcock, Nestor Chumak, Zack Mykula, and Steve Sladkowski, quickly became favourites of the punk scene with their first two, critically-beloved albums, winning accolades everywhere from the New York Times to Pitchfork, from NPR and Rolling Stone, and more. Now, with Morbid Stuff, PUP have grown up and doubled down on everything that made you love their first two records. It’s gang’s-all-here vocals, guitarmonies, and lyrics about death. Lots of them.
Fitting to their ethos, their new album takes the dichotomy of fun and emotional wreckage in their songs and teeters between gleeful chaos and bleak oblivion while wielding some of the best choruses the band has ever written. Morbid Stuff is also a pretty intense foray into singer Stefan Babcock’s fight with depression, and shows, in perfect PUP fashion, how taking responsibility of his own depression lead him to….laughter. Admitting his depression allowed Babcock to laugh in its face, and the result is that marriage of darkness and joy that made PUP who they are, but in a brand new way.
Indeed, despite its dark subject matter, at times Morbid Stuff is funny as hell, even in the music. It’s the most insightful, sweetest, funniest, sickest, angriest, saddest and most inescapably desperate collection of songs they’ve recorded to date. If their self-titled record was the fuse and The Dream Is Over was the bomb going off, Morbid Stuff is your family sifting through the rubble, only to find you giggling while you bleed to death.
PRAISE FOR MORBID STUFF
"Morbid Stuff is the angriest PUP has ever sounded. But it’s not a cry for help. It’s a cry of freedom, the sound of a band realising that anger is liberating..." - Pitchfork (7.9)
"With Morbid Stuff, the Toronto band made the best album of their career" - Noisey
"This one's worth listening to" - Kerrang! (4/5)
"These guys are heroes" - NPR Music
"Should find happy bedfellows in fans old and new" - Upset (4/5)
"A seamless explosion of ferocity which translates their anger and nihilism perfectly" - DIY (4/5)
"Unifying" - NME (⅘)
PHOTO CREDIT: Vanessa Heins // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
FULL BLOWN MELTDOWN TOUR:
Feb 20 - Peterborough, ON - The Venue %
Feb 21 - Buffalo, NY - Asbury Hall Babeville %
Feb 22 - Oshawa, ON - The Music Hall Concert Theatre #
Feb 25 - Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren ^
Feb 26 - Albuquerque, NM - Sunshine Theater ^
Feb 28 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall ^
Feb 29 - Dallas, TX - Canton Hall ^
Mar 1 - Austin, TX - Emo’s ^
Mar 2 - Oklahoma, OK - Tower Theatre ^
Mar 4 - Omaha, NE - The Waiting Room ^
Mar 5 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theater ^
Mar 6 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex ^
Mar 8 - Tacoma, WA - Spanish Ballroom at McMenamins Elks Temple ^
Mar 9 - Seattle, WA - Neptune Theater ^
Mar 10 - Portland, OR - Roseland Theater ^
Mar 11 - Eugene, OR - Sessions Music Hall ^
Mar 13 - Sacramento, CA - Aces Of Spades ^
Mar 14 - San Francisco, CA - The Regency Ballroom ^
Mar 21 - Yellowknife, NT - Snowking’s Winter Festival
Apr 10 - Indio, CA - Coachella Music and Arts Festival
Apr 17 - Indio, CA - Coachella Music and Arts Festival
May 1 - Atlanta, GA - Shaky Knees Festival
May 22 - Boston, MA - Boston Calling Music Festival
Jun 6 - New York, NY - The Governors Ball Music Festival
Jun 12 - Castle Donington, UK - Download Festival
Jun 13 - Kildare, IR - Sunstroke Festival
Jun 19 - Hradec Kralove, CZ - Rock For The People Festival
Jun 20 - Neuhausen ob Eck, DE - Southside Festival
Jun 21 - Scheeßel, DE - Hurricane Festival
Jun 26 - Ysselsteyn, NL - Jera on Air Festival
% - w. Support from Drew Thomson Foundation & Casper Skulls
# - w. Support from Luna Li & Casper Skulls
^ - w. Support from Screaming Females & Drew Thomson Foundation
~ - w. Support from Drew Thomson Foundation