PUP announce new album, “Who Will Look After The Dogs? via-Little Dipper / Rise Records & share new track and video “Hallways”.
Toronto punk heroes PUP, comprised of Stefan Babcock, Nestor Chumak, Zack Mykula, and Steve Sladkowski, will release their highly anticipated forthcoming album Who Will Look After The Dogs? on May 2nd via Little Dipper / Rise Records.
Who Will Look After The Dogs?, PUP’s pummelling and cathartic fifth LP, is their most immediate, no-frills, and hard-hitting full-length yet. It was made in Los Angeles with producer John Congleton over the course of three weeks, and it’s the culmination of PUP’s past decade of constant touring and their palpable, livewire chemistry.
The album evokes the lightning-in-a-bottle intensity of their self-titled debut (except they are much better at their instruments now), and finds our self-deprecating frontman Stefan Babcock at his most reflective, vulnerable and prolific.
Over 12 tracks, Babcock excavates his life's relationships, romantic, with his bandmates, and most ruthlessly, his relationship to himself. There’s plenty of growth, but also plenty of unpredictable mayhem in the arrangements and an acerbic bite in the writing. And while PUP historically are at one another’s throats during the album process, this time they scrapped their tedious perfectionism and rediscovered the joy of making loud music together. They had fun this time, we swear.
Also out today is the album’s lead single “Hallways". The first song Babcock wrote for the album, “Hallways” is bracing and raw, but its lightness keeps it together: “Cause when one door closes, it might never open / There might be no other doors.”
“Within days of announcing our last album, coincidentally titled The Unraveling of PUPTHEBAND, my life unexpectedly imploded. I wrote the lyrics for 'Hallways' while all that was going on.
It was a weird fucking week,"
says Babcock.
"The title of our new record, Who Will Look After The Dogs?, is what I wrote at the top of the page, the very first thing written for this album. I think it’s devastating, but in a ‘holy shit this is overdramatic’ kinda way. At least in context of the line that comes before it.
That’s what makes it funny to us. That overblown stuff we all say in our dark moments can be hilarious once you've cooled off a bit. I don’t know if anyone else thinks it’s funny, but sometimes you gotta laugh at yourself. It's the only way out of the abyss. Trust me.”
To follow on from their sold-out dates with Jimmy Eat World here at the tail-end of last year and in support of their new record, PUP will return to UK and EU shores for a headline tour in May with full dates listed below.
For the EU/UK dates, the band will take Illuminati Hotties along as their main support (all shows excluding Spain) and Goo will additionally join for the UK run.
image by Vanessa Heins
Tour Dates UK and EU
07/05/2025 - Birmingham, UK @ XOYO Birmingham
08/05/2025 - Leeds, UK @ Project House
10/05/2025 - Manchester, UK @ O2 Ritz
11/05/2025 - Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 (TV Studio)
12/05/2025 - Newcastle, UK @ Newcastle University
13/05/2025 - Bristol, UK @ Marble Factory
15/05/2025 - Southampton, UK @ Engine Rooms
16/05/2025 - London, UK @ O2 Forum Kentish Town
18/05/2025 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg
20/05/2025 - Cologne, Germany @ Club Volta
21/05/2025 - Hamburg, Germany @ Logo
22/05/2025 - Berlin, Germany @ Hole44
23/05/2025 - Munich, Germany @ Strom
25/05/2025 - Paris, France @ Bellevilloise
27/05/2025 - Madrid, Spain @ Sala Mon
28/05/2025 - Barcelona, Spain @ Upload
29/05/2025 - València, Spain @ Loco Club
30/05/2025 - San Sebastian, Spain @ Dabadaba
Tickets here www.puptheband.com