PUP Announce Fifth Album 'Who Will Look After The Dogs?' With New Single Hallways
Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Written by Jon Stickler
Photo: Vanessa Heins
PUP have laid out plans for their fifth album.
The Toronto punks will release 'Who Will Look After The Dogs?' through Little Dipper/Rise Records on May 2, following up 2022's 'THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND'.
It finds Stefan Babcock, Nestor Chumak, Zack Mykula and Steve Sladkowski working with producer John Congleton, who helped them embrace a more back-to-basics approach during three weeks of recording sessions in Los Angeles. Mykula said:
"If we can't solve an arrangement or songwriting problem in the room between the four of us in a few minutes, then it's not really worth solving because we’d just get into a hole and lose perspective. Thanks to John, getting out of our heads made it fun."
Alongside the news, the band have shared a new single, Hallways, which offers a calmer, more poppy, straightforward sound compared to last month's rager Paranoid, which also features on the record. Babcock said:
“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."
"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.”
"When I first started writing the lyrics for this record, everything felt really heavy," he explained. "By the time we recorded it, even those dark songs felt light and fun. We didn't even really fight while making this record. It all just felt fucking awesome."
"Because we were less precious with everything this time. it felt like we were capturing the feeling of being in a band for the first time when you finally hear everything clicking," continued Babcock. "With the band, I have such an intense, personal connection with those three guys that I don't have with anybody else in my life. Sometimes you have to really go through the shit to have that big high of creating something with your best friends that you could never do alone."
PUP will embark on a previously scheduled UK and European tour in May. They'll be joined by Illuminati Hotties as main support on all dates, except for those in Spain, and Goo will join the bill for their run of UK shows. Tickets are on sale now.
'Who Will Look After The Dogs?' tracklist:
1. No Hope
2. Olive Garden
3. Concrete
4. Get Dumber
5. Hunger For Death
6. Needed To Hear It
7. Paranoid
8. Falling Outta Love
9. Hallways
10. Cruel
11 Best Revenge
12 Shut Up
Pup Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows
Wed May 07 2025 - BIRMINGHAM XOYO
Thu May 08 2025 - LEEDS Project House
Sat May 10 2025 - MANCHESTER O2 Ritz
Sun May 11 2025 - GLASGOW SWG3
Mon May 12 2025 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Newcastle University Students Union
Tue May 13 2025 - BRISTOL Marble Factory
Thu May 15 2025 - SOUTHAMPTON Enginerooms
Fri May 16 2025 - LONDON O2 Forum Kentish Town
Sun May 18 2025 - AMSTERDAM Melkweg (Netherlands)
Tue May 20 2025 - COLOGNE Club Volta (Germany)
Wed May 21 2025 - HAMBURG Logo (Germany)
Thu May 22 2025 - BERLIN Hole44 (Germany)
Fri May 23 2025 - MUNICH Strom (Germany)
Sun May 25 2025 - PARIS Bellevilloise (France)
Tue May 27 2025 - MADRID Sala MON (Spain)
Wed May 28 2025 - BARCELONA Upload (Spain)
Thu May 29 2025 - VALENCIA Loco Club (Spain)
Fri May 30 2025 - SAN SEBASTIAN Dabadaba (Spain)
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