Toronto band take on personal crisis with a sense of humor and loud guitars
“If you give me another chance, I’m probably gonna fuck it up anyway” — now that’s some admirable self-knowledge. The Toronto punk boys in Pup are veterans by now, going strong on their fifth album Who Will Look After the Dogs? Twelve years past their frantic, funny debut, they still crash through their tunes with frantic guitar overdrive, as Stefan Babcock’s snotty one-liners break out into brotherly dude-unison sing-alongs. But Pup are taking on tough adult emotions these days. Babcock speaks for us all when he asks the philosophical question: “Always feeding on the rotting corpse of goodwill and what’s left of humanity/What the fuck is wrong with me?”
Last time, these guys were working hard to prove they could mature and evolve as musicians, with their 2022 The Unravelling of PUPTheBand, with its hilariously blunt statement of purpose, “Four Chords.” But they got that out of their system, so they’re not worried about proving a thing now. They cut Who Will Look After the Dogs? with producer John Congleton, with Babcock in the middle of a full-blown personal crisis. He vents about break-ups, breakdowns, watching your friends grow up and get married and have kids while you don’t. “Hallways” is a typical Pup banger, with high-speed pop-punk hooks yet a weirdly life-affirming sentiment. “I’m losing the will to keep dragging on,” Babcock yells. “But I can’t die yet because who will look after the dog?”
“Get Dumber” is an ace duet with their longtime friend and tourmate Jeff Rosenstock, about having friends as miserable and lame as you are, but at least you’re glad you have each other to complain about. There’s even a sincere love song in “Olive Garden,” as Babcock offers a romantic invitation: “Let’s meet at the Olive Garden/It’s been too long/Last time your Grandma was in a coffin/It was weird to talk.”
The songs run the emotional gamut from “No Hope” to “Hunger 4 Death” to “Shut Up.” But there’s a warm cameraderie at the heart of their music, which is why even their darkest songs—and these are almost all dark—still can feel uplifting. Pup have always thrived on self-deprecating sarcasm—this is the band whose name stands for “pathetic use of potential,” which was Babcock’s grandmother’s comment on his career choice. But as he once told Rolling Stone, “Playing super-fun, rowdy, high energy songs about miserable shit is really a cathartic, productive, fun way to deal with all these negative emotions.” And as Pup always prove, a sense of humor helps in hard times.
