This Place Sucks Ass

Toronto punk quartet PUP have never been fans of subtlety, and on this six-song EP, they chart new extremes in impatience and impudence: “Why disguise my bad intentions, I got nothing to hide,” Stefan Babcock seethes during the opening seconds of *This Place Sucks Ass*, and for the next 17 minutes, he unloads on everything that’s pissing him off, be it his allergies (the double-timed circle-pit shanty “Anaphylaxis”) or missing a friend’s funeral because he was on tour (the self-excoriating 70-second salvo “Edmonton”). Though largely composed of leftovers from the sessions for 2019’s *Morbid Stuff*, *This Place Sucks Ass* possesses both the under-the-gun energy and loose informality of an afternoon in-store session in the back of a grungy record shop, complete with a surprise cover. In this case, said cover is a roughed-up but reverential version of Grandaddy’s 1997 indie-rock standard “A.M. 180” that allows PUP’s oft-suppressed melodic graces to shine through.

The pop-punk band’s six-track follow-up to last year’s Morbid Stuff invites listeners to sit with pain of their own, to study it, and, of course, to scream through it.

With their new EP, Pup bring a little bit of uplift and catharsis to the world

The 17-minute release compresses the band's infectious feel-bad punk energy into 5 new ragers and one cover.

Toronto punks PUP revisit the Morbid Stuff sessions and inject something fresh in new mixed bag EP, This Place Sucks Ass...

It feels like there’s never been a better time for a fresh injection of the Toronto punks’ spirit.

Toronto pop punk powerhouse PUP went into 2020 touring behind its most successful album yet, 2019’s Morbid Stuff.

This Place Sucks Ass by Pup album review by Adam Williams. The Ep by the punk band comes out on October 23 via Rise/Little Dipper Records