PUP share frenetic new single 'Rot', announce forthcoming EP | NME

PUP have shared new single ‘Rot’, coinciding with the announcement of forthcoming EP ‘This Place Sucks Ass’.

The blistering new track is classic PUP – sardonic, sneering and catchy as hell. Stream it below:

Set for an October 23 release via Little Dipper/Rise, the six-track ‘This Place Sucks Ass’ EP includes ‘Rot’ – which was written and recorded this year – alongside five tracks recorded during the sessions for the band’s 2019 album ‘Morbid Stuff’.

Per a presser, these are songs the band say were “too frenetic or too unhinged” to appear on the (admittedly, already fairly unhinged) LP. Among those tracks is ‘Anaphylaxis’, which the band released back in April, along with their cover of Grandaddy’s ‘A.M. 180’.

Regarding the EP’s title, frontman Stefan Babcock says it refers to a joke the band would frequently make while arriving at a new city on tour.

“Literally any city, whether it was Lethbridge, Alberta, or New York City, we’d be like, ‘This place sucks ass.’ We have so much negativity, and sometimes it becomes so extreme and ridiculous that we start to find it funny. But at this moment in time, it feels so fucking real,” Babcock explained in a press statement.

“Wherever you are, it sucks ass right now. So, wherever you live, whatever your circumstances, this is an EP about the place you’re from, and the place you’re at now. Everything sucks and that’s OK, because it sucks for everybody, and we can make it a little bit better by being together in the shittiness.”

To coincide with the EP’s release, the band will be playing a ticketed livestream performance on October 23. Tickets are available here.







PUP’s third album, ‘Morbid Stuff’, arrived back in April of last year. In a four-star reviewNME called the album a “refreshing, sarcastic antidote to fighting misery with the usual greetings card-meets-motivational poster sentiment”.

“‘Morbid Stuff’ secures PUP’s position at the top of the present-day punk rock pile. By eschewing the feel-good fakery of some of their peers, they’ve cracked something far more unifying than meaningless, posi-punk platitudes. After all, sometimes when you really feel like shit, it’s more fun to kick the dirt around.”