PUP

‘We are PUP. We’re from Toronto. We play loud music.’ That’s how the Canadian punk band PUP introduce themeselves on social media. By loud music they mean Queens Of The Stone Age and Weezer. Their name is an abbreviation of Pathetic Use of Potential, a name bestowed on them by the grandmother of bassist Nestor Chumak. She felt that playing in a rock band was a waste of talent. In 2012, the four-piece sent a demo to Dave Schiffman, a veteran who has worked with The Mars Volta and Rage Against The Machine. Not long after, they were amazed to find the man himself on their doorstep. Schiffman took a couple of years to make their speedy noise sound even more fantastic. On ‘The Unraveling of PUPTheBand’ (2022) they introduced their new coach Peter Katis, the in-house producer of The National. They are still every bit as fun.