PUP are set to release Morbid Stuff, their follow-up to 2016’s The Dream Is Over, on April 5th. They previously shared the lead single, “Kids”, and now the Toronto punks are back with another sad thrasher in “Free at Last”.
The new track features guest vocals from Eva Hendricks of Charly Bliss and again finds PUP screaming into the misery: “Motivation, it comes and goes/ Keepin’ expectations low/ So when I let you down, I won’t feel so bad.” As great as the song is (natch), the real selling point here may just be the inventive, low-budget music video.
Before ever releasing “Free at Last”, the band put the song’s lyrics and basic chord chart online, asking fans to try their hand at “covering” the track without ever having heard it. They ended up getting 253 vastly different submissions from ska to rap to metal — even their old pal, Stranger Things star and Calpurnia member Finn Wolfhard tried his hand at a version. No one quite nailed it, but some of PUP’s favorites were cut up and used alongside iPhone-shot “instructional” footage to put together the “Free at Last” clip.
Take a look below.
What’s more, you can actually hear all 253 fan-submitted versions of the song over at Audiomack. Speaking in a press release, PUP’s Stefan Babcock discussed all the covers and the resulting music video:
“The video for ‘Free At Last’ started off as a very, very stupid concept. Before the song was released, we put out the lyrics and a basic chord chart and asked people to record their own versions without hearing the original first. It was a bit of a social experiment. We expected to receive 15 or 20 covers. We received 253. A lot of them were very… interesting… but most of them were actually really good. We listened to every single one front to back (13 hours and 34 minutes), and by the end our brains were puddles of sludge and we couldn’t remember how our own version sounded.
We received hip hop versions, ska versions, grindcore, EDM, Mariachi, Ukulele, Polka, and piano ballad versions. Incredibly enough, none of the 253 covers sounded like ours. And even more astounding, no two of the covers sounded the same either. The amount of creativity and love put into these things absolutely blew us away.”
Pre-orders for Morbid Stuff are going on now, and you can pick up more PUP vinyl over at ReverbLP.
PUP have also added a few dates to their 2019 tour schedule. Find the dates below, and snag tickets here.
PUP 2019 Tour Dates:
03/26 – Calgary, AB @ Commonwealth
03/27 – Edmonton, AB @ Starlite
03/29 – Vancouver, BC @ Wise Hall
04/03 – London, ON @ Rum Runners
04/09 – Bristol, UK @ The Fleece %*
04/10 – London, UK @ The Garage %*
04/11 – Leeds, UK @ Community Room at Brudenell Social Club %*
04/12 – Glasgow, UK @ Cathouse %*
04/14 – Paris, FR @ La Boule Noire *
04/15 – Dunkirk, FR @ Les 4Ecluses *
04/16 – Brussels, BE @ AB Club *
04/18 – Berlin, DE @ Cassiopeia *
04/19 – Hamburg, DE @ Hafenklang *
04/20 – Cologne, DE @ MTC Club *
04/21 – Amsterdam, NE @ Upstairs @ Paradiso *
04/25 – Boston, MA @ Royale # ^
04/26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel #^
04/29 – Philly, PA @ Union Transfer # ^
04/30 – Pittsburgh, PA @ REX Theater $^
05/01 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom $^
05/03 – Pontiac, MI @ Crofoot Ballroom $^
05/04 – Chicago, IL @ Metro $^
05/05 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe $^
05/06 – Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theater $
05/08 – Dallas, TX @ Trees $^
05/09 – Austin, TX @ The Mohawk $^
05/10 – Houston, TX @ Rockefeller’s $^
05/11 – New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks $^
05/13 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West $^
05/14 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle $^
05/15 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle $^
05/17 – Washington, DC @ The Black Cat $^
05/18 – Boston, MA @ Royale $^
05/21 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom $^
05/22 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts $^
05/23 – Chicago, IL @ Metro $^
06/07 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall #
06/08 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall #
06/19 – San Diego, CA @ The Irenic ^+
06/20 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom ^+
06/21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom ^+
06/22 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore ^+
06/24 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge ^+
06/25 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox ^+
06/27 – Boise, ID @ The Olympic ^+
06/28 – Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue ^+
06/29 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre ^+
07/01 – Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf ^+
07/02 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom ^+
07/03 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory ^+
07/21 – Toronto, ON @ RBC Echo Beach ~
08/15-18 – Hasselt, BE @ Pukkelpop
* = w/ Milk Teeth
% = w/ Gender Roles
# = w/ Diet Cig
^ = w/ Ratboys
$ = w/ Casper Skulls
+ = w/ Beach Bunny
~ = w/ Twin Peaks and Charly Bliss
[cos-videojs-footer id=”tourstopdisturbed-1548619434671,favoritesetlist-1547488804842,tourstopgunnrosesandatreyu-1545147037913,gunsne28099roses26davegrohlparadisecity28tulsa2cok201729-1510757900870,macsabbathlordoftheswirledtreehousesessions-1513456023017″]
