PUP Return with Two New B-Sides, “How to Live with Yourself” and “Smoke Screen”

The band shared the tracks to celebrate their run of UK and European tour dates.

PUP Return with Two New B-Sides, “How to Live with Yourself” and “Smoke Screen”

The band shared the tracks to celebrate their run of UK and European tour dates.

Words: Will Schube

Photo: Vanessa Heins

June 07, 2023

In honor of last April’s THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND LP, Canadian pop-punk idols PUP kicked off a run of European and UK shows last week. To celebrate these dates, the band has shared two new tracks, “How to Live with Yourself” and “Smoke Screen,” both B-sides that didn’t make the album’s final cut.

Of the former, vocalist Stefan Babcock said: “This one feels like a classic PUP song to me, and while our goal for the record was to push ourselves out of our comfort zone and try new things, sometimes it feels good to write a catchy, miserable ripper that feels like it captures exactly what this band is about.”

Babcock also reflected on “Smoke Screen,” saying: “This song originated with a Nestor [Chumak] riff... He sent it around, and the thing was so slow that I thought he’d exported it wrong. But his idea was to do a song that was like the ‘sludgey’ version of PUP, something we’d never really done before. The more I listened to it, the more it grew on me. I remember in the height of the pandemic sitting in the backseat of my car at the Home Depot parking lot, anything to try and escape the house, and writing and recording all the lyrics on the spot.”

Check out both tracks below.