"Kids" -- The Mythos of PUP the Band
This past weekend I had the pleasure of seeing Canadian punk band PUP play the legendary 9:30 Club in Washington DC. It had been over a year since I’d last seen PUP live, which is pretty unusual for me. I’ll admit that I’ve been on a bit of a downswing with the band over the last year or two; their most recent album, despite having some killer singles, disappointed me as a whole. But as live music so often does for me, this show made me fall in love with PUP all over again, reminding me of everything that had made me go crazy for them in the first place.
Fast as hell guitar? Check. Sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek lyrics with some real, desperate heart hidden beneath? Yup! Endless, raucous hardcore energy? You know it! The best fuckin’ music videos in the scene?! Oh hell yes!
In fact, as PUP launched into “Kids” — the lead single from their third record, Morbid Stuff — I found myself struck by the memory of its music video, one of my all time favorites. I found myself standing in the middle of a mosh pit where I had twisted my ankle only moments prior, possessed by a desperate need to write about the video. And then I remembered: “wait, I already wrote about that video!”
What follows is a re-print of a piece I wrote for my old Wordpress blog back in 2019. It’s not just about how “Kids” is an incredible music video; it’s about how PUP, throughout their entire career, have used their music videos to lay out their mission statement, build a mythos around their band, and tell stories that transcend the limits of the medium of music videos. It’s a piece I’m still immensely proud of even years later, and I hope you keep on reading; it’s been a blast to revisit.
“Kids” — The Mythos of PUP the Band
Originally published on “Crisis On Infinite Chords” on January 31, 2019
If music videos are a dead medium, nobody bothered to tell PUP — and thank God they didn’t. Over the past five years the Toronto-based punk band has released nearly a dozen music videos, all but one collaborations with director Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux. Though every single one of these videos manages to be an event in its own right (“Mabu” finds singer Stefan Babcock competing in a real-life demolition derby, “DVP” is a romp through early video game history that must have been a nightmare to edit/obtain rights for, and “Old Wounds” is a legitimately challenging interactive game), the best ones, the ones that have made PUP’s videos such a vital part of their canon, are the ones that build the band’s mythology.
That myth making begins with PUP’s very first video, “Reservoir.”
“Reservoir” is more than a music video: it’s a mission statement. PUP’s live shows are raucous, unpredictable, perhaps even dangerous events (in all the best ways), and the band, Schaulin-Rioux, and co-director Chandler Levack use that fact to show PUP’s dedication. They will give everything they have; they will bleed for their fans; they will make sure the show goes on no matter what happens to them. Their fans, in turn, quite literally hold them together; they only make it through their shows because of their fans’ support. It’s a powerful demonstration of how this scene should work at its best — bands and fans lifting each other up through both music and action — but also a declaration of who PUP are as a band. It’s an ethos that carries through into every one of their videos.
Soon, though, PUP, Schaulin-Rioux, and Levack take things beyond just “ethos” and start creating an actual sense of history for the band. Yes, my friends, it’s time for an origin story.
While “Guilt Trip” technically depicts the formation of PUP, it’s more interested in the (fictionalized) origin of its four members’ friendships. The young versions of guitarist Steve Sladkowski and drummer Zack Mykula run away from home rather than lose each other, and when Zack accidentally slices his hand open on a barbed wire fence, Steve cuts his as well in a moment of pure solidarity. Bassist Nestor Chumak becomes a part of their inner circle when he saves their lives. Stefan (played as a child by a pre-Stranger Things Finn Wolfhard) is portrayed as a psychotic bully, but an accidental murder forever bonds him and the other three boys together anyway. If “Reservoir” shows PUP’s dedication to the fans, the music, and punk rock itself, then “Guilt Trip” shows their dedication to each other, and this theme too is also a vital part of their mythos, one revisited in nearly all their subsequent videos.
In fact, “If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will,” from PUP’s sophomore album The Dream Is Over, immediately starts to challenge that dedication.
While the song itself is a bit tongue-in-cheek, playing up the resentment that can build when four people spend as much time together as the members of PUP do, the video takes that resentment, and the murderous rage boiling up beneath it, deadly serious. Each member of PUP attempts to murder another, holding nothing back even while in the hospital, yet in the end they put their differences aside to get to the gig; even when their dedication to each other is strained and tested, their dedication to the music and their fans remains strong, unwavering.
Yet, the most important contribution “Tour” makes to the PUP mythos is the idea of continuity. While all the band’s videos thus far had been linked together thematically, “Tour” is the first one to explicitly refer to previous videos; the old injuries still showing up on the boys’ X-Rays are specifically the ones they were dealt in “Reservoir.” This makes for an even more powerful story, of course — those injuries serve as a reminder of everything PUP stands for, urging the boys back into action — but also opens their world to deeper exploration as PUP and Schaulin-Rioux’s videos continues.
Indeed, “Sleep In The Heat” takes full advantage of the opportunities “Tour” opened, becoming the band’s first straight-up sequel.
“Sleep In The Heat” opens with what amounts to a “Previously On” segment, recapping the events of “Guilt Trip” and letting viewers know that it’s picking up with the same group of youngsters, three years after “Guilt Trip” left off. Interestingly enough, though, “Sleep In The Heat” doesn’t really continue the story of “Guilt Trip,” ignoring the dark circumstances that sent the boys fleeing from home and largely even ignoring the bonds of friendship between PUP’s four members that defined “Guilt Trip.” Instead, it’s more of a “boy and his dog” story, focusing in on Finn Wolfhard’s young Stefan and the bond he forms with a stray dog. It’s an effective, effecting story, especially once the footage of PUP’s real life deceased pets comes in. I’ll admit, it hits me like a brick in the chest every single time; I’ve never made it through this video without getting at least a little misty-eyed.
But while “Sleep In The Heat” works wonderfully as a stand-alone story, it’s enhanced by its association to “Guilt Trip.” Stefan undergoes a legitimate character arc throughout the video, growing from the grizzled loner kid who tries to solve all his problems with a knife to someone who’s willing to part with his most prized possession (his guitar) in order to save a friend (He eventually steals the guitar back, though, because this is still PUP). This growth is especially powerful for those who have watched “Guilt Trip,” though, and seen where Stefan’s character started, the abuse he underwent that made him this way, and now have even more context to see how significant it is that he’s learned to love unselfishly. The intricate web of continuity PUP and Schaulin-Rioux have spun between their videos has created an infinite canvas to tell larger and more complex stories despite the limits of the medium; creating a mythology for PUP has expanded their storytelling possibilities exponentially.
While “Sleep In the The Heat” ends with a simple shot of PUP’s van on the road, seemingly promising more stories to come with these characters, “Kids,” the first single and video from PUP’s upcoming (April 2019) album “Morbid Stuff,” skips straight to the end of their saga.
This time, the “Previously On” segment doesn’t just recap “Guilt Trip” or “Sleep In The Heat,” but every single video PUP has ever released (even the [excellent] animated “Dark Days”), telling us that everything is connected, and that all of it matters. But it spends its last few seconds flashing to, first, the child versions of each member of PUP, and then their adult counterparts. It’s a reminder that the old men we’re about to see in this video, the ones nearing the ends of their lives, are the same ones we’ve been following through numerous music videos now, the ones we’ve seen in all stages of their lives. That context, that sense of history, only serves to make the already ambitious and poignant “Kids” even more powerful.
Set forty years in the future, “Kids” finds the members of PUP torn apart by time. Stefan “abandoned” the band long ago, disappearing into the wilderness, where he is now dying. Zack is still trying to play music, but to a public who couldn’t care less. Nestor traded in his bass for a job hocking frozen pizzas, and has to be reminded of the power of music by his daughter, Steph (given that Steph is likely named after Stefan, she appropriately serves as a living reminder to all four men of the bond they once shared). And Steve has become a fashion mogul, artificially preserving his youth to the apparent detriment of his humanity.
The video really kicks into high gear when Zack and Steve — the first two members of PUP back in “Guilt Trip” — reunite. Steve doesn’t want to visit Stefan, but Zack urges him to “REMEMBER THE PACT, STEVE.” As always, Schaulin-Rioux and PUP make sure “Kids” works as a standalone video; thanks to the quick flashback to “Guilt Trip,” you don’t need to have watched all of the “PUP Cinematic Universe” to understand the significance of their relationship, but man, for those of us who have, those words, that moment, hits like a kick straight to the gut. We saw that pact play out. We know the significance behind it. When it moves Steve it moves us too, because we truly know what it means to him.
The band’s eventual, joyous reunion is brief. The rest of PUP buries Stefan, but he’s not alone; they dig three empty graves next to his, ensuring that, when they die, all four of them will be together for eternity. It’s the tragic, yet beautiful, endpoint of the friendship we first saw in “Guilt Trip,” that we’ve seen grow over close to a dozen videos now, that we saw tested and strained, but in the end, turned out to be unbreakable.
But that’s not really the end. “Kids” instead closes on Nestor teaching his daughter how to play guitar, ensuring that everything PUP stood for is passed onto the next generation. They’ve become more than a band, more than just a story or an ethos or even a mythology: PUP’s become a legacy. And that’s not something they could have accomplished in just one video. This interconnected series of music videos have allowed PUP, Schaulin-Rioux, and the other many talented creators, producers, and actors working with them to tell real stories that grow and change, with depth and history and nuance. It’s a rare feat for any medium, but especially so for music videos, which are so often overlooked or thought of as frivolous or just advertisements.
Anything can be art with the right amount of heart, and PUP and their collaborators are true artists. I’m overwhelmed by what they’ve accomplished with their videos, by what “Kids” manages to pull off, even by the emotions it makes me feel. I’m almost scared to see what PUP does next (what will it do to me?!), but god, I bet it’s gonna be phenomenal1. Here’s to the next chapter of PUP.
ABOUT
“Do You Know What I Love the Most?” is a newsletter from Spencer Irwin about his relationship with the stories he loves. Spencer is an enthusiast and writer from Newark, Delaware, who likes punk rock, comic books, working out, breakfast, and most of all, stories. His previous work appeared on Retcon Punch, One Week One Band, and Crisis on Infinite Chords, and he can be found on Twitter at @ThatSpenceGuy. If you like this newsletter, please subscribe and share with your friends!
A note from 2023: Since this piece originally published, PUP has not revisited the continuity established in these videos, seemingly letting “Kids” be the end of this particular saga. That said, the music video for “Matilda” — a song told from the point of view of Stefan’s beloved first guitar, lamenting that he no longer plays it — still made me cry, so I wasn’t exactly wrong either.