The Stuff of 2013: PUP Make It Big

It's hard to believe that it was just a year ago that one of our "Stuff of 2012" posts was dedicated to the live shows of a band called Topanga. Back then, we called their tunes "the kind of shout-along and bounce off the walls indie punk pop... that you can't help but fall in love with." A year later, that description still applies after an awfully busy twelve months for the band. They changed their name to PUP, signed to SideOneDummy in the States, played a few of the best shows we saw all year and released a bunch of new material, including a full-length album that has earned a spot on many of the best-of year-end lists put together by some of the most awesome music critics in the country. They scored air time on Radio 3 and MTV. They won Bucky awards for Best Live Show and Rookie of the Year. PopMatters called their music video for "Reservoir" the single best music video of the entire year. Stereogum called them a band to watch. NOW gave the record four Ns. Ben Rayner called it, "A formidable calling card, delivered with superhuman exuberance." Exclaim called it, "A landmark debut from one of the country's most promising new acts."

We call it about fucking time people noticed.

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Find all of our "Stuff of 2013" posts here.

Posted by Adam Bunch, the Editor-in-Chief of the Little Red Umbrella and the creator of the Toronto Dreams Project. You can read his posts here, follow him on Twitter here, or email him at adam@littleredumbrella.com.