PUP—"Pine Point"
Photo by www.puptheband.bandcamp.com
Per Wikipedia
PUP (an abbreviation for Pathetic Use of Potential) is a Canadian punk rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario in 2013.
They were originally named "Topanga" (obviously a Boy Meets World reference).
Their second album, "The Dream Is Over", was released on May 27th, 2016 (pictured above).
Luke's Take
The very last song on this album is called "Pine Point".
It's a very eerie ballad-type track (as ballady as PUP can possibly sound anyways...) with lyrics depicting memories from a town called, you guessed it, Pine Point.
I've known about this song for quite some time as this entire album is one of my personal favourites; however, I had never thought much about what the lyrics were truly in reference to.
So I decided to do a little digging and wow, Pine Point is definitely a real place.
Well it was anyways...
The story starts in the Northwest Territories where Pine Point was located (aka a very northern part of Canada for those who aren't familiar with Canadian geography).
The town was established as a joint-project between the Canadian Government and a mining company named "Cominco".
It became a single-industry territorial settlement in the early 1970s (with that industry being the mines).
The town thrived for quite some time and hit a peak population of nearly 2,000 people during 1976.
By 1988, the mines had been completely depleted of their precious ores and that was it.
Buildings were sold and relocated while the rest of the town was completely demolished.
Everyone moved away.
To this day, the only remnants you will find from the town are the basement of an old hotel and the landscape outlines of where the streets used to be.
Isn't that insane? The idea of an entire town being destroyed because the only industry supporting its existence just suddenly dried up?
I'm just imagining what it would be like to visit my hometown only to find nothing.
What a concept.
I've posted two videos below.
The first is the song itself and the second video is a documentary on Pine Point.
PUP (an abbreviation for Pathetic Use of Potential) is a Canadian punk rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario in 2013.
They were originally named "Topanga" (obviously a Boy Meets World reference).
Their second album, "The Dream Is Over", was released on May 27th, 2016 (pictured above).
Luke's Take
The very last song on this album is called "Pine Point".
It's a very eerie ballad-type track (as ballady as PUP can possibly sound anyways...) with lyrics depicting memories from a town called, you guessed it, Pine Point.
I've known about this song for quite some time as this entire album is one of my personal favourites; however, I had never thought much about what the lyrics were truly in reference to.
So I decided to do a little digging and wow, Pine Point is definitely a real place.
Well it was anyways...
The story starts in the Northwest Territories where Pine Point was located (aka a very northern part of Canada for those who aren't familiar with Canadian geography).
The town was established as a joint-project between the Canadian Government and a mining company named "Cominco".
It became a single-industry territorial settlement in the early 1970s (with that industry being the mines).
The town thrived for quite some time and hit a peak population of nearly 2,000 people during 1976.
By 1988, the mines had been completely depleted of their precious ores and that was it.
Buildings were sold and relocated while the rest of the town was completely demolished.
Everyone moved away.
To this day, the only remnants you will find from the town are the basement of an old hotel and the landscape outlines of where the streets used to be.
Isn't that insane? The idea of an entire town being destroyed because the only industry supporting its existence just suddenly dried up?
I'm just imagining what it would be like to visit my hometown only to find nothing.
What a concept.
I've posted two videos below.
The first is the song itself and the second video is a documentary on Pine Point.
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Video #1 is property of www.youtube.com and the UNIT9 YouTube channel.
Video #2 is property of www.youtube.com and the SideOneDummy YouTube channel.
Video #2 is property of www.youtube.com and the SideOneDummy YouTube channel.
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