Be Your Own Pet is a Nashville four-piece whose oldest member is only 18, yet they are far from being a novelty act. Their sound is pure old school, and this band is definitely punk beyond their years.
Old School From Young Bodies
It's easy to believe that this bunch is composed of teenagers; their music is raw and energetic. The difficult part to believe is that they are teenagers now. Usually all of the music put out by teenagers in punk bands these days is pure bubblegum pop punk. Be Your Own Pet sounds like a teen punk band that could have been cranking out their first albums in the late '70s or early '80s, which means these guys often sounds like bands that were putting out albums before they were born.
With a female vocalist, the comparisons to girl bands are inevitable, but they vary. At times frontwoman Jemina Pearl reminds me of some way old school bands, like Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex, and at times BYOP sounds a lot like an early '90s Riot Grrl band like Bikini Kill or Bratmobile, sans the political message.
On tracks like the 58-second blast of "Let's Get Sandy (Big Problem)", and the longer but no less frenzied "Bog" (in which Pearl sings about drowning her boyfriend over an argument about either getting a kitten or a puppy), the band shows that they have mastered the sound of old school three-chord punk rock.
That's not to say these kids are a one-trick pet. The album also has a melodic element. Tracks like "October, First Account", which (again with the girl band comparisons) has elements of old school Go-Go's, and "Adventure", one of the most fun songs on the album, sounds a bit like old-school Siouxsie Sue, just after her punkest albums.
The lyrics are pure fun, Pearl oozes pure aggression and attitude, but occasionally allows us a glimpse of her youthful exuberance. This is when the lyrics are at their best, like on "Let's Get Sandy (Big Problem)", she blasts out the line "We all have holes in our socks, and Bad Brains to-tal-ly rock", and on "Adventure", when she acts her age in between verses with the line "But it's all cool, you know, 'cause we're, like, adventurers."
The album was produced by Steve McDonald of Redd Kross. McDonald has experience in being a teen punk rocker, although that was many years ago, and he has done an excellent job cultivating the sounds of BYOP.
Hopefully, Be Your Own Pet will be around for a long time to come. It will be interesting to hear the progress of this bands of youngsters, as their sound is nearly perfect already, and there's nowhere to go but up.
