[rating=4.00]
Trashing garage rock, Nashville’s Be Your Own Pet packs a punch that seems to thumb its nose at every other garage rock band in music today with Get Awkward. Lead vocalist Jemina Pearl’s brash and sometimes controversial lyrics could either make or break this album, but fortunatelythey are strangely endearing and the listener finds themselves giving the big “fuck you” to everyone who has done them wrong instead of crying about it. Comparisons to Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O will be undeniable (and not unfounded) but Pearl takes the energy up even a notch more in a way that even the most frantic Yeahs Yeah Yeahs song would struggle to catch up with.
The songs subjects range from drugs and partying to food fights and abnormal relationships. In a classic punk style, the songs rarely stray away from the typical formula of short, fast and loud. Unfortunately, lawyers at Universal Records in the U.S. found three tracks (“Becky,” “Black Hole,” and “Blow Yr Mind”) too violent to be released stateside, so only UK fans will be privileged to these three gems. “Becky” in particular is one that American fans should try to get a hold of somehow. Chronicling a friendship gone awry, Pearl violently threatens Becky and it sounds like the weapon will come right through the ear buds.. “I’ve got a brand new friend, OK?/ Me and her, we’ll kick your ass/ We’ll wait with knives after class.”
Though this band sounds like they are from the punk bars in New York City, this album brings out the darkest part of all of our punk pasts. It is not so much touching our youth, more like punching it in the teeth.
