Schoolyard fights, cafeteria brawls complete with requisite tossing of food, and bad boyfriends temper Be Your Own Pet’s Get Awkward, a frenzied punk salvo from the dubious Nashville four-piece.
Led by young rapscallion Jemina Pearl and her new tattoo – the chick from Friday the 13th with a hatchet in her forehead – Be Your Own Pet has become somewhat more organized with their follow-up to their 2006 self-titled debut.
To say that Pearl and the gang are more structured is not to suggest that they’ve lost their punk bread and butter, though. In terms of lyrics, Pearl took the lead this time and penned a series of rants and devastating ravings about all things bristly and spiky. With more time to work on the record, the album comes across as more polished and grounded but no less seditious.
Get Awkward, like the ’06 debut, burns and bitches its way through about 30-minutes of straight-ahead in-your-face punk rock.
The U.S. version is three songs shorter than the U.K version. The chopped trio (“Black Hole,” “Becky,” and “Blow Yr Mind”) were said to be too violent for American minds. Apparently screaming “Let’s go and kill someone” on “Black Hole” is a bit much for U.S. listeners reared on 50 Cent. Who knows? Maybe it would have made the cut if Pearl had been a dude…
Be Your Own Pet sounds like a crew of rowdy kids because that’s what they are. A gaggle of giggly goof-offs worthy of The Breakfast Club on amphetamines, this crowd means business. Pearl is as severe as a cartoon knife fight and the tightness of the rest of the band around her go-getting tone is indicative of the early dirty days of punk.
Visions of Buzzcocks and Stooges likely float through their heads while they sleep.
Pearl’s disorderly vocal chords gun it through the RoboCop-obsessed mania of “Bitches Leave” and the energetic lunacy of “Zombie Graveyard Party!” without a sign of stopping.
Get Awkward feels like the unavoidable zenith of stumbling home at three in the morning to slog past sleeping parents or passing filthy notes in science class or hating that girl that stole your best friend or getting drunk and puking all over the inside of your friend’s car. In other words, it’s a fucking blast!
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