by Dana Poland (@danazsz)
Fifteen years ago, shortly after the release of their second album Get Awkward, Nashville garage rock quartet Be Your Own Pet disbanded, citing burnout from music industry pressures and pervasive misogyny directed toward frontwoman Jemina Pearl. During the breakup, both Pearl and guitarist Jonas Stein pursued their own projects, none of which garnered the critical success of BYOP. “For better or worse, we all were slapped in the face that it wasn’t that easy on our own,” Stein voiced on the band’s hiatus. “We were all moderately successful, but nobody found that Be Your Own Pet chemistry.”
Now, Be Your Own Pet has reunited and released their third record, Mommy. Teasing another unapologetically piercing garage rock experience, “Worship The Whip” and “Goodtime!” open the album with searing guitar solos and thunderous drum patterns. However, it’s in the second half of the album that the band’s experimentation takes center stage. “Rubberist” plays with different textures in both vocal styles and guitar tones, distorted to the point of almost sounding electronic. “Drive” features a piercing guitar solo before transitioning into the final chorus, where the lyrics are enriched with layered background vocals and the drum pattern becomes more frenetic than ever. The swooning closer “Teenage Heaven” feels like a dream, pairing misty vocal effects and reverberated guitars to create an atmosphere that transports listeners to a nostalgic realm of hazy adolescence.
The album’s lyrics are blunt, with many of the evocative narratives sounding straight from a punk teen’s diary – albeit with the self-assurance of a mother in her mid-30s and the clarity of a seasoned songwriter. “I am not your victim/I am my own person,” Pearl cries in “Hand Grenade” as the background vocals chant “I’m not afraid!” Many of the lyrics read as a cathartic release of the band’s pent-up turbulence and pressure accumulated over fifteen years. In “Never Again,” Pearl’s pain and growth are both palpably evident as she articulates, “I want to be the one who hurt you/I want to be there to watch you fall/I may be petty/I may be cruel/But too long I played your fool.”
It may have taken fifteen years, but Be Your Own Pet is back, and they’re showing their teeth. “By telling our stories and sharing our truth, we can gain power back from a situation where we felt powerless,” Pearl said in a statement. “Mommy is the bitch in charge, the one in control,” she stated. “It’s a reclamation of myself.”