These snot-nosed punks were supposed to soundtrack Scott Pilgrim but broke up while shoved into a tour bus on top of twenty-something buzz bands. But BYOP's brand of indie sleaze didn't fade away with MySpace. Two years ago, Jack White asked frontwoman Jemina Pearl about reuniting for his arena tour. The guys in the band agreed, but only on one condition: they had to write new songs.
It didn't take long for Be Your Own Pet to shake off any rust, either. They banged out a new single during their first band practice in 14 years. BYOP came of age during the early 2000s, but these elderly millennials didn’t run in the same trendy Lower East Side circles as other blog boomers. They cut their teeth at Nashville pizza joints. But while the greasy riff scratches a familiar itch, "Hand Grenade" just doesn't blow me away, as much as I want it to. It's missing the drooling animal aggression that made me miss this band so much.
Maybe that's best left in the past, though. Be Your Own Pet hadn't even graduated high school when Thurston Moore signed them to a record deal. Besides, Mommy isn't out to relive past glories. "I can't be that way anymore / I've got two kids and a mortgage", Pearl reasons against sloppy gang chants and punchdrunk power chords.
Be Your Own Pet burned out from having too much fuuuuuun, but by playing around with old influences, Mommy shows they're still nothing but a good time. "Worship the Whip" wears its Devo devotion right on its latexed sleeve. Pearl keeps toying around with male fantasies on "Erotomania", only now she's strutting around a skintight groove that's befitting of Blondie. The album's closing number might call back the sweaty basements of your youth, but "Teenage Heaven" floats on a baroque melody that's sweet and fluffy as cotton candy.
Even if Pearl no longer contorts on stage like Iggy Pop for the Hot Topic generation, she hasn't forgotten her gross mistreatment by the press. "I won't bend to you anymore", she swears on "Never Again". Though older and wiser, age has hardened her pipsqueak snarls into a battering ram. She knows where to aim it now, too. "I want wages for housework / I want childcare for free", she demands as if knocking down the doors of Congress. "And when I tell you / I want you to believe".
Be Your Own Pet didn't need to come back. But Mommy sets the record straight; whether this is a new beginning or another ending to BYOP's story, they're going out on their own terms.
