Be Your Own Pet
Label: Ecstatic Peace / Universal
Length: LP
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Be Your Own Pet
The many varied ways in which BYOP vocalist Jemina Pearl exclaims ‘I’m an independent motherfuckerâ?� in the minute-and-a-half blast that is ‘Bunk Trunk Skunkâ?� gives a fairly good insight into the young band’s approach. Alternating between squirrelly, vicious, saucy, demanding, reactive and pure squealing squall, Pearl pounds away at the lyric until it becomes a sort of lurid punk rock mantra. While the other three Pets bash out the barely contained sonic explosions that comprise the track’s furious musical architecture, the question is raised: How does a group so visceral and raw, so young and sonically violent, so goddamned aggressively fun garner the sickening level of hype bestowed upon BYOP? (When a label war is won by Thurston Moore’s label, it’s a very strange day indeed.) These 15 tracks don’t fuss with artifice or pose; instead, the sub-two-minute blasts of skittering angles, shrapnel-flecked guitar lines and roiling rhythms fly by like an amphetamine-addled combination of Bow Wow Wow and White Stripes. (The fact that the disc was produced by Redd Kross’ Steve McDonald will only confuse those who haven’t heard Anarchy 6.) Only on a cut like ‘Adventureâ?� (which clocks in at 2:30), where the group gets, um, adventurous and toys with some midtempo dynamics does the disc lose steam. Otherwise, the disc is a white-hot beauty deserving of its shit-hot hype.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2006.