Lyrics are at least half, or more, of Be Your Own Pet's charm, and you can almost always make them out. Lead brat Jemima Pearl, bleached blond and ego-shrivelingly contemptuous of her peer group (and everything else), writes sardonic teen mini-dramas that end in broken hearts or stabbed faces. On "Becky," the band offers sloppy Buddy Holly licks as a wink to frame Pearl's 21st -century juvenile delinquent who reacts to a two-faced former friend by springing on her with a switchblade outside the lunchroom. On each of the album's 15 tracks, Pearl's boiling over with sarcasm, sneering about failed crushes, jerky classmates, small towns crawling with insufferable squares, and parties full of people too young to already be vapid full-time hedonists.
But that sarcasm shouldn't be confused with ironic distance; when Pearl screams at some nameless boy toy whom she hates him, she sounds honestly pissed off while keeping with the larger-than-life caricature she's constructed across two records, the kind of ass-kicking, take-no-shit avenging angel that every junior high outcast wants to become when her turncoat BFF spills slumber party secrets to the mean girl clique. Unless you're so far out of range that you've forgotten the four-year bad mood that descended on you when you hit high school, you'll grin from ear to ear at Pearl's cheeky exorcisms of suburban ennui. The kind of songwriter who'd base a chorus on a throwaway gag from classic sci-fi satire "Robocop," Pearl is still out for laughs above all else, and the band wants you to hear their lyrics even when they're thrashing away.
The production choices of the two bands -- Be Your Own Pet's clearly enunciated shrieks of delight and derision versus Times New Viking's twee love songs bathed in gravelly feedback -- also correlate with their relative chances for mass success. Times New Viking reacted to signing to the relatively big-time label Matador by seemingly cranking up the volume and distortion every time some blog naysayer worried a higher profile might defang them. The violence of their attack and their disdain for sonic cleanliness will probably confine them to the underground no matter what melodic craft is lurking underneath.
With their acidic take on pop-punk conventions, however, Be Your Own Pet might actually yet make a scruffy army out of all those thousands of tweenage girls Pearl is speaking for -- provided the band finds a way onto their iPods and phones. Perhaps in anticipation of this potential audience, while entirely missing the point of what makes the band great, their label XL recently decided that a few "Get Awkward" songs -- like the aforementioned "Becky" -- are too violent or lewd for younger listeners, relegating them to the album's European edition. (It's an ironic decision, considering that junior high faves Blink 182 used to feature actual porn stars in their videos and that My Chemical Romance write entire concept albums about dead lovers.)
Stronger bands than these have wound up with their edge blunted in pursuit of radio spins; maybe it's best for all of us if Be Your Own Pet sticks to the margins so they can continue sticking up their middle fingers.
About the writer
Jess Harvell is a freelance writer living in Baltimore.
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