Be Your Own Pet

"Be Your Own Pet prove that aggression, angst, style and rock are things you're born with, not things you learn."
- SplendidZine

Some straight-edge band somewhere a long time ago had the cry "Your only young once, don't f**k it up!”. It made a lot of sense to the legions who backflipped off local stages in agreement. Some kids got their creative inner coil switched to blast furnace temperatures and the only thing they can do is dedicate their youth to rock n' roll. Be Your Own Pet are a case in point.

Four friends [3 dudes, 1 femme] get together in a Nashville basement and compare notes: sharing a love for Iggy, T Rex, Velvet Underground and a hatred of lameness and boredom, BYOP smash through it all with youthful fire and attitude. It was '03 when they kicked things off, with house parties leading to a single 'Damn Damn Leash' picked up by BBC Radio 1 and eventually released as an EP by XL. The band played on, gaining fans, friends and fiends from the UK to New York and the SXSW Festival.

'Be Your Own Pet' was produced by Steve McDonald [Red Kross] and is a street party of artful punk and beautiful rock. Steve lets vocalist Jemima shine, her voice at once in flames and then achingly sweet. To hear Jonas' guitar is to hear awesomeness itself, while Jamin's flailing thrash propels the band from the drumkit and Nathan's bass playing pulls the whole deal together.

Heart's have been ignited worldwide as these teenage tearaways go ballistic live and on record. Be Your Own Pet will continue keeping it real, playing local freak scenes, while the rest of the world lap up this stunning debut album.

"Righteous, foul-mouthed, blissfully young… Be Your Own Pet are all these things at once, flung into a snarling, sweating, sex-stained heap… an irresistible whirlwind of barely controlled psychobilly punk pop."
- NME

"It wouldn't be a surprise if a group of aging rockers paid decent money to have them silenced."
- SplendidZine