Album artwork
Past praise for Be Your Own Pet:
“The Nashville punks haven’t aged a day, ratcheting their riotous garage with thumbscrew tension, but Jemina Pearl’s righteous rage exudes experience” – The Guardian
“Be Your Own Pet is smart and crafty, but most of all, it's a wild-eyed blast.” The New York Times
“It's just one quick hit after another, a succession of aural whippets that last long after the record's over. An album chock full of back-to-back barnburners might seem an exhausting listen, but BYOP bucks that trend with ease.” – Pitchfork
“punk, garage rock and just plain fun” - NPR
“tidal wave of raw energy” - Rolling Stone
Nashville’s Be Your Own Pet made a triumphant return to both the stage and airwaves this past year after nearly 15 years apart. Following a whirlwind two-year career in the late 00’s that saw the four teenagers release two records (via Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace in the US and XL Recordings in the UK), become magazine cover stars, and play to ravenous sold-out crowds around the world, it became clear that the flame burned too quickly and they needed to call it quits. Now, a decade and a half later, the band haven’t skipped a beat, as evidenced by shows supporting Jack White, a massive SXSW return and the release of their critically-acclaimed first new single “Hand Grenade,” which Rolling Stone labeled "incendiary" and The FADER called “hard to ignore.”
Today, Be Your Own Pet announce its long-awaited new album, Mommy, out August 25th via Third Man Records. The album was written and recorded by the three founding members Jemina Pearl Abegg (vox), Jonas Stein (guitar), Nathan Vasquez (bass), and longtime drummer John Eatherly. “For better or worse, we all were slapped in the face that it wasn’t as easy on our own,” Stein says of their hiatus. “We were all moderately successful, but nobody found that Be Your Own Pet chemistry.” The bond returned the very first day the band stepped back into rehearsal, which is also when they began writing the new album. And while Pearl had previously fitted lyrics into the others’ songs, this time she brought her own song ideas into the writing room for Mommy. “Mommy is the bitch in charge, the one in control,” Pearl says. “It’s a reclamation of myself.” Bolstering the group’s patented garage punk ferocity with matured songwriting, inspired musicianship, and a fervor to claim their space and define their future, Mommy signals a much-anticipated reunion of one of the most iconic bands from the ‘00s.
Be Your Own Pet will take this renewed and reinvigorated energy to the stage this Fall as they embark on their “Teenage Heaven” tour - their first in support of Mommy. The month-long run kicks off in Chapel Hill, NC on October 18 and concludes in Vancouver, BC on November 18. They will make a stop in Brooklyn for a show at Elsewhere on October 21 and at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles on November 9. Tickets are on sale Friday, June 2 at 12pm ET here. Ahead of that BYOP will play Primavera Sound in Spain and a run of three highly anticipated London UK shows next week. All dates are listed below.
Mommy is available to pre-order now on standard black vinyl, indie exclusive Living Dead Green vinyl (alternative cover), limited edition Reagan’s Spew colored vinyl via Vinyl Me Please, limited edition Brain Damage Blue colored vinyl via Urban Outfitters + CD here.
Tour Dates
6/3 - Primavera Sound - Barcelona, Spain
6/5 - Third Man - London, UK *SOLD OUT *
6/6 - The Moth Club - London, UK * SOLD OUT *
6/7 - The Moth Club - London, UK *SOLD OUT *
6/10 - Primavera Sound - Madrid, Spain
9/16 - Third Man Records Blue Room - Nashville, TN
10/18 - Local 506 - Chapel Hill, NC
10/19 - Union Stage - Washington, DC
10/21 - Elsewhere Hall - Brooklyn, NY
10/22 - Underground Arts - Philadelphia, PA
10/23 - Beachland Ballroom - Cleveland, OH
10/24 - Third Man Records - Detroit, MI
10/25 - Lincoln Hall - Chicago, IL
10/27 - The Back Room at Colectivo - Milwaukee, WI
10/29 - Headliners Music Hall - Louisville, KY
11/8 - Soda Bar - San Diego, CA
11/9 - Teragram Ballroom - Los Angeles, CA
11/11 - Great American Music Hall - San Francisco, CA
11/12 - Moe’s Alley - Santa Cruz, CA
11/14- Harlow’s - Sacramento, CA
11/16 - Star Theater - Portland, OR
11/17- Neumos - Seattle, WA
11/18 - The Pearl - Vancouver, BC
Mommy track listing
- Worship The Whip
- Goodtime!
- Erotomania
- Bad Mood Rising
- Never Again
- Pleasure Seeker
- Rubberist
- Big Trouble
- Hand Grenade
- Drive
- Teenage Heaven
Photo by Kirt Barnett
More on Be Your Own Pet & Mommy:
When the four members of Be Your Own Pet stepped into a practice space in December, 2021, it had been more than a decade since they’d all been in the same room. The quartet had last been together in London’s Heathrow airport, having just played to sold out rooms across the UK. Their trajectory had been fast, and the quartet had been living in a pressure cooker—both to put on wild performances every night and to keep up with the wild party lifestyle expected to come with their records. “You give a bunch of teenagers some money and tell them to go on tour forever? It's probably not the healthiest thing,” guitarist Jonas Stein says. “I just felt like I could not maintain a healthy emotional status and craved stability.” Vocalist Jemina Pearl was facing her own layer of stress as the focal point of constant judgment and attention singing at the center of the stage—not to mention as the only woman in the group. “We were all under 21 and were partying our asses off all the time,” she says. “And I think people had this expectation that the Be Your Own Pet show was gonna be crazy. We needed to be that spectacle every single night, and it was a lot for us to take on.”
After this white-hot run of a few years as teenagers, the four Nashville musicians moved on, carving their own unique paths. Stein led the way for four studio albums with Turbo Fruits and spun disco records as a DJ, bassist Nathan Vasquez took his own turn at the front with Deluxin’, drummer John Eatherly undertook a variety of projects including Public Access T.V., and Pearl released a Thurston Moore- and Iggy Pop-featuring solo album before stepping away to start a family.
Years later, the idea of a reunion began creeping back, and a chance encounter with Jack White led to a quickly planned reunion show opening for him. “We started writing songs the first time we practiced,” vocalist Jemina Pearl grins, the wild streak that inspired and amazed countless audiences burning as bright as ever. “Immediately.” And just as fast as they started, Be Your Own Pet realized they weren’t content with jamming out the old hits, and the daydream of a single Nashville performance soon morphed into a full run of gigs opening for Jack White. Along the way, Pearl found herself digging back into the music that inspired the origins of Be Your Own Pet (X-Ray Spex, The Adverts, The Damned, Devo), stuff she’d tucked away for a decade. “Be Your Own Pet was my identity for so long, and then when we broke up I went through this period where I didn't know who I was anymore,” Pearl says. “I often felt so powerless back then. Not in control of my own mind or the chaos around me. That's why it’s been so amazing to get a second chance with this band, as adults and on our own terms.”
The group have grown a lot since their first run, both personally and musically, but have managed to reshape their razor-edged swagger through the turmoil. “It got kind of dark towards the end. My own challenges with mental health probably affected everybody in the band. I was undiagnosed bipolar 1 at the time. It felt like we were just on this runaway train,” Pearl says. “This tirm around, we wanted to come back together in this new, more evolved place, to connect the threads between our old records and Mommy, while not worrying about what other people’s expectations might be.”
Be Your Own Pet are looking forward to sharing this new version of themselves with fans who are thrilled to reconnect and new fans who may not have been old enough to remember their first run. But the band are also longing to reconnect with each other and a part of themselves. The quartet are ready to step back out into the wild, vicious Be Your Own Pet world and rough things up again – but this time, on their own terms.
