Get Awkward

Be Your Own Pet | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 18, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ecstatic Peace
• ASIN: B0013LL0CC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,877 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Super Soaked

2. Black Hole

3. Heart Throb

4. Becky

5. The Kelly Affair

6. Twisted Nerve

7. Blow Your Mind

8. Bummer Time

9. Bitches Leave

10. You're A Waste

11. Food Fight!

12. Zombie Graveyard Party!

13. What's Your Damage?

14. Creepy Crawl

15. The Best Within

Editorial Reviews

Get Awkward is the sophomore full-length from Nashville foursome Be Your Own Pet. Making it presented new challenges for Jonas, Jemina, Nathan, and John, and yielded some surprises. The songs remain fast and loud, totally wired and tantalizingly brief. Applying the dubious word "mature" is open for heated debate string arrangements and soppy ballads are blessedly absent but the music definitely reflects a sharp increase in experience.

"I was nervous, because it was our first second record," confides guitarist Jonas Stein. Stop squirming that syntax does make sense. "Before we recorded our first album, we'd had those songs for God knows how long, before we'd gotten attention from anyone but ourselves." (Since 2003, to be precise.) And following that gestation period, the ditties featured on their self-titled debut and assorted EPs and singles enjoyed months of refinement on the road. "After all that, it was like, 'Okay, time to write a new record starting from scratch.' It was the first time we'd ever done anything like that."

"The first time we were recording was scary," singer Jemina Pearl recalls of making Be Your Own Pet. The band was reluctant to tamper with proven formulae. Dead set against it, actually. "Try a slow song? No way. That's not what we do!" This is where the aforementioned experience creeps in. "You realize, doing other things doesn't make you less true to yourself," she concedes. "So this time, we were trying to mix it up, have more variety, rather than just attack-attack-attack, the whole way through." Adds Nathan: "We knew what sounds we wanted to make with our instruments more easily, and could have more interesting parts, and more interaction."

Consequently, now there are shifts in tempo and dynamics: the rolling backbeat of "Becky," the abrupt time changes that punctuate "Twisted Nerve." You also get nihilism with pepperoni and extra cheese ("Black Hole"), and a stadium chant that unravels into white noise cacophony ("The Beast Within"). "There are songs you can listen to that make your heart feel a little soft," says Jonas, "and others that make you want to break something." Or, in the case of "Zombie Graveyard Party," eat some brains.

Why the change in attitude? "When you're younger, you have this specific idea of punk," observes Jemina who celebrated her 20 th birthday recording "Super Soaked," shrieking about her reluctance to grow up. "If you don't do this, or look like that, then you're not punk." Screw that. The Stooges featured sax improvisation. The Ramones sang love songs. There are no rules. "But sometimes you forget that, because you're trying to fit into the mold you think you're supposed to," she admits. "This time, we broke out and did what came more naturally."

Although the writing process was fundamentally the same, i.e. completely off-the-cuff, there were a few structural changes. For one, the installation of John Eatherly on drums which was only kinda-sorta new, since he and bassist Nathan Vasquez already played together in another band. And Jemina assumed responsibility for the majority of the lyrics. It was she who picked up on the head-shaking, pill-popping, freak out groove of "The Kelly Affair" and grafted on a narrative lifted from one of her favorite movies, Russ Meyer's decadent 1970 debacle Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Likewise, she took all-too-typical feelings of adolescent alienation and betrayal, stuck them under the broiler, and pulled out the murderous revenge fantasy "Becky."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great album, incorrect tracklist, March 21, 2008

By 

W. M. Davidson (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Get Awkward (Audio CD)

The album itself is fantastic, just like their first one. But, the tracklist above is misleading. It's for the UK release. The US release, which Amazon is actually selling, is missing the songs "Becky," "Black Hole," and "Blow Yr Mind," and the remaining twelve tracks are reshuffled in a different order. Apparently these three songs were removed from the US version because of potentially controversial lyrics, though the album still earned an Explicit Lyrics warning even without them. Just be aware which version you are buying.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Me and her, we'll kick your a**, we'll wait with knives after class!", July 14, 2008

By 

Melissa Niksic (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Get Awkward (Audio CD)

"Get Awkward" is the sophomore effort of Be Your Own Pet, a young punk band from Nashville, Tennessee. The entire album is loud and angry, but is still a lot of fun to listen to. Three of the tracks on the CD were banned from release in the United States on account of them being "too disturbing." One of those tracks is "Becky," my favorite song on the album by far, which is about a teenager who kills one of her classmates. The other songs are all pretty good, although a lot of them sound very similar. Also, many of the tracks on this album are incredibly short, less than a minute or two in length, which was a disappointing surprise. Still, "Get Awkward" is a lot of fun, and this group's peppy energy combined with the lead vocalist's killer pipes makes Be Your Own Pet a band to watch in the future.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars LIVE LONG, BUT STAY PRETTY...., April 3, 2008

By 

Thomas D. Ryan "American Hit Network" (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Get Awkward (Audio CD)

If the gang on "Scooby-Doo" met Karen O and decided to form a punk band, it would probably sound a lot like Be Your Own Pet. Part Saturday morning cartoon, part suburban punk, Be Your Own Pet pack relentlessly raucous rhythms and frenzied attitude into twelve songs that rush by like a Japanese Bullet Train. It takes less than thirty minutes to play all of `Get Awkward,' but that's enough to leave a permanent mark.
Most of the bandmembers have reached their golden (post-teen) years since their debut album was released two tears ago, but thankfully, they haven't quite yet settled into maturity. There's still plenty of songs about feeling awkward (see the title?) such as "The Beast Within," and goofy youth fantasy tunes like "Zombie Graveyard Party," but most of the album revolves around experiences that have befallen them since their rise to recognition (or are they already `famous'?), combining lots of attitude with a generous dose of humor. "Bitches Leave" is a funny and poignant rant about girls who bring their attitude backstage. "You're a Waste" summarizes a blown relationship with an idiot ex, with these lines; "Go ahead and tell your sob story, all I have to say about it is `Blow Me'. As sung by female vocalist Jemina Pearl, the line cuts to the bone while it makes you laugh.
Perhaps the best thing about Be Your Own Pet is their ability to communicate beyond their own peer group. Anybody who listened to early Blondie or the Buzzcocks will appreciate the intelligent songcraft of this band's songwriting. If you have to grow up, you may as well enjoy it, but on "Get Awkward," Be Your Own Pet make it clear that they are too busy enjoying themselves to be bothered. Since they can make music as infectious as this, why should they? B+ Tom Ryan