Hall of Fame Fuuuuun: Looking back on Be Your Own Pet’s self-titled debut

What this rowdy Nashville lot - that’s Nathan Vasquez, Jonas Stein and Jamin Orrall as well as Jemina, by the way - cooked up pushed the limits of what it means to make your own fun in a place that’s seemingly deadbeat and downtrodden. Songs like ‘Ouch’ - inspired by George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead - channel the frivolous energy that came from staying up post-midnight as a kid and watching something you’re not supposed to. Then there’s ‘Bicycle, Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle’, an in-your-face power anthem that’s a brilliant two middle fingers up to anyone who thinks that they’re going to walk all over you and not get sucker punched for it.

Across its fifteen tracks (which these days seems fairly sprawling), there isn’t a corner ‘Be Your Own Pet’ doesn’t turn that nearly flips the car three times over. ‘Let’s Get Sandy (Big Problem’ hurtles along at speeds that seem physically impossible and that must have resulted in at least a couple of blisters in the practice room. It’s immediately followed by a breather - ‘October, First Account’ - that shows that the band could be restrained and composed when they wanted to be, resulting in one of the best choruses on the record and one of the best tracks on it at that.

Then, of course, there’s the massive single ‘We Will Vacation, You Can Be My Parasol’ - a dark, sassy, sexually charged pop song that cemented Be Your Own Pet - or, more specifically, Pearl herself - as one hell of a force to be reckoned with. With ‘Be Your Own Pet’, Pearl and her dastardly accomplices tapped into an energy that resonated with kids everywhere that still remains absolutely essential to this day. It was one that yelled at the top of its lungs that you don’t have to settle for what life hands you - kick, shout, scream, flail, lose your mind completely - and most importantly, have a shit-ton of fun while you’re at it.

Tags: Be Your Own Pet, Hall Of Fame, Features