Be Your Own Pet Album: “Let's Get Sandy (Big Problem)”

I love the band and saw this single on sale for just over a dollar, so I decided to take a chance. The a-side is the exact same, minute-long track featured on the debut album. The title of the b-side implies that it might be a demo or early version of "Let's Get Sandy." In fact, it's just the male members of the band doing an improvised rap over a rudimentary hip-hop beat. It's the kind of goof that never should have been released, even as the b-side to an obscure single. No reason to pick this up.

Be Your Own Pet is a wonderfully raucous band from the bowels of the South. Apparently, some sour emos aren't too happy with the fact that they viciously insulted some very "talented" bands (who, in my opinion, deserved it). I must say, however, that despite the fact that Be Your Own Pet may sound "talentless" to some, I disagree. Be Your Own Pet, unfortunately for those who may have recently attended Warp Tour '06, does not sound like every other popular band in music today. Be Your Own Pet takes good old fashioned punk and amps it up with a few drops of teenage angst and some nice little riffs and shouts. Yes, their sound may not be a perfectly produced and polished one, but therein lies the fun, and that's what this band is all about: fun. Their lyrics, although good, are not rich and poetic. Bright Eyes this is not. The lyrics are fun and will click instantly with any (well, almost any) teenager, or most music fans in general who have a sense of fun and enjoy a little music which screams, literally, "F**k s**t up!"

The bottom line is this: this is not a band which you and your friends can play while you cry, cut yourselves and discuss how horrible and pointless life is. This is a band for those of us who love music, punk, life, being a teenager, and perhaps the stray party here and there. This is a band for today. This is the band that will chase away the screamo sissy pansies and clear the way for more real music to arrive.

I first heard about Be Your Own Pet in a newspaper article. The Art section raved about these young "artists" as though they were the best thing to happen to punk rock since The Ramones. The band members of BYOP were quoted bashing 2006 Warped Tour bands, namely A.F.I., Senses Fail, and Against Me! - calling them "emo-screamo" and "pretentious and not real". Of course, this was followed by several bouts of shameless self-promotion and kiss-up comments by the author of the article.

Thinking that that was a mighty bold claim for some teenagers in a garage punk band, I checked out their music. And man, did my ears regret it. Everything about this CD literally screamed (and I mean literally) - TALENTLESS. From the elementary baseline, to the simplistic guitar riffs, to the mediocre vocals, nothing about their songs ever made me consider wanting to buy their albums. If I wanted to hear teenaged garage bands spewing out random sounds, all I would have had to do was visit my local high school talent show. Thankfully, I did not spend any money listening to BYOP's music. I encourage everyone else to do the same - for the love of Pete, please do not support this band.

Admittedly, I was also a little bit jaded on BYOP to begin with when I read about them criticizing the Warped Tour bands in the way they did. I mean, not simple criticism, but just plain ripping on other much more popular bands. Of course, everyone has the right to their own opinion, but should a really good band have to underhandedly cut at other bands to gain polularity? No. Besides, they incorrectly listed A.F.I. as an emo band, which further indicated to me that the members of BYOP have no knowledge of, or experience with, real music. (And no one, I mean NO ONE, insults Davey Havok or any of his bands in my presence.)

As far as BYOP's lyrics...where did they come up with that stuff? I mean, all that junk like (from another album, but nonetheless) "I wanted a cat, my boyfriend wanted a dog, we had it out, then I threw him in a bog" (or something like that, I don't care enough about this band to learn their exact lyrics)? A 12-year-old could do better. For such harsh critics of chart-topping, refined, talented bands, I would at least hope that their music wouldn't be entirely comprised of belted-out screaming of random lyrics that sound like they were thought up in about 10 seconds. BYOP claims to be a part of the punk rock scene, but I beg to differ. Punk rock is good. Be Your Own Pet is not.