Be Your Own Pet - Summer Sensation

On the surface, Be Your Own Pet seem to be the result of four kids with ultra-hip parents. While some of you may remember '87 and '88 as your pre-grunge days, this quartet views that time as learning to walk and filling up diapers. Yet somehow Nathan, Jamin, Jonas and Jemina avoided the downers of puberty by listening to records from The Stooges, Television, T. Rex, The Ramones, the Sex Pistols...you get the idea. You also might get the idea of "novelty act," but Be Your Own Pet is genuine, if not a little rough around the edges and inexperienced. But dates with Sonic Youth (as well as being on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label) and inclusions on Rough Trade compilations aren't indicative of a cash-in for novelty's sake, and Be Your Own Pet isn't to be overlooked due to its members' ages. Consider Summer Sensation a precursor to Be Your Own Pet's full-length due out next month; "Bicycle, Bicycle" and "Girls on TV" pull double-duty between the two releases. The EP clocks in at 13 minutes, but that's long enough for the band to make a statement, maybe two. I'd venture to guess that those statements would be somewhere along the lines of "we like to fuck shit up" and "we don't give a fuck what you think," but I could be missing the mark. For a band that hasn't yet honed its skills entirely, Be Your Own Pet do an excellent job of covering themselves musically--guitarist Jonas Stein's riffs are the band's most outstanding resource, though Jemina Pearl's yelping vocals come in at a close second. For what the band may lack in lyrical substance or versatality they make up for in attitude and energy, and though Summer Sensation is difficult to critique without letting the members' ages play a factor, it's still impressive. It's scary to think about what Be Your Own Pet will accomplish in a decade's time, if they stick with it. Right now, at their ages, it's hard to take them entirely seriously because they don't seem to have a lot of living experience, which is, to me, what makes great art. I have no doubt their hearts are in the right places, and there's no questioning their ability to rock. Either way, Summer Sensation isn't here to be art, it's here to kick your ass. That it does, for the most part. [www.beyourownpet.net]