It's been a long time since a band of Nashville rockers have become an overnight sensation like Be Your Own Pet. The post-punk quartet, whose members are still in high school, have recently fielded offers from four major record labels, and their production team includes several respected producers and engineers. Add to that a swiftly growing fan base, airplay on BBC Radio 1 and a glowing live review in the New York Times, and you have a bona fide phenomenon: a teenaged Nashville band with talent and charisma, plus the ear of indie rock's movers and shakers.
Locally, the clamor began when a formative version of Be Your Own Pet played several all-ages gigs at Guido's, the now defunct Vandy-area pizzeria. At first, their supporters consisted entirely of friends and schoolmates (all four band members attend Nashville School of the Arts), but after a sold-out show with the Kings of Leon this past September, excitement over the group began spreading among industry insiders and 18-and-up clubgoers.
Be Your Own Pet borrow from the smart punk of Blondie and Television, as well as contemporary lo-fi trendsetters such as The Kills and The Microphones, but they create a shifting wall of noise that goes beyond their influences. The band's members—drummer Jamin Orrall, bassist Nathan Vasquez, guitarist Jonas Stein and vocalist Jemina Abegg—all contribute to the writing and recording processes; live, they have a chemistry that recalls The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night or Talking Heads in Stop Making Sense. Like David Byrne in the latter, the group's focal point is Abegg, whose sensual delivery, wide-eyed innocence and hopped-up dance moves would make Nabokov blush.
Central to Abegg's appeal is an ability to connect with her audience. Though Be Your Own Pet are her first band, she's been practicing her skills as a frontwoman for a while. "Ever since I was a little kid, I was really into Broadway musicals," she says. "My sister and I used to perform things from Grease and Annie, and I always wanted to be onstage. Being a performer in any sense, in music or acting, you have to be really dramatic. I think that draws people's attention to what's going on onstage and intrigues them."
It's Abegg and Be Your Own Pet's performance at the four-day CMJ Music Marathon in New York City that's fueling the current wave of record label interest. The October show, which was hyped by the band's manager, David Newgarden (who also works with Guided by Voices), was considered by insiders to be a highlight of the event, despite the fact that the group's arrival was somewhat hectic. "We could have gone up early and seen more of CMJ, but we couldn't miss school," Orrall says. "It was rainy, dark and cold; we didn't have the gear that was promised, and we had to find stuff to use. There was nobody there at first; then all these people started showing up. It was a big deal."
Representatives from the legendary Rough Trade label—home to artists from Libertines to The Smiths—caught the CMJ show and were sold on the band. After having met with several larger (if not more prestigious) record companies, the members of Be Your Own Pet felt that the attraction was mutual. "Everybody we've met from major labels has been really nice, but the people at Rough Trade seemed to really like the music," Orrall says. "Of course, I'm basing this on almost no experience."
Despite their brief history, Be Your Own Pet were prepared for the attention. Sixteen-year-old Jamin Orrall and his brother Jake, who's 18, operate a micro record label called Infinity Cat out of their parents' house. The pair have been recording the band since its inception a year-and-a-half ago. With help from their father, singer-songwriter Robert Ellis Orrall, the brothers have also released a slew of concept albums and side projects, including recordings by The Sex, Jeff, Monkey Bowl and Lindsi Weaver.
Orrall isn't the only parent to have a hand in Be Your Own Pet's career. Stein's father is Burt Stein, the powerhouse manger behind the careers of Ronnie Milsap, Nanci Griffith and Vince Neil; Vasquez is the son of guitarist and composer Rafael Vasquez; and Abegg's dad is well-known music photographer Jimmy Abegg. "[The parents] are really supportive, but the fact that we're all underage is also the tough part," Jamin Orrall says. "Any decision that's being made has to be talked about, to some extent, by all four sets of parents."
Be Your Own Pet's first single, "Damn, Damn Leash" b/w "Electric Shake," has just been released on Infinity Cat. The record was engineered by Roger Moutenot, who has worked with Sleater-Kinney and Yo La Tengo, and co-produced by Robert Ellis Orrall and Angelo, the latter of whose credits include albums by Kim Richey and Kings of Leon. Jaquire King, who's worked with Tom Waits and Modest Mouse, was brought in to do the final mix. Along with Angelo, King and Orrall, the band have already begun work on a three-song single for Rough Trade, which is slated for release in early 2005.
Even for an established band, that's an impressive corner; such a production team wouldn't lend its credibility to a budding act unless they were confident it will rise above sensation status. Judging by Be Your Own Pet's self-assured first single, this seems like a pretty safe bet.
