14 years later: The sudden rise, fall (and return) of ‘Nashville’s finest’ rock wonder

Ending a 14-year hiatus, garage punks Be Your Own Pet have returned with a new album, “Mommy.” They bring their supporting tour to The Lodge in Dayton, Kentucky, at the end of October, co-hosted by Covington’s Hail Records & Oddities. 

Neil Higginbotham, Hail’s part-owner, remembers his thoughts when he first heard the band’s aggressive rock over the speakers at a Nashville record shop. “I’m f—ing grabbing that – poppy, danceable, catchy as s—, full of hooks. I’m glad to see that they’re back in the saddle – definitely Nashville’s finest.”

“We’re doing an East Coast/Midwest thing for like 11 days,” said frontwoman Jemina Pearl while finding a snack for one of her two daughters. “And then we go to the West Coast for about two weeks. We all have other jobs and responsibilities, so it’s hard to be away for more than two weeks.”

 

“When I was younger, I always loved performing. My dad (Jimmy Abegg) was a musician in a Christian rock band. … Every once in a while, they would let me come up on the stage and be like, hi, here I am. I was probably 5, 6 years old. That was my first taste of being on a stage and people applauding, and I was hooked ever since.”

The quartet formed in high school in Nashville when Pearl was 15 years old. “We just all got into music at the same time. We’d go to punk shows together and share bands that we discovered,” Pearl said.

Producer/songwriter Robert Ellis Orrall, father of original drummer Jamin Orrall (now of Jeff the Brotherhood), shared Be Your Own Pet’s early work with his industry friends.

“We weren’t seeking it out at first, but then this person wants to play it. To have your music played on the radio at 16-17, it’s mind-blowing,” Pearl remembers.

 

The band signed to Thurston Moore’s label, Ecstatic Peace, and released a self-titled debut album in 2006, which shot them to the front pages of indie rock blogs and publications like Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and NME. 

The young band members were taken by surprise by the fame and the accompanying rigors of a ruthless music industry. After two years of grueling tours and releasing their second album, “Get Awkward” – with high-profile performances at Coachella, Glastonbury and “Late Night with Conan O’Brian,” among many others – the group decided to call it quits in 2008.

“As soon as the band broke up, Jonas (Stein, guitarist) dove headfirst into his other project, Turbo Fruits. But for me, I had to fulfill our contract to Universal and put out this solo record. It was really stressful. Everybody rushed to get it out as soon as possible.”

Pearl completed the album, 2009’s “Break It Up,” but at a significant cost to her creative motivation.

“I just felt so over the music, the industry and business part, and I just wanted to be a recluse. It took me a while to look at music as something that brought me happiness again. I started some random projects with Ben (Swank, her husband) and some friends in Nashville – Ultras S/C. Then we had a band called Rayon City for a couple of years, and that kind of kickstarted me. It made me find the joy in music again.”

 

“Mommy” shows the group’s maturity as artists, but stays true to the catchy high-energy punk sensibilities that brought the members together two decades ago. “We produced it ourselves,” Pearl said. “Sometimes when you have a producer, you start second guessing choices. The persona that I’ve created for Be Your Own Pet, specifically, it’s an exaggerated version of myself. I would never feel like I could do that in another band. It’s connected creatively to this band. So it’s really fun to do that again.”

The band has several connections to Cincinnati, and to Northern Kentucky in particular. “I’m married to a Soledad Brother. (Be Your Own Pet) used to play Southgate House whenever we’d come to town.” Pearl said. “It’s been a really long time since the band’s been to Cincinnati, obviously … I’ve been to The Lodge a couple of times. I saw the Detroit Cobras there a couple years ago. It’s a really cool building.”

The Lodge is also connected to Pearl’s husband, Ben Swank, through his work as a co-owner of Third Man Records. His partner at the label, blues-rock mogul Jack White, gifted a reupholstered couch to The Lodge’s upstairs recording studio, Masonic Sounds, through Soledad Brothers guitarist Johnny Walker in 2020.

Catch Be Your Own Pet live at The Lodge (231 Sixth Ave., Dayton, Kentucky) on Saturday, Oct. 28. Doors open at 7 p.m. with the show at 8 p.m. There will be a Halloween costume contest.