(Credit: Michael Lavine)
Abegg is surprised that, out of all of her band’s frenetic catalog, which includes songs about drowning lame boyfriends (“Bog”) and feasting on the flesh of the living (“Zombie Graveyard Party!”), her label’s parent company singled out three songs that it deemed too violent to be included on Be Your Own Pet’s latest album, “Get Awkward.” “It’s a very strange situation,” she says, but notes that the band’s label, Ecstatic Peace (founded by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore), is working to get the three songs—including an amazing surf-guitar-fueled revenge fantasy called “Becky”—released as an EP.
It’s just the latest little drama in what has been a wild ride for four childhood friends who, despite having two albums’ worth of sloppy, riotous party punk to their credit, still aren’t old enough to drink (except Jemina, who turns 21 this month).
BYOP can currently be seen on a tour sponsored by Nylon magazine (which Abegg admits to reading in her younger days: “It’s kind of counter-culture-ish, as far as the magazines you can find in a Kroger in Nashville”) with She Wants Revenge, the Virgins and Switches. From a hotel room in Colorado, Jemina (pronounced “Je-mee-nah”) checked in with us to talk about her band’s spastic live shows, her love of old-school hardcore and why a band with a song called “Food Fight” no longer squirts mustard at their audiences.
The last time I saw one of your shows, Nathan nearly “killed his bass,” as you put it.
Yeah, that’s a normal occurrence. There’s always some problem with Nathan’s bass, something breaking. He plays it so hard…so every single night, there’s always some issue.
All of you guys get pretty wild during your shows. Have you ever injured yourself while you were jumping around up there?
Oh, yeah. I remember one time, I got smacked right on the bridge of my nose with Nathan’s headstock and I had this huge scab and bruise. We’re always getting bruises and scabs and things like that. I haven’t broken anything, knock on wood. It’s not a good show unless by the end of it you’re kind of sore and covered in bruises and really sweaty and gross.
One of my favorite songs that you play live is “Becky.” Were you surprised that your label left it off the U.S. version of “Get Awkward”?
Yeah, I was pretty shocked. I had turned in all the lyrics and the lawyers at [Ecstatic Peace] had looked at them and had no problem with it. And then about a month or so before the album was due to be released, the lawyers at the very top of Universal decided that the lyrics were too violent. They said they had a problem with the lyrics that were like, “we’ll wait with knives after class,” or something. They’re scared that a girl is going to bring a knife to school because of a Be Your Own Pet song. Which I think is pretty ridiculous.
You don’t think you have that much influence over your fans?
No, I don’t think so. [Laughs] People are gonna bring knives to school if they want to bring knives to school. I don’t think they’re gonna do it because they listened to some song about it. Plus that song is like—well, in my opinion; maybe I have a somewhat twisted idea of what’s funny—but I think it’s a funny song.
Plus the narrator of the song ends up in jail; it’s not like she gets away with it. It’s almost like a Johnny Cash song.
Yeah, it’s probably the closest thing we could get to a country murder ballad.
Did you in fact have any awkward moments while you were working on “Get Awkward”?
I don’t know. I kind of feel like our entire existence as a band has been one giant awkward moment. We don’t really feel like we fit in with a certain music scene. Maybe our music doesn’t sound like it, but growing up, all the bands that we were really into were these DIY hardcore and punk bands.
Are we talking more recent hardcore bands, or the really old-school stuff like Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys?
No, those are the bands that we listen to—older punk bands from like the ‘70s and early ‘80s. I like the Adolescents a whole lot, too.
That makes sense—your music reminds me of a lot of classic punk, when the bands took themselves less seriously.
Yeah, that’s the thing…I think a lot of people forget that punk rock is supposed to be fun, and has a sense of humor. Even Black Flag had funny songs, like “Six Pack.”
When you guys do the song “Food Fight,” do actual food fights ever break out?
Well, part of the reason we wrote that song is because there were a couple of shows where we would take out the [dressing room food]—like salsa and guacamole and honey and mustard and stuff, and pour it on ourselves and the audience. We were inspired by hearing stories about the Germs back in the day, when they would throw food at people. So we started doing that, but we only did it a couple of times, because people get really mad. [Laughs]
In the first song on the album, you sing, “Next year I’ll be 21.” Are you in fact still not 21?
Yeah, I’m gonna be turning 21 on June 20th, on this tour we’re on right now. I’m gonna have to decide how I’m gonna sing that song now.
Any plans on how you’ll celebrate?
I don’t know. It would be cool if the band and the people we’re on tour with were planning something small. That’d be nice. There was one year when I turned 19 on tour and Jonas didn’t even say “happy birthday” to me. So they kind of owe it to me to do something. [Laughs] I’m gonna be the only one in Be Your Own Pet that’s 21.
Well, they’d better be nice to you, then.
Yeah, I know. I’m gonna be sneaking them drinks all the time now.
