CD Review
Artist: Be Your Own Pet
Title: Get Awkward
Label: Universal Music Canada
Released: April 8^th 2008   

3 ½ Stars  

Reviewed By: Darren Paul (Edmonton Correspondent - Canada)

With a flash of violence and speed, Get Awkward punches out from your speakers and grabs you by the scruff of your neck. This four piece has youthful energy on their side, and any teenage angst the group of 17 - 19 year olds may harbour is channeled into aggressive garage-punk rock. This is the second album from Be Your Own Pet and demonstrates experience with lightning fast riffs, and quick bass flourishes. Jemina Pearl takes the lead on lyrics and unleashes her rebel school girl voice on a series of two to three minute songs that will make mothers blush.

A calling card of the band is their refusal to commercialize, highlighted by their refusal of an offer to go on Warped Tour in 2006. Here on Get Awkward they stick to their guns with anger and tempo where other punk bands are leading towards emo. Whether this makes for the most ideal album can be debated. It does seem the whole run is on one note, but it's a short album too so one wouldn't say its repetitive.

Jemina's voice really does the trick here, weaving along with the guitar, and snarling in Bitches Leave, or commenting with a sadistic bent in The Kelly Affair. The instrumentation is every bit as furious as she through every moment of the CD. This album is not complex, nor does it feign being so. It lives with an unpretentious vitality inherited by its punk forerunners, and does so impressively.  

1. Super Soaked - 2:33
2. The Kelly Affair - 2:31
3. Twisted Nerve - 3:01
4. Heart Throb - 2:11
5. Bitches Leave - 2:23
6. Bummer Time - 1:58
7. You're A Waste - 2:37
8. Food Fight! - 1:04
9. Zombie Graveyard Party - 2:01
10. What's Your Damage - 2:18
11. Creepy Crawl - 2:48
12. The Beast Within - 3:51