be your own PET

So last night, I went to the Sonic Youth show at the 9:30 with my husband, who is actually cool , whereas I am a poser who gets all my music education by tagging along with my husband to shows at the 9:30. Anyway, I saw something there that knocked my socks off, and sorry for all you SY fans, it wasn't Sonic Youth; it was be your own PET.

be your own PET is a group of young kids -- 18 or so -- from Nashville, TN, who are performing basically screamy garage rock, and I should have hated it based on all my own musical tastes, but man, those kids are musical geniuses. Especially Jemina Pearl, their stunning lead singer; she kept saying, "We're going to do another song," but she did not sing. What she DID was scream her little pink lungs out, shake her bleach blonde hair up in her face, and convulse as if she was receiving electric shocks for the entirety of their short set. Between songs she would spit long ropes of spit onto the stage and look like she was going to vomit; but then, a few seconds would go by, and she'd be throwing her body around all over again.

The thing is, it was so beautiful and frightening to watch this little girl, who's up there proclaiming herself so freely to the world that she can just throw herself around the stage and spit and possibly puke and not care who sees. Or, alternatively, she's so trapped that she has to throw herself against the bars wherever she goes, really really hard in hopes of breaking out, and she doesn't care who sees. Either way, it was shocking and great. So thanks a lot for a great show.

If you want to at least hear them do their thing -- I couldn't find a video -- here's their official website, though I'm finding they're more "listenable" recorded, which may be a good sign for my future relationship with this band: http://www.beyourownpetmusic.com/