Nashville’s Be Your Own Pet made a triumphant return to both the stage and airwaves this past year after nearly 15 years apart. Following a whirlwind two-year career in the late 00’s that saw the four teenagers release two records (via Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace in the US and XL Recordings in the UK), become magazine cover stars, and play to ravenous sold-out crowds around the world, it became clear that the flame burned too quickly and they needed to call it quits. Now, a decade and a half later, the band haven’t skipped a beat, as evidenced by shows supporting Jack White, a massive SXSW return and the release of their critically-acclaimed first new single “Hand Grenade.”

Be Your Own Pet have announced its long-awaited new album, Mommy, out August 25th via Third Man Records. The album was written and recorded by the three founding members Jemina Pearl Abegg (vox), Jonas Stein (guitar), Nathan Vasquez (bass), and longtime drummer John Eatherly.  “For better or worse, we all were slapped in the face that it wasn’t as easy on our own,” Stein says of their hiatus. “We were all moderately successful, but nobody found that Be Your Own Pet chemistry.” The bond returned the very first day the band stepped back into rehearsal, which is also when they began writing the new album. And while Pearl had previously fitted lyrics into the others’ songs, this time she brought her own song ideas into the writing room for Mommy. “Mommy is the bitch in charge, the one in control,” Pearl says. “It’s a reclamation of myself.” Bolstering the group’s patented garage punk ferocity with matured songwriting, inspired musicianship, and a fervor to claim their space and define their future, Mommy signals a much-anticipated reunion of one of the most iconic bands from the ‘00s.

Be Your Own Pet celebrate the announcement of Mommy by sharing lead single “Worship The Whip,” which plays out like an explicit, leather-clad dom evolution of “Whip It. “‘Worship The Whip’ is about the right wing authoritarian personality,” explains Pearl. “Aggressive and domineering to people who don’t think like them, while at heart being a submissive to the authority figures who use and abuse them.”

Photo Courtesy: Kirt Barnett