Be Your Own Pet Announce Breakup

Idolator brings us some crappy news this afternoon: Nashville punks Be Your Own Pet have announced their impending breakup on their MySpace page. "We are sad to bring you the news that our upcoming shows in the UK are going to be our last as a band," they write. "We thank you for all your love and support these past few years — its been a blast but the time has come for the 4 of us to go our separate ways." The band, led by fiesty singer Jemina Pearl, recently canceled appearances on the Warped tour, saying that six months of non-stop recording and touring was wearing on them. The group — one of Thurston Moore's first signings to his Ecstatic Peace label — also reportedly dealt with some internal strife, leading to the departure of their original drummer, and was frustrated when their record label opted to excise three songs from their new album Get Awkward because of their dark subject matter. We'll miss the band's crazily energetic live performances, nostalgic lyrics and their innate ability to pen songs about films like Robocop and Return of the Living Dead.

Related Stories:
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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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