Universal Axes Be Your Own Pet Songs Due to Violence

Punk rock has always had a destructive, thrill-seeking streak, going back to such early rabble-rousers as Blondie's "Rip Her to Shreds", the Ramones' "Beat on the Brat", and the Stooges' "Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell". The havoc-wreaking songs on Be Your Own Pet's brand new album Get Awkward are just the latest additions to this lineage of cartoonish mayhem.

But three Get Awkward tunes were removed from the album's U.S. version at the last minute, having been deemed too violent by Universal Records. (Universal releases Be Your Own Pet's albums through a deal with the band's U.S. label, Ecstatic Peace.)

"Blow Yr Mind", "Black Hole", and "Becky" all appear on the international version of Get Awkward, released by XL Recordings.

Yes, Universal, an imprint of the Universal Music Group, home to such family-friendly artists as Eminem, 50 Cent, Marilyn Manson, and (formerly) Nine Inch Nails, thinks these songs are too violent to be heard by American audiences. Yes, this is the same company that once put out records by a band that calls itself ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. However, none of those acts features an adorable, barely post-teenage blonde girl as a frontwoman, as Be Your Own Pet do.

"Blow Your Mind" is a 45-second juggernaut that turns its title into a threat. "Black Hole" bitches about living in a dead end town with nothing going on, so "let's go and kill someone". It also contains the immortal line, "Eating pizza is really great / So is destroying everything you hate!"

"Becky" tells a Heathers-style tale of best friends turned worst enemies:

Doesn't matter anyway, 'cause I've got a brand new friend, OK
Me and her, we'll kick your ass
We'll wait with knives after class!

If only what you wrote in my yearbook was true
Then I wouldn't be stuck in fucking cell block 2
But I don't regret what I've done,
'Cause in the end, it was fun!

Andrew Kesin, General Manager of Ecstatic Peace, finds the matter confusing and disheartening. "This is not indicative of how we've operated with Universal," he said. "They've never said a word about anything we've ever done before. This took us all by surprise."

Kesin said that the decision to axe the three songs from the U.S. version of the album came "very late in the game, three or four weeks before street date." (When we originally reported the album's tracklist back in November, they were on there.) "It's such a drag. There was nobody to even talk to about it."

In an interview with New York University's Washington Square News, Pearl spoke out about the matter:

"When I found out that the songs were going to get taken off, I was just like, 'Is there anybody I can talk to?' It's like, I don't even really know who these people are. There's no one you can talk to to try to argue your case. Other than that, Universal has been great. But I guess that's just what happens when you decide to have something to do with a major label. They're going to be scared of anything that's not completely cookie cutter."

"I also feel like it's a good thing to have an outlet. Like, maybe I would be a very violent person if I didn't have the chance to sing about what I want to sing about and express things I want and it's definitely helped me from being a destructive person in my life. And I think tons of people relate to that, so it's kind of frustrating that they want to censor me or whatever."

Currently, "Black Hole" is streaming from Be Your Own Pet's MySpace page, and "Black Hole" and "Becky" are streaming on Be Your Own Pet's website. Kesin said that plans are in the works to release the three songs in the U.S. as a single via XL.

Stream: Be Your Own Pet: Black Hole / Becky [from the Get Awkward LP, non-U.S. version]