Be Your Own Pet break out the bondage gear for their new single, “Worship the Whip,” a track off their newly announced comeback album, Mommy, out Aug. 25. “Mommy is the bitch in charge, the one in control,” frontwoman Jamina Pearl Abegg said in a statement. “It’s a reclamation of myself.”
To show that they’re back for business after a 15-year silence, the song adds to the robust lineage of music about BDSM (the Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs,” Depeche Mode’s “Master and Servant,” Devo’s “Whip It,” Madonna’s “Erotica”) except because it’s Be Your Own Pet, it’s a little peppier. Abegg, dressed in patent leather, sings, “Lick it up, baby, lick it clean/You eat it up, baby/You worship the whip, whip, whip, whip,” over a throbbing (of course) guitar riff. And, in fairness, her bandmates look pretty into it, especially when they start rocking out at the end.
But of course the song carries a deeper meaning than just enjoying kinky sex. “‘Worship The Whip’ is about the right-wing authoritarian personality,” Abegg said. “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.”
Be Your Own Pet, which previously released the Mommy track “Hand Grenade,” will tour in support of the album this fall on a run they’ve dubbed “Teenage Heaven” — named after the album’s final track. Tickets go on sale on Friday at noon ET; full info is on the band’s website.
Mommy Track List:
1. “Worship the Whip”
2. “Goodtime!”
3. “Erotomania”
4. “Bad Mood Rising”
5. “Never Again”
6. “Pleasure Seeker”
7. “Rubberist”
8. “Big Trouble”
9. “Hand Grenade”
10. “Drive”
11. “Teenage Heaven”
Be Your Own Pet Tour Dates
June 3 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound
June 5 – London @ Third Man
June 6 – London @ The Moth Club
June 7 – London @ The Moth Club
June 10 – Madrid, Spain @ Primavera Sound
Sept. 16 – Nashville, TN @ Third Man Records Blue Room
Oct. 18 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
Oct. 19 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
Oct. 21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere Hall
Oct. 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Oct. 23 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
Oct. 24 – Detroit, MI @ Third Man Records
Oct. 25 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
Oct. 27 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Back Room at Colectivo
Oct. 29 – Louisville, KY @ Headliners Music Hall
Nov. 8 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
Nov. 9 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Nov. 11 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
Nov. 12 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s Alley
Nov. 14 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
Nov. 16 – Portland, OR @ Star Theater
Nov. 17 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
Nov. 18 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
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