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Be Your Own Corporate Tool

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Be Your Own Pete - Get DamagedRemember those three songs that got cut from Be Your Own Pet‘s new album because UMG’s lawyers thought they were “too violent”? Well, it turns out the label has released them on an EP after all. Get Damaged is out now digitally, and will be available in store on June 24.

So everybody’s happy now, right? Wrong.

“The whole thing was just a huge mistake on Universal’s part,” guitarist Jonas Stein tells Billboard.com, contending that the lyrics, written by singer Jemina Pearl Abegg, are “tongue in cheek.” “It seems pretty hypocritical for them to not let us put these songs out because our ‘demographic’ is supposedly suburban young teenage girls — who I guess don’t listen to all the vulgar rap Universal releases.”

As if this wasn’t humiliating enough, their label has forced them to accept a spot on the Warped Tour, something they had previously refused. “But after hearing some pretty wise words and mentally growing a little bit, we’ve learned that any show is beneficial to a band. It’s not the show that shapes the band, it’s the band that shapes the show.” Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

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UMG Censors BYOP

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Three songs on the new Be Your Own Pet album, Get Awkward, were rejected by Universal lawyers for being “too violent”:

“When I found out that the songs were going to get taken off, I was just like, ‘Is there anybody I can talk to?’ ” Pearl said. “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.”

Pearl paused to take a breath. “I also feel like it’s a good thing to have an outlet,” she continued. “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.”

Dance with the devil, you’re going to get burned…

MP3s:

• Be Your Own Pet – “Becky”

• Be Your Own Pet – “Black Hole”