Live: The Jealous Sound at Gramercy Theater 10.2.12

It had been a long minute since we had heard from The Jealous Sound, but their various web entities started stirring last year, sharing the good news that there would be a new record coming in 2012. And so there was A Gentle Reminder, which could safely be referred to as pretty fucking great. Much like their compatriots in Samiam, the benevolence of a more successful peer (Nate Mendel of Sunny Day Real Estate and more pertinently here, Foo Fighters) allowed the record to gestate over a year or so and they definitely reaped the musical benefits.

And for once I wasn't the only one. The Brooklyn show earlier this year was surprisingly well attended and I figured the reprise of the lineup at Gramercy figured to draw the same, but it was a not especially full room this time around. Granted Gramercy is a little bit bigger, and I can't say enough good things about the movie seating and great sight lines from the back, but things could have taken place in a smaller room. The breakup a couple days before of tour mates and local heroes Daytrader may have accounted for the downed numbers, but those that turn out were soundly rocked for the duration. Josh from The New Trust has been swapped for a new guy on bass and Pedro appears to still be out. Set featured a pretty good bit of the new A Gentle Reminder and most of the highlights of the early records, with Blair busting out a semi-solo Cold Enough To Break for the encore. Good times, made exceptional by the old man seating. If I could have smoked, I probably would have ended up squatting the damn place like a new school Chris Elliot, but settled for the early wrap and short ride home.

Check out the last few dates the gents have if you can and pray like JS-NYC does that we see a tour with The New Trust on the East Coast very soon.

R

Live: The Jealous Sound @ Knitting Factory 2.15.12

photo used with the kind permission of courtney sultan

The news that there would be a new Jealous Sound record was met with cautious enthusiasm at JS-NYC and I'm pleased to report the resulting new A Gentle Reminder is pretty aces. The are on the road behind it currently. The last two times they came through town were pretty ok shows. I passed on the Sunny Day cash-in tour four or five years ago, opting for their off-night show at Southpaw, and was pretty impressed with the set. The room was full-ish, but far from sold out and the general take from the band was that they were surprised that people still cared about them.

I rolled up to the Knit bummed that I missed Daytrader, but hoping against hope that I was going to miss as much of the Motion City Soundtrack side-project dungheap in the feature slot as auricularly possible. I succeeded in my surgical strike, but the small victory of my timely arrival was compromised slightly by entering the room to find it packed cheek to fucking jowl with vastly more kids than I would have expected. The Jealous Sound came on a little past 10 and romped through an interesting set you can peruse via the stolen photo at top left. There have been rumblings that Pedro was not on the tour and the lack of talk as to why is a bit of an eyebrow raiser. Josh from The New Trust reprised his touring bass role. Drummer guy is both good and new, and I assume played on the record, but the set came off as a little bit more 'a bunch of guys playing Jealous Sound tunes' rather than a band called The Jealous Sound. Shehan is an oddly charismatic frontman, and in pretty good voice. The crowd seemed well into it, cheering loudly despite some interesting omissions from the set list. Many seemed young enough that this very well could have been the first time they had seen LA's finest, but the evening didn't go without enough (unheeded) requests for Knapsack tunes to assert that some of the massive had been into Shehen for a bit. I'd give it a 6.5 on a 10 scale. Not bad, but not band-y either. No stupid pits, at least.

Judging by the draw, I'd say we'll see the gents in town again soon. Sadly, I bet it will be opening for some horror show of a douche-punk extravaganza, so act now and see The Jealous Sound in the small rooms while you can. Keep track of their whereabouts and buy a copy of the pretty damn aces new A Gentle Reminder here.


R

The Jealous Sound - A Gentle Reminder

It's been a bit since we've heard from The Jealous Sound. The Got Friends EP dropped over three years ago and was rumored to be the last we would hear from the band, but the return of head JS-er Blair Shehan from his own emotional wilderness a couple years ago found long-time pal Nate Mendel stepping into the breach to lend the rebooted Jealous Sound his bass skills. In an even more fortuitous turn of events, Mendel afforded them access to the Foo Fighters recording complex for the better part of last year. The result is A Gentle Reminder, a release that continues the late-period amalgamation of last century's pop-driven guitar punk with a soupcon of today's electronic stylings. I can't say I see the appeal of most of the electronic stuff, but it doesn't really ruin the proceedings. It's a big sounding record, definitely what I'd call radio-friendly. I'd say Change You and Promise Of The West are the two best tracks on A Gentle Reminder, but nothing here is even close to being bad. The tour rolls through Brooklyn mid-month. Catch them at Knitting Factory in Brooklyn if you are of a mind and pick up A Gentle Reminder here.

R