Sporadic MP3age: The Jealous Sound (Tonight!) + The Black Crowes (10/14) + Former Ghosts (Tonight!)

Got some MP3s I’ve run across lately that I wanted to mention, esp. since some of ’em are fairly timely for shows tonight & in the near-beyond. I’ve got a bunch more to post, too, but am on half-time Baby Duty, so this’ll have to do for now. Enjoy…

The Jealous Sound – “Priceless (Alternate Version)”
The Jealous Sound – “The Fold Out”
The Jealous Sound – “For Once In Your Life”
Yeah, yeah, I know Sunny Day Real Estate have reformed and are playing tonight (Tues., October 6) up at Warehouse Live, but honestly, the band’s never elicited more than a shrug from me — I love frontman Jeremy Enigk‘s more baroque, Lewis Carroll-meets-Jeff Mangum solo stuff, but the actual SDRE releases never struck me as living up to the hype.

What I’m more excited about, instead, is the fact that woefully underrated emo heroes The Jealous Sound are opening for ’em. I hadn’t even thought the band was still around, so seeing ’em on the bill was pleasant surprise in itself… The band’s always represented a lot of the best parts of the whole emo phenomenon, without getting overly weepy and saccharine; they seemed (and still seem) to meld the melodic shy-boy rock of bands like Jimmy Eat World with older, more shoegaze-y stuff like The Jesus & Mary Chain or Slowdive (or maybe the more shiny sci-fi-ish stuff done by labelmates No Knife), and the result’s pretty damn majestic.

First track “Priceless” is actually an alternative version of the song found on the band’s self-titled debut EP, found only on the excellent (and out-of-print) Heal the Bay comp from a half-decade or so ago. “The Fold Out” is from the Sound’s 2003 full-length, Kill Them With Kindness, recently re-released on vinyl by Vinyl Collective, and it’s a darn good track, but I couldn’t resist including my all-time favorite Jealous Sound track ever-ever-ever, the burst-and-flame echoey roar of “For Once In Your Life,” which is one of those songs that makes me sit back and say, “yeah, that’s why I liked that whole emo thing, right there.”

The Black Crowes – “I Ain’t Hiding”
Okay, now this is not what I figured anything from The Black Crowes would ever-ever-ever sound like. (Ever.) I’m not the biggest Crowes fan, I’m afraid — I respect what they do, but they’ve never really been my thing, y’know? With “I Ain’t Hiding,” off new pseudo-double album Before the Frost…Until the Freeze, though, I find myself surprised and impressed. Because this track veers far, far off the country-leaning, bluesy, retro-rock track the band’s ridden since its inception, instead coming off as, um, full-in disco.

Yep, you read that right. The track’s anchored by a funky, bumping beat that’s straight off a Gap Band album, all the while incorporating dirty, raw-sounding guitars that kick the band’s old stuff in the ass and send it home early from the party. Imagine The Black Keys playing a disco cover after snorting a hell of a lot of coke. Quite frankly, it’s badass, and I don’t think I’ve ever said that about anything I’ve heard from the band. (Oh, and the band’s playing here in town next Wednesday, October 14th, over at the House of Blues.)

Former Ghosts – “Hold On”
Another one for this evening — weather permitting, Former Ghosts will be playing tonight at The Orange Show ($10). I’ve never heard much from ’em ’til now, but I know a bit of the band’s lineage: it’s a pseudo-supergroup that includes both Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, Freddy Ruppert of This Song Is A Mess But So Am I, & Nika Roza of Zola Jesus (whom, okay, I’ve never-ever heard of before).

That pedigree would be pretty meaningless, obviously, if the music didn’t measure up, and “Hold On,” off the band’s upcoming full-length Fleurs on Upset The Rhythm. It’s rhythmic and dark and hypnotic in a weirdly Suicide-ish way, all distant synths and rumbling, plodding beats, with a keening almost-melody floating alongside Stewart’s flat, disaffected vocals. If this one track’s any indication, tonight’s show should be intriguing, at least…