When the Jealous Sound's 2002 debut full-length, Kill Them with Kindness, first came across my desk last June, I admittedly didn't give it a fair chance. I wrote it off as a typical indie-pop record--pretty, but fairly empty.

Well, after that review ran, I never heard the end of it from a few friends of mine who just so happened to be big Jealous Sound fans (who knew?), so to be fair (and to avoid a real ugly argument about me being far too stubborn for my own good... a topic that comes up more often than it should), I begrudgingly attended a Jealous Sound show at Graceland.

I stood there with my bratty attitude and made-up mind, but it didn't take long before I started to eat every negative word I had ever written or uttered about the band.

Their sound was tight, the guitars sparkled just as they do on the record, and the drums sounded clean and precise. Lead singer Blair Shehan's voice was strong and fresh, with a unique sort of romantic, whispery tone that has the power to melt any frozen heart with lines like, "You say you don't want to live/is there nothing I could give/to help you sleep tonight."

After the show I re-listened to the record with newfound adoration. And then I listened again. And again. For months now, Kill Them with Kindness, which was once just an ignored placeholder in my CD collection, has been a mainstay, getting almost constant rotation (I do have to take time off for OutKast now and again, however).

Well, now that I'm a converted fan of the band, I've taken every opportunity to catch their live show, which hasn't been too hard since they've come our way four times in the past nine months.

"We've done a lot [of shows] on the West Coast because it's pretty easy and accessible for us," says Shehan from his home in L.A. "For this tour, we've recently re-learned a couple of songs off the album that we haven't been playing, so we'll try to change things up a little bit."

Unfortunately, the band has been so busy touring, they haven't found time to get into a recording studio.

"In our writing process, things are half-baked for a while and then when we actually record, it all comes together, so we rarely trot out new songs on the road."

So the Jealous Sound probably won't be showcasing any new songs for loyal fans when they play Graceland on Sunday, February 8 (it's $8 and starts at 8 pm), which is a bummer, since I can't wait to hear new material from the band. But honestly, I'm still perfectly content to listen to Kill Them with Kindness for another year if necessary.

Well, that and OutKast, of course. MEGAN SELING

megan@thestranger.com