The Jet Black Berries are back from a shallow grave. Though the band hung it up in 1988, its core members - drummer Roy Stein, bassist Gary Trainer, and guitarist Chris Yockel - had stuck together in other projects like the Raw Magillys and The Atomic Swindlers. So when The Bop Shop's Tom Kohn dug the band up for a Scorgies reunion concert two years ago, he didn't have to dig too deep or twist any arms. Stein, Trainer, and Yockel, along with singer Johnny Cummings and keyboardist Mark Schwartz, were down.

But the risk in any comeback is the potential for undoing the cool for the sake of a little "remember when?" The Jet Black Berries was a tres-cool outfit with an ominous, psycho-sexual swagger that had been etched in fans' minds. Stein didn't sweat it. It was just gonna be a one-off show.

"There was no risk, because we didn't intend to do it," he says. "And it was just the easiest thing to put back together. We went in the studio to bang out a single to promote the show and get some local airplay."

But original vocalist Kevin Patrick was long gone and had no interest in the project. Instead the band looked within its ranks and approached Atomic Swindlers keyboardist Cummings. The band had been around longer than he'd been alive, yet Cummings opened his mouth and Stein and the others were knocked out.

"When he first sang," Stein says, "Gary and I were behind the glass. He sang two lines and Gary looked at me and said, ‘Holy fuck.'" The band's killer performance at the Scorgies reunion concert at the German House Theatre in November 2008 cleared up any remaining doubt or reluctance.

 "The show was a blast," says Stein. "So we said, ‘Let's just do some more.' This time, because I could do the engineering, we made the record that we wanted to make. We didn't have to compromise in any way. We just did what felt good. We didn't have to explain to an engineer or a producer. We just did our own thing."

Two years later The Jet Black Berries are back with "Postmodern Ghosts," released on Bug Digital - the band's first album in 22 years. No cool had been undone; it had been matched on the new disc, and in some cases exceeded.

But it's more than just a Jet Black throwback. "Johnny has a wider vocal range," Stein says. "Technology is different now. I think the spirit of the band is the same. We're a dark band, we've always been dark. Johnny brought a different piece to the band; his ability to do string arrangements and different kinds of keyboard layering and harmonies. We never had a harmony ever before."

The updated lushness did nothing to diminish the psychedelic romance and doom, but rather added a pleasant, somewhat dreamy accessibility. The band unanimously credits Cummings.

"They let me be myself as opposed to match up to what was," Cummings says. "The band was proven. That was evident at the Scorgies show. There were hundreds of people that knew their stuff singing along. I was really taken aback."

The band that would become The Jet Black Berries hit the Rochester scene in 1977 as the more punk, heavy-sounding New Math. The punk buzz was in its infancy, and kids clamored for the records they read about in Xeroxed fanzines. It was an exciting time in the Rochester music scene, and bands like New Math began to spring up quickly.

"It drew from artists like Iggy Pop and The Velvet Underground. It wasn't about how well you could play," Trainer says. "It was just about raw rock 'n' roll music, writing our own material."

New Math released two EPs and toured the East Coast with bands like The Psychedelic Furs. The band hit local joints like The Penny Arcade (where the more conventional, mainstream rock fans pelted the band with eggs), and the Orange Monkey. New Math was the first band to play downstairs on Scorgies' main stage.

But by 1984 tastes outside - as well as within - the band had changed. With the musical shift came the updated name. "The style of music changed," says Stein. "We had been a pretty heavy, four-on-the- floor, very thick and powerful, British-sounding band. And we started to get enamored of the kind of cowpunk sound, so we changed our style. We wanted to do something different. We changed our name even though it was all the same members." In fact, New Math introduced The Jet Black Berries at its first show.

"We actually opened for ourselves," Trainer says.

The band was quickly picked up by Enigma/Restless and put out three albums, and also contributed to the "Return of the Living Dead" soundtrack. The band ultimately dissolved in 1988.

Trainer and Stein formed The Raw Magillys with Stein's wife, April Laragy (who shows up on several tracks on "Post Modern Ghosts), and guitarist Sue Veneer before producing the cosmic-cowboy stardust of The Atomic Swindlers. The Swindlers are on hiatus while the boys explore the Jet Black Berries possibilities.

"Postmodern Ghosts" is getting a considerable amount of airplay - including the single "God with a Gun," which debuted at No. 5 on the Clear Channel charts - for a band that isn't exactly new and pretty, and doesn't even have a street team.

Trainer takes a stab at the phenomenon.

"I think people sense that we're authentic," he says. "That we're real - we have been all along. We do it because we love to do it, we want to do it. We're a real band; we've been at it a long time. We've actually beaten the odds being together as long as we've been together."

"There are five of us," Stein says. "We all have different talents, we merge them pretty well. And we tell each other when something sucks. I mean, we'll be all over each other so fast..." But it's for the sake of the music. No one gets hurt.

"No," says Yockel. "The blood was on the floor 20 years ago."

The Jet Black Berries

CD release show w/The Spacelords and The Absolutes

Friday, November 26

Bug Jar, 219 Monroe Ave.

7:30 p.m. | $6-$8 | 454-2966, bugjar.com

myspace.com/thejetblackberries