Step Brother City is the new single from the lengthily but brilliantly named Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Taken from their forthcoming album The High Country, it’s a solid roller-coaster ride of power pop chords, hearty “woo-ooo”s and wry lyrics (“All the good songs and poems are all about you / And all the bad ones, too”).

SSLYBY recorded The High Country as a power trio consisting of Dickey, guitarist/vocalist Will Knauer, and returned founding member and bassist Tom Hembree. Recorded at Seattle’s Hall of Justice with engineer Beau Sorenson (Superchunk, Garbage), the three chose the album’s title on the basis that it just sounded pretty good, which is a neat metaphor for Step Brother City, and perhaps the band’s approach and output in general: don’t sweat the deep meaning too much, just enjoy the trip. Ride the waves of those crunching power pop chords now, savour the meaning later.

Or, in the words of guitarist/vocalist Phil Dickey:

We’ve always cranked our amps up in practice and at shows, but we always kept it off our records…This time we wanted to go beyond our mid-tempo tendencies and make something really satisfying.

Nailed it.

The High Country is out on June 2nd via Polyvinyl Records. You can pre-order the album in the usual formats, along with album and t-shirt bundles over at Polyvinyl’s store. Click HERE.