For those who maybe don’t remember, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin were one of a handful of mid-aughts bands whose rise coincided with that of indie rock blog culture. They were a band that played an event we called Bloggapalooza back during simpler times when we thought that was a cool thing to call an event. Bygones! Aside from being of the “blogrock” generation, SSLBY were always catchy as hell; if you’ve heard “Pangea” but once, you may find yourself humming it to this day, as the world’s most melodic song viewing love as continental drift. (“Pangeaaaa we used to be together, why’d we have to drift apart.”) And recently a funny thing happened, let’s call it the apotheosis of being named after a historical figure: Someone Still Loves You got a call from the Boris Yeltsin Foundation itself, to fly out to Russia, shake some hands, take home seven expensive bottles of vodka, and perform at both an elementary school and at Old Nu Rock (Russia’s largest winter festival) after our government certified their status as US cultural ambassadors for a day. They made a documentary about the experience, because that was a smart thing to do, and came back newly inspired to make music. The result is the album Fly By Wire, out this fall. Check out its first track “Nightwater Girlfriend” below, along with the trailer for their doc Discussions With Russians:

Fly By Wire is out 9/17 via Polyvinyl. Here’s their documentary trailer:

SSLYBY, on tour:

6/20 – St. Louis, MO – Off Broadway
6/21 – Madison, WI – The Frequency
6/22 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th St. Entry
6/24 – Chicago, IL – Schubas
6/25 – Columbus, OH – RUMBA CAFE
6/26 – Washington, DC – DC9 w/ Ha Ha Tonka
6/27 – Philadelphia, PA – MilkBoy Philly
6/28 – Cambridge, MA – Middle East
6/29 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge

[Photo by Aaron Durall]