''Pershing'' is the second full-length studio album from American

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and sub ...

band

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (SSLYBY) is an American indie pop band from Springfield, Missouri. They are named after Boris Yeltsin, the first President of Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Their first full-length album, ''Br ...

. It was released through

Polyvinyl Records In polymer chemistry, vinyl polymers are a group of polymers derived from substituted vinyl () monomers. Their backbone is an extended alkane chain . In popular usage, "vinyl" refers only to polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Examples Vinyl polymers ar ...

on April 8, 2008.

Background and production

The album's name refers to John J. Pershing Middle School in Springfield, Missouri, which Philip Dickey attended. The track "HEERS" references th
Heers Building
which is also located in Springfield, Missouri. The album's production is more refined than the

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...

''Broom'', but retains the doubled vocals, moving bass lines, and clean

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

lines played by

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

and

acoustic guitars An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

from the former album. The album is dedicated to the bands' lifelong friend, Alex Bethurem, a Chicago area indie music fan (originally from Springfield, MO), who took his own life. A pre-order edition of the album featured exclusive original artwork and three bonus tracks. The first two are

demo Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to: Music and film *Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release * ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes * ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...

acoustic songs: an early draft of ''The Beach Song'', ''I Didn't Mean it''; and ''Stain'', a cover of the

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

song.

Reception

The album received internet buzz as well as favorable online reviews on

indie music Independent music (also commonly known as indie music or simply indie) is music that is produced independently from commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, a process that may include an autonomous, DIY ethic, do-it-yourself approach to r ...

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. Taylor from the music blog Music for Ants said "It’s got that jangly pop that fans have grown to love, and the melodies are still top-notch." One

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

customer review describes it as "Quirky chord changes amid massive hooks and addictive melodies." On the other side,

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

gave the album a 6.2/10, stating "''Pershing'' is so easy-going it tends to forget trying to be memorable."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

gave ''Pershing'' 2.5/5.0 stars, calling it "a boring, careless record that tries too hard to be witty and hooky, resulting in something that resembles the indie-hipster version of the nameless college-guy jam band."Pershing Review on AllMusic
/ref>

Track listing

# "Glue Girls" - 3:26 # "Boring Fountain" - 3:44 # "Dead Right" - 2:21 # "The Beach Song" - 2:48 # "Modern Mystery" - 4:20 # "Some Constellation" - 3:12 # "Think I Wanna Die" - 2:49 # "You Could Write a Book" - 3:13 # "Oceanographer" - 4:45 # "HEERS" - 3:26 # "Doris Tailspin (Boring Mountain)" - 0:56

Personnel

The band members are credited as follows. *John Robert Cardwell - vocals, guitar, bass, trumpet, belly charms *Philip Dickey - vocals, guitar, drums, piano *Jonathan James - drums, bass, guitar, piano, synth, crystals *Will Knauer - guitar

Additional musicians

*Brian Azevedo — acoustic guitar on Oceanographer *Molly Healey — strings on Dead Right *Becky Thomas — hand claps on Dead Right, cowbell on Glue Girls

Production

* Recorded and mixed by SSLYBY and Jason Spell between March 2007 at Fred's Loft in Wilmington, N.C. and from August to December 2007 in

Springfield, MO Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estima ...

. * Engineered by Jonathan James * Mastered by TW Walsh

References

External links

Official preview of ''Think I Wanna Die''
from Polyvinyl * made by the band; from

Daytrotter Daytrotter is a recording studio, music venue and subscription-based music discovery website located in Atlanta, United States. It hosts recording sessions with indie music acts. The original studio in Rock Island, Illinois, was founded in 2006 ...

{{Authority control 2008 albums Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin albums