Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

by Marisa Brown
The three original members of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, lead guitarist Will Knauer, drummer Philip Dickey, and bassist Tom Hembree, met in high school in Springfield, MO, thanks to a mutual friend, and soon formed a band. It was Dickey who came up with their name while shopping with his mother one day in the local mall, and he also wrote most of their songs. Once in college, the trio added singer/guitarist John Robert Cardwell and bassist/recording engineer Jonathan James, and the band's debut album, Broom, recorded in Knauer's home and originally only meant to be a local release, came out in 2005. However, after the band posted some songs on its website, SPIN got wind of the group and soon Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin's name was all over music blogs. Their song "Oregon Girl" even ended up on an episode of The O.C. in the spring of 2006. A few months later Polyvinyl Records signed the band, remastering and reissuing Broom later that year, though by this time both Hembree and James had left (the latter still played with them when he could), turning SSLYBY back into a three-piece but with a rotating cast of additional guest musicians. James joined back up with the band full-time, however, for their second full-length, Pershing (and Hembree actually did the cover art), which was released in April of 2008.