It’s not often that a truly local band with former University students actually has a record deal and is now releasing not its first full-length album, but its second.
Indie-rockers Yeltsin, a My Horoscope Records band, is celebrating the release of its newest album “A Closer Walk with Yeltsin” on Saturday night in Eugene.
A former bass, guitar and drums trio, Yeltsin will also be introducing its fourth member, organist and keyboardist Frosty Fresno, at the show on Saturday.
With the addition of a keyboardist, Yeltsin will now have a more complete live sound that mimics its albums even more closely.
“It’s pretty driving and pretty high energy,” said lead guitarist Jake Bakersfield about the band, “but it’s got that melancholy sound because we have a lot of minor keys.”
In true indie fashion, some of the lyrics, while quirky, may be a bit on the sad side.

The beginning of the album’s second song, “Thornbirds,” laments, “there are mills for grain, and wood, and for failure. What other mills are there? Oh no. Mills of despair.”
With the downtrodden tone of the lyrics, the ripping electric guitar riffs that move each song along, complemented with crashing cymbals and pounding bass, make Yeltsin’s songs equally divided between fist-pumping rock and lighter-swaying indie ballads.
Thus far the band hasn’t quite decided which song will become the album’s lead single, but “Meditations,” the first song on the CD, has been getting regular airplay on 94/7 Alternative Portland.
The echo-y vocal style in “Meditations,” as well as the eighth song on the disk, “Rivers,” is influenced by The Beatles’ song “Tomorrow Never Dies.”
“Putting [the vocals] through the Leslie Speaker gives them that crazy swirling sound,” Bakersfield said.
At both performances, Yeltsin will be selling its new album, “A Closer Walk with Yeltsin,” for $10 as well as both men’s and women’s T-shirts for $15 each. The shirts, by American Apparel, come in green, tan or heather grey and feature the band name as well as its logo in black ink.
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