"Drag It Up" is the Texas-based group's first new album since 2001's "Satellite Rides," and its first for New West Records.

"We started the recording on a frozen February day in Woodstock, NY, at Dreamland Studios, a 19th-century country church, full of stained glass and ghosts," lead guitarist Ken Bethea wrote in the band's label biography. "We finished up in sunny San Diego at producer Mark Neill's vintage studio, four of us stomping, screaming and picking guitars into one microphone.

"Mark is a hard-core recording traditionalist, far removed from today's digital world. After working with modern technology on our previous three studio trips, we found old school 8-track recording both refreshing and challenging."

Three tracks from "Drag It Up" are streaming at the quartet's official website.

Old 97's re-emerged this year after its members took a lengthy hiatus to spend time with their families and frontman Rhett Miller worked on a solo album.