MINNEAPOLIS — Semisonic is ready to rock again.

After abruptly going on hiatus last year when bassist John Munson suffered a stroke, the Twin Cities-reared pop-rock trio of “Closing Time” fame dropped a new single Wednesday that’s heavy and loaded with meaning — and that unofficially kicks off a comeback run that will culminate with a big hometown gig at the Minnesota Yacht Club festival in July.

The group’s first bit of new music in three years, “Don’t Give Up Yet” is now available via most streaming platforms. Without naming names, frontman Dan Wilson explained in a statement the song was inspired by a friend “who was going through a terrible chapter.” It turned into something broader that seems inspired by the political turmoil of late in his hometown.

“I wanted to tell him he still had time and there still was hope,” Wilson said.

“When I got to the second verse, I realized the song was about something else, too — the fight against the dark philosophy that has stormed our country, our institutions, our freedom, our peace. That’s when the line ‘A king on a throne, Tyrannicus Rex,’ suddenly arrived and my band had a very different song on our hands.”

After going nearly two decades without issuing new music as Semisonic — but also without ever calling it quits or sidelining their friendship — Wilson, Munson and drummer Jacob Slichter went on something of a tear in the early 2020s starting with the hopeful, pandemic-tinged 2020 EP, “You’re Not Alone,” and then 2023’s full-length comeback, “Little Bit of Sun.” It sounds like they’re still regularly firing up the song machine.

“Don’t Give Up Yet” is reportedly the first in a series of new singles coming down the pipeline. It’s also a precursor to the Minnesota Yacht Club appearance on July 19 (postponed from last year) and at least one more live gig, a Varsity Theater show on July 16 that’s billed as an MYC warmup concert. Tickets are available now via Ticketmaster.com for $40.

Munson, 59, has returned to singing and playing bass this year with the New Standards, his jazzy revisionist trio with the Suburbs’ Chan Poling. The New Standards have their own big outdoor show in St. Paul’s Mears Park Thursday night, their annual appearance in the free Lowertown Sounds concert series.

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