I can’t really imagine how The Minor Leagues’ December trip to Nashville could’ve gone any better.

We recorded 14 songs in three days with producer Sean Sullivan at The Butcher Shoppe studio. The idea was to capture the band’s live energy in a way none of our previous six albums had. Those records were all made recording each instrument one at a time, track by painstaking track.

This time we just plugged in and played – under the esteemed guidance of Mr. Sullivan, who also recorded our sixth album, North College Hill, back in 2010.

This one is called Northside – a kind of companion piece to North College Hill. Where NCH is about coming to terms with childhood and the inability to return to the hopes and dreams and youth, Northside is about facing the disappointments of adulthood head on, specifically whilst trying to get ahead in a silly, self-serving local music scene. Only life’s happy moments for The Minor Leagues!

Anyhow, what really truly is happy is how well it all went. Patrick and I are going over the tracks this week at his home studio. The plan is to wrap up any additional tracks in Cincinnati this month, before sending it back to Sean to mix in February.

So far, so good. We’re legendary for taking forever on these albums, but I really think this one might be in the bag by the spring.

Stay tuned.

To help promote our new album, North College Hill, out on Datawaslost Jan. 31, 2012, The Minor Leagues are happy to announce we’ll be playing a series of shows this winter and spring.

The idea is to play a set of weekends back-to-back-to-back each season of 2012.

That schedule is definitely a work in progress, but here is the basic framework for the winter shows coming up soon.

Friday, Feb. 17 – Pete’s Candy Store, Brooklyn, N.Y. 8 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 18 -Pittsburgh, Pa.

Friday, Feb. 24 -MOTR, Cincinnati, OH 9 p.m. CD RELEASE PARTY*

Saturday, Feb. 25 -Dayton, OH

Friday, March 2 – Chicago, Ill.

Saturday, March 3 – Indianapolis, Ind.

You can feel it in the air. The music world is buzzing about The Minor Leagues’ forthcoming sixth full-length release, North College Hill.

The new album, featuring singles “Ghost Maps” and “Secret Codes,” is set for release Jan. 31, 2012. You can purchase compact discs at this very website or at the Datawaslost site. North College Hill also will be available as a digital download at the iTunes store.

It is the product of seven people – your humble narrator, Patrick Helmes, Amanda Lee Anderson, Josh Combs, John Kathman, Hilly Kenkel and Luke McGlasson – and two years’ time.

It is the sound of our first trip to a real-life, functioning studio – specifically The Butcher Shoppe in Nashville, where we recorded the bulk of the tracks during a week in Summer, 2010 with our pal and producer Sean Sullivan. I’d like to think it sounds better than any of our previous work.

It being us, of course it’s a concept. This one is all about the town where I grew up – North College Hill, which also is about a half mile from where Patrick and Hilly each lived in their youths. It’s sad and nostalgic and things like that.

We’re very excited to finally let it go into the world and see what you think.

Here’s a tracklist – with a link to “Ghost Maps”… enjoy!

1. City On A Hill

2. Ghost Maps

3. Smoke

4. Sister

5. Lucky Girls

6. Secret Codes

7. Please Don’t Throw My Love Away

8. Weekends Are The Worst

9. 1985 Forever

10. You Can’t Go Home

We finally have an official release date for our new album North College Hill..

Jan. 31, 2012.

We promise we won’t push this one back. At all. Ever. This is official.

We’re getting ready to caravan our way down south to Nashville for the second time in 18 months. Must be time to record another album.

Our friend Sean Sullivan has graciously given us the opportunity to record with him again in The Butcher Shoppe studio, run by Dave Ferguson and John Prine. It’s a pretty amazing place. The studio sits in the middle of the old and quite giant Neuhoff Meat Packing Plant, nestled on the Cumberland River. The advantages of this location are many. Most notably, the lot is haunted by the ghosts of dinner past. And of course if you find yourself particularly frustrated with a vocal take that isn’t going well, you can just take five outside, gaze at the maze of cattle bridges and find comfort in the fact that your destiny is not that of a cow about to be slaughtered.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/slaughterhouse-revived/Content?oid=1186800

This is a very cool article about the place. I read it and learned quite a bit.

Anyway, this album we’re recording is called Northside. It’s kind of a companion piece to the album we’re about to release, North College Hill, which we also recorded at The Butcher Shoppe with Sean. We’re going to record nearly all of the songs live as a band, which is new way of doing things for us, so here’s hoping it’s a productive weekend!

Almost a year to the day since we recorded the basic tracks in Nashville, the first taste of our new album, North College Hill, is available as a free download.

“Ghost Maps” on the A. “Please Don’t Throw My Love Away” on the B.

Both songs will be on the full-length, out in October.

Sean Sullivan, who produced the sessions in The Butcher Shoppe studio in Nashville, mixed the songs, while Michael Bond mastered them.

They’re free on our home page and at the datawaslost site.

We sincerely hope you like them!