We finished the tough part.

All the tracks for The Minor Leagues’ latest album, Northside, are tracked; the singing sung; the instruments instrumented. Now we just have to assimilate the sounds into some kind organized web that pleases your ear. And that’s Sean Sullivan’s job!

We sent the 14 songs to Sean for him to mix this month at The Butcher Shoppe in Nashville. And I, for one, am very optimistic. I always start a new album thinking it’s going to be our best work yet. So we’re pretty far into this project and I’m still of that mindset. That has to be a good sign!

The plan is to tweak and approve final versions in June. Is it possible that these songs will grace your ears in the summer of 2012? Oh, yes. Likely, even.

Stay tuned.

The Minor Leagues are so incredibly excited to be a part of the Bunbury Music Festival 2012 in downtown Cincinnati along the muddy banks of the Ohio River.

The festival collects a host of national talent for three days, three nights of music at four different outdoor venues. We’re talking the likes of Jane’s Addiction, Weezer, Death Cab For Cutie, Passion Pit and Guided By Voices.

And… The Minor Leagues.

TML plays at 5 p.m. Friday, July 13 at the Bicentennial Park Amphitheater. Click here for a complete Friday schedule.

Looking at the prices, it would seem you can see a ton of music for not a ton of money. Ticket information: here.

It will be fun.

The Minor Leagues liked their trip to New York back in March so well they decided to go back.

TML plays the Rockwood Music Hall at 1 a.m., Friday, May 25 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The car turns right back around, though, because the band plays a free show in downtown Cincinnati Sunday at 5:30 p.m. as part of the annual Taste Of Cincinnati celebration.

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