Video: LIVE! from Trekky House II: Midtown Dickens

We continue our LIVE! From Trekky House video series today with a performance by Midtown Dickens. The band chose to play on the Blue Bird school bus at Trekky House, wanting to be outside but taking shelter from the rainy day. They play a stripped down version of "Only Brother", the first single from their upcoming Home. The album will be out April 3 on Trekky Records. Special thanks to guest cameraman D. L. Anderson.

MP3: Midtown Dickens - Only Brother [from the Home LP]

Trekky Records presents: Amalgam, a Mixtape Compilation

Introducing: Trekky Records. These are our friends, our sisters and brothers, our collaborators and advisers. This is our future as well as our past. These songs are an amalgamation of everything we've worked on for nearly 10 years, supporting each other as artists and picking up new friends along the way. Like the mixtapes you've received from friends and kindred spirits in the past, we hope Amalgam will introduce you to some new music that may come to shape your life, as it has shaped ours.

With contributions from Lost in the Trees, Midtown Dickens, Phil Cook & His Feat, Brice Randall Bickford, Butterflies, Vibrant Green and more, the mixtape features some our favorite songs from our past releases as well as brand new and unreleased gems. The compilation will be issued as a limited edition cassette tape, and also be available for digital download on March 6, 2012.

To celebrate the release of the tape, we'll be hosting a release show at Nightlight in Chapel Hill, NC, on March 2, 2012. Butterflies, Phil Cook & His Feat, Vibrant Green and a very special surprise guest band will perform, and it'll be your first chance to get your hands on Amalgam. Hope to see you there!

Phil Cook contributes new song to hymn compilation

Phil Cook contributes a song to the upcoming Hymns From The Gathering Church compilation, a collection of traditional hymns performed by various North Carolina musicians. Phil's track is a rendition of "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms", a popular hymn composed in 1887 by Elisha Hoffman and Anthony Showalter. You can listen to and buy the track here.

If that's not enough Phil Cook for you, you can still order Phil Cook and His Feat's critically acclaimed 2011 album, Hungry Mother Blues from the Trekky Records Online Store.

Midtown Dickens release first single from Home

Midtown Dickens' have released the first single from their upcoming Home LP, a gorgeous folk song called "Only Brother". The song explores reincarnation, god and place, inspired by the story of an animal psychic traveling back in time to heal a wolf's broken leg. Intertwining acoustic guitars, slide mandolin, and an unlikely clarinet solo fill out the composition, Midtown Dickens' most striking statement to date. Shuffle Magazine is debuting the track today.

Home will be released in Trekky's signature LP+CD+MP3 package on April 3, 2012.

Watch a teaser trailer of Midtown Dickens in the studio:

Lost in the Trees announce new album, NPR debuts first single

It gives us great honor to share with you the details of Lost In The Trees' newest statement, a devastating and beautiful album titled A Church That Fits Our Needs, to be released by ANTI- and Trekky Records on March 20, 2012. It is a work of vaulting ambition, a cathedral built on loss and transformation. Visit NPR's All Songs Considered to hear "Red", the stunning first single.

In the summer of 2009, Ari Picker lost his mother, an artist in her own right, when she took her own life. Picker set about transforming the events into a musical tribute, composing and writing with his mother’s picture above his desk: the same picture that will now grace the album’s cover.
“I wanted to give her a space, in the music, to be, and to become all the things she didn’t get a chance to be when she was alive,” Picker says.

As on 2010's All Alone In An Empty House, Picker has again surrounded himself with musicians who bring his vision to life with verve and sensitivity. A special contribution comes in the vocals of Emma Nadeau, whose soaring, wordless melodies counter Picker’s ecstatic vocals throughout. Recorded and produced by Picker in North Carolina, the album was mixed by the legendary Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Beck), bringing out the lush tones of the orchestrations in their full grandeur.



Tracklist:

01. Moment One
02. Neither Here Nor There
03. Red
04. Golden Eyelids
05. Icy River
06. Tall Ceilings
07. Moment Two
08. The Dead Bird Is Beautiful
09. Garden
10. Villain
11. An Artist's Song
12. Vines

For a glimpse into the process of making the album, check out this lovely video: