CD+LP+MP3

Midtown Dickens began as a ragtag, learn-while-you-play duo of best friends Kym Register and Catherine Edgerton. The project was born in the post-industrial blues town of Durham, NC when the pair began collecting orphaned instruments from generous friends and back alley dumpsters. They developed an unrefined brand of punk-folk that drew from old time bluegrass and the anti-folk minimalism of the Pacific Northwest. After an off-the-cuff two-month tour, the duo released Oh Yell! (307 Knox Records), which garnered wide praise and a cult following for its spirited and charming odes to the wonders of everyday life.

Eager to include more friends in the project, the pair rallied a DIT (Do-It-Together) front-porch collective of players who shared instruments such as the banjo, accordion, musical saw, trumpet, trombone, guitar, drums, mandolin, upright bass, harmonica, glockenspiel, spoons, and whatever else was lying around. The band soon solidified into a cohesive quintet, embarking on a darker and more extensive exploration of folk music, while still rooted in the earnest songwriting of Kym and Catherine.

The group entered the studio last spring with acclaimed producer Scott Solter (The Mountain Goats, Pattern is Movement, John Vanderslice) to record Lanterns, a record about letting go of the things we think we need.

Lanterns will be self-released on September 15th, 2009, in a multi-media package containing a vinyl record, CD, MP3 download code and a 16-page booklet with a full 12"x12" panel dedicated to each song on the record. Created by also-artist Catherine Edgerton, the collages of lyrics, photos and drawings illuminate the themes, memories and philosophies that helped create each song.

"Album of the Month."
-The Independent

"Without sacrificing the sense of spontaneous fun that makes many of its songs worth a dozen drably proficient indie rock curtsies, Midtown Dickens has started to take their music a bit more seriously...It's as if the group's increased musical proficiency gave them the confidence to lay more on the line lyrically, too. They play better, sing better, say better."
-The Independent

"On the new album Lanterns, the band takes the playground twee of such singers as Kimya Dawson and hitches it to the power of a true mountain band."
-The Daily Tar Heel

"This is the Midtown Dickens of their second album, Lanterns, more mature and a bit darker."
-The Duke Chronicle

"Midtown Dickens has grown far, raising the bar for themselves on Lanterns, an album brimming with energetic down home numbers that boast a small army of instruments lending the whole a colorful tapestry. It’s as fun as it is heartwarming."
-Bootleg Magazine

Preview:
Old Dogs

Side A
01. Just Like Me
02. Anihilation
03. Old Dogs
04. The Road Pt. I
05. The Fish Song
06. Springs
07. Balloons
08. Whiskey

Side B
09. It's Alright
10. Best Summer Ever
11. Red Shirt
12. The Road Pt. II

* This album was not released by Trekky Records, we've just offered to sell it online for Midtown Dickens. We do think its great!