Download Shop Done, History Lesson, Out of Shape, SLF show

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

Okay, I got everything up in the digital shop.  If you go to www.silbermedia.com/catalog you can download everything for $5 or less.  I put links up in all the band pages.  I still have to re-do the alphabetical catalog & the special sales page, but I feel like a lot is done.  I’ll be launching an email newsletter about it in a few days.  The hope is 1% of the couple thousand of email contacts will spend $5.  We’ll see what happens.

Been talking with Tara Vanflower a bit about the state of the music industry.  I try to stay upbeat & honest & it’s hard to be both things.  As a lot of you know Lycia is very important to me.  Part of why I started Silber was because of reading an interview around 1993 & finding out Mike didn’t make a living off of his music & I thought I could be the one to change that (in high school you have the ability to change the world arbitrarily).  I’ve been really lucky all along that they’ve been so generous with me getting to do so many interviews for QRD, touring with them, getting to put out some of their music; but the significant money’s been elusive.  Anyway, they’re working on getting their new album out themselves & running into some of the typical unanticipated headaches that come with that territory.  It’s called Fifth Sun & is towards the more post punk rooted sounds they had on Empty Space & Wake.

Been trying to get myself back in shape lately as I’ve let myself get really soft over the past two years since leaving my physical labor job.  I tried to do my 60 pound dumb bell (ridiculous for a dumb bell, but what I was using two years ago) & at two curls my entire body started to sweat.

Tested out some things for the Small Life Form show Wednesday.  I keep having problems remembering to turn the one knob on for my one looping pedal.  I can’t even remember the last time I had a SLF show.  Was there even one in 2010?  I need to start booking some shows or get a booking agent.  Or both.

I want to make some copies of the mini-comic samplers to give out at the show.  Not sure that it’s going to happen due to time constraints.  If anyone coming to the show (Marsh Woodwinds in Raleigh, for some reason MySpace’s calendar feature is acting nutty so it isn’t listed) wants me to bring anything in particular to purchase, let me know.

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Almost Caught Up

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

So I’m watching the Hemo (the movie with Vlor, Remora, etc in the soundtrack) preview I got as I’m typing this.  Ummm, when certain scenes actually make you feel nauseated in a low-fi horror movie is it a good thing?  Definitely not a film for the whole family.  It does give me some ideas for what I should be doing for “music beds” to get more pieces sold for film placement.

I typed up a draft of XO #7 & sent it to Melissa to see what needs changing before I do the layout.

I typed up the questions for the QRD guitarist series & actually got a couple interviews back already.  I guess I need to start sending them out as no one seems to have said there were questions/topics it didn’t touch on.

I recorded my piece for this “1 second songs” compilation.  I cheated a little.  I had a riff that was 0.8 seconds & I did it twice & squashed it down to a second on the computer.

Going to encode some more records & set them up for the digital shop.  I feel like I’ll have some free time to work on the music side of my “music career” soon & that’s a little exciting.  I might even be able to practice before my show on Wednesday….

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The Future & QRD

Posted on May 9, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

I got done the last few releases I have any semblance of the digital artwork for currently for encoding for the digital shop.  So I need to write some of the artists & see if they might have the files & if not just use the scanner for them.  I’m planning to upload versions without cover art of some of them just so I can go ahead & get the whole catalog available & then fix them as time goes by.   That way I can start doing promo about the digital shop existing.

Started another wave of MySpace promo today.  It’ll take about two weeks to complete.  Then I’ll start a wave based on some of the upcoming digital only releases which should be ready around that time.

I looked over some of my paperwork today & noticed my annual sales have actually been more or less flat for the past 4 years.  It’s interesting that since I have spent the last two years working even harder to push things that sales have simply remained steady.  I’m not sure if that’s success in this industry or not.

Doing paperwork also makes me remember I need to find out whether the state I live in classifies digital downloads as a selling a product or providing a service.  I imagine since renting a movie counts as a good instead of a service, so does a digital download.

I hit 50 questions for the upcoming QRD guitarist interview series.  I still need to type them up & work out an order that makes sense & get a few people’s opinions on what to cut or add.

I was talking to my friend Marlene about questions to ask & we came up with “if you play your guitar hanging high on your chest, does that mean you have a small dick or are obsessed with boobs?”  Yeah, it might not make the final cut of questions.

I am planning on having some ongoing segments for the QRD re-launch with contributions from readers/friends/fans.  So if you are interested in taking part, please give me a shout.

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I need a break.

Posted on May 8, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

So I got some more digital releases done in the past couple days.  Not much else.  I think it’s getting to the point where I’ll have all of the ones done that I’m going to have the real art files for.  So the rest I’ll have to do scans of eventually & they’ll be slightly inferior quality.

I am worn out tired lately, maybe it’s the heat.

I talked to Nic Slaton about the slicnaton release he’s going to do for Silber.  I can tell he’s spent too much time with me because he’s doing an album based around, “what would make a good press release?”  Which is pretty much the only time I bother to work on my own albums lately.

Talked to Ben Collins a bit about the next top secret Silber compilation.  Running into some technical issues that need to be tested before we can make things work.

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Slow Progress

Posted on May 5, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

I’ve just been trying to get things done the past couple of days & it’s sometimes hard to see the progress.

Still working on encoding the albums for the digital shop.  Loaded a bunch more of the high bit MP3s into my machine, but I still need to make the artwork & all that.

Got a third draft of “Vigilant” done & laid & mailed to Pat Kain, but I’m thinking about re-working the whole script.  Right now it’s about a lone wolf style vigilante which has been pretty adequately explored in a lot of things & I’m thinking of making it about a teenage gang of vigilantes instead.  Note that this is more like Death Wish than Kick Ass.

Got a bunch of emails out for the second wave of digital promo for Carta & Sarah June.  One more wave to do for that.

Got the artwork for the Marked portion of the mini-comic sampler & laid it out.  So that should be ready to be printed up & I can start sending out a bunch of promo things.  Anyone interested in helping distribute some of the sampler books let me know.

Got an email from Ning that it will now be a paid service, so goodbye failed Silber Ning.

Assembled the list of MySpace folks to contact about the Small Life Form show in Raleigh next week.

Got a preview copy of Hemo.  No chance to watch it yet.  Still pretty excited about it.  Talked to Bob Freville (Hemo’s director) about possibly doing some more music work with him for his next project.

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Slow Steady Building

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

I only got one digital release prepped today, but as long as I keep pecking away at it I will eventually finish.

I caught up (I think) on the forty or so MySpace messages I hadn’t yet read.  So that’s something.

Wrote half the script for my new robot comic “Built.”  It’s funny how I have an affinity for characters that essentially are robots (like XO or Marked) trying to become normal people & now I’m working on one literally about a robot.  I think it says something about me, but I’m not sure exactly what….

Wrote the second draft for the new mini-comic “Vigilant” & sent it to PB Kain (potential artist) for critique before final draft & layout.

Assembled some mini-comics today.  I still have a ton I need to assemble before I can do the next promo mailing.

I’ve been having some issues with my webserver saying my email is over quota.  I think they only reset their 1000 message limit Monday thru Friday, which seems a little retarded to me.

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A bunch of bits of things

Posted on May 2, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

I got a message from Shane Sauers that the artwork for Ultimate Lost Kisses #12 is almost done.  So I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Got a few more digital versions of releases set up (though I didn’t put them on the site yet).

Having some kind of weird email problems.  I sent out 900 messages yesterday (I have 1000 a day as my capacity set by my hosting plan), but today I keep getting messages that I’ve passed my outbound message threshold & I have to resend a message five minutes later.

In the weird messages not sent thing, I noticed that only 4 of my 30 messages to YouTube post rock & shoegaze channel owners went through.  Evidentally you can only send out 4 messages in a minute on YouTube & then it times you out for 5 minutes but tells you the messages were sent (though they aren’t in the sent box).  It took me a while to figure out how their routine worked.  I guess I understand wanting to fight spamming, but it would be nice to at least be told a message isn’t sent.

Today finished the current wave of MySpace promotion.  I still don’t understand all of the announcements that MySpace is dead when it’s still in the top 20 websites in the world.

It’s a new month so I looked over last months web stats & I can’t figure out how to get my normal analyzer to look at it & for some reason.  The info about if my web ads worked seems to be missing?  No referring URL info.  Kind of annoying.

Did some research for some new reviewers.  I really need to start giving myself a schedule where I do certain work certain days so things feel a bit more organized.

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Random Images/Press Junk/Vlor 3

Posted on May 1, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

As anticipated I suppose, not as much done today as I’d hoped for.

I figured out the problem I was having with my new pictures not loading in the random image generator.  I’d labeled them all as #20.  But when trying to find an alternate javascript I found a generator that brings up random linked images, which means new possibilities for advertising on QRD at the re-launch.  Also I might make some album covers part of the random images (or maybe whole comics) & have them be links.  Just a matter of time to get everything going & getting things prioritized.  I need to put my to do list in Excel so I can prioritize it easier.  There’s a problem when the to do list can’t fit on one sheet of paper & all of the tasks are too large to finish in a day….

I processed a bunch of updates to my press & radio spreadsheets (I got a bunch of info from a peer label & figuring out which contacts are new versus duplicates is harder than it should be).  I also sent out another wave of inquiries to digital reviewers about Carta/Sarah June/Aarktica.  I actually screwed up mildly on the mailing & sent messages to some people I’m only supposed to contact about free releases.  So I’ll see if that backfires.

I recorded a piece of music that I have no idea what I think about.  It is kinda garage punk I guess but the vocals are just freakout feedback simulations.  Welcome to the next Vlor??  Maybe….  I think it’s six bass parts, three vocals, one percussion, & one harmonica so far.  I should send it to Brian McKenzie to decide what to do with it since he’s responsible for the last Vlor single….

Answered a bunch of emails & MySpace messages.

Irata found the wav files & original art for the album.  So that’s going to be a big plus for that release.

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More $5 Downloads! Plus other news!

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

So I’ve been trying to encode the back catalog & make snazzy little PDFs for each digital download & it’s taking a lot longer to do than I anticipated.  I was thinking I could do 10-15 a day & I’m running at 6 a day.  So far there are 18 releases available.  I’m hoping the process speeds up a bit.  Not sure if I’ll get any done tomorrow as there’s a lot of other work that I’ve been letting slide.  Just $5 a download of course.  Here’s what’s available so far:
Remora: Some Past’s Future (no fancy digital booklet on this one)
Remora-Pale Horse and Rider-Rivulets: The Alcohol EPs
Jamie Barnes: The Fallen Acrobat
Small Life Form: one
Mike VanPortfleet: Beyond The Horizon Line
Jamie Barnes: Honey from the Ribcage
Remora: Enamored
Heller Mason: Minimalist and Anchored
Black Happy Day: In The Garden of Ghostflowers
mwvm: rotations
Moodring: Scared of Ferret
Vlor: six-winged
Aarktica: In Sea
Carta: An Index of Birds
Sarah June: In Black Robes
Aarktica: In Sea Remixes
Remora: Derivative
Remora: Some Future’s Past EP

When looking for lost graphic design files associated with encoding the back catalog I found some old music from friends that hasn’t been heard that I might re-issue.  I found demos by people that I probably should’ve worked with like Zelionople & Aidan Baker & The Goslings as well.  Though I think maybe the strangest thing was a disc labeled as a collaboration between Remora & Ring from 1999 that I have absolutely no recollection of (this was from a period of time where I recorded a ton of music all the time & was still a heavy drinker, but I still think I would remember it as I still can sing you the vocals of the collab with Rivulets from the same era).  I probably should listen to it.  I have no idea what it’s like.  Could be pure drone or acoustic guitars.

So I worked some more on two of my new “straight” comics.  I think I might have lost my ability to write plot driven things instead of character studies.  Which really doesn’t work too well for something that is just supposed to be about action which is what is supposed to happen for the upcoming “Lost Kisses Extreme” about a soldier of fortune stick figure.  I guess I have a ten panel intro, but it’s hard to know how dark I can make it before I am infringing on telling a story from one of my other books.  Maybe it should be that the whole first issue is about body worship & stuff like that.  Of course who’d want to sit through that waiting for things to blow up besides me?

So I added a few images to my random image java script on the silber front page & it seems to only be bringing up one of the five.  I might should look around for a different script. as it seems like this one really loads the first ten images heavier than the second ten.  On about 30 refreshes there’s five images that never came up & that doesn’t seem right….

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Catching Up & Encoding

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

I forgot yesterday to mention the best quote from SPACE, on finding out Dave Sim drew an issue of Lost Kisses a guy said, “You got Dave Sim to draw stick figures!?!”

Spent most of the day today catching up on emails & MySpace messages.

Planning to get some work done on encoding the back catalog for the digital shop.  It’s intimidating & overwhelming, but I guess if I get a few done a day it’ll be over fairly quickly.  Slow & steady wins the race as they say.

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