Blast & Crash

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

Started sending off the links to the reviewers who use digital downloads for Carta, Sarah June, & the Aarktica remixes.  I’ll get out the radio blasts soon as well.  So hopefully the tons of reviews should start rolling in followed by orders.

Talked with Will Dodson (former music director for WQFS & WMMT among other things) about a bunch of things.  Trying to figure out scheduling for our basketball movie.  Pitching ideas to try to promote Silber & the new releases.  The usual.

Spent a few hours updating some radio station contacts today.

Got an email from Shane (Miss Massive Snowflake) that he won’t be coming for the deep south June tour.  Need to decide if I’ll do it solo or not.  I just hate booking lately as it seems like nothing I do makes people come to a show on a Monday night & getting crowds on weeknights is a necessity of touring.

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Fightin’ Incompetence

Posted on February 14, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

Uploading the digital versions of the new releases.  I wanted to add pdf booklets so it took a while to re-do some layout stuff to make it work.  But these are the rough drafts for the upcoming Silber releases.  Of course it would be nice if the digital download shop seemed to be functioning properly, but hopefully that’ll be fixed soon in a way where it doesn’t break again.  I don’t know how to set the stuff up myself, so I can’t really say that the problems are caused by incompetence.

Did some more research adding more webzines & blogs to the promo list.  I need to get interns one day to check over to see how many no longer exist.

Getting my list geared up for the MySpace promo for Carta & Sarah June.  Hopefully it will only take a month to complete them.

Already getting some feedback about the new material getting played a couple spots.

I just got a review of my comics on PopCultureShock that made me feel a little weird.  I think that people think mini-comics are the minor leagues for mainstream comics, but (at least in my case) it is about chasing down a particular aesthetic.  I can’t imagine translating my stories to a standard comic style.  Part of why they work is that they are incredibly dense & tiny.  If I re-assembled most of them into a regular comic you’d spend 90 minutes trying to get through them (which is part of why, in retrospect, The Lost Kisses DVD is not terribly effective).  Perhaps most bizarre is they called Worms a rip-off of The Prisoner while it clearly rips off Lovecraft (& if you’ve seen The Prisoner (either incarnation), the idea of something that essentially only has one character with no one to interact with ripping it off just doesn’t make sense anyway).  Whatever.  I just get irked by inaccuracy whether it’s from a comic reviewer, a journalist, or a medical professional.

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Progress & Dreams

Posted on February 13, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

I got all the promos out to press & radio.  Just got a few for stores left to send out.  Sometimes I think sending promos to stores instead of press & radio may be a better way to generate sales, but I have a softer spot for radio & press folks than record stores if I need to go one way or the other.

Gotta try to get done all the paperwork associated with shipping out the new releases.

Trying to get the digital download versions of the new releases ready.  Maybe tomorrow.  Things always take longer than I anticipate lately.

Still trying to find some outlets for promoting videos that seem actually useful.  I think after I follow today’s leads I’ll be ready to concede on not having any ideas about that end of promotion & just let things take their natural course of popularity (or lack there of) instead of trying to push a video.  It’s a shame because I could see the Vlor video being a popular video for two weeks on the internet based on both the song & the visuals, but I don’t know how to make it happen.

Recent dreams:
I get back home from tour.  I’m living in a trailer with some roommates in rural Mississippi because my share of the rent is only $45.  The trailer is totally trashed & no one is there.  The doors are left open & the place is infested with bugs.  My roommates probably got busted for selling drugs.  Did the jerks try to pin something on me & now the cops are after me?  Where the hell am I supposed to go?  I feel more homeless than ever.

I’m tied up to a chair being tortured.  It’s a woman yelling at me & hitting me.  She gets close to me, whispering as if to be seductive.  I move my head suddenly & bit her throat & the texture of it in my mouth feels so foreign as I bite down.  She knocks the chair over trying to get away but I keep my jaw clamped down & she stumbles backwards & I almost choke on the piece of her neck still in my mouth, but I manage to spit it out.  Lying on the floor tied to the chair, I watch her blood spread on the floor.

Sarah June (first appearance by her in one of my dreams) gets a new tattoo on her arm.  But it is not a tattoo.  It is alive & not only moves on her skin, but occasionally comes off of her arm altogether looking for things to feed on in the shadows.

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Better Day Tomorrow.

Posted on February 12, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

Weird day today.

Started off losing some work on my computer because I didn’t know power was off & the work I was doing was over the internet & thus not saved because the router was shut off & I didn’t know it.

I got almost all the promos out.  Should get the last few out tomorrow.  I might end up getting some back because 11 went out $0.10 short of the required postage.  Ooops.

Got an email today from someone that bought a download that there was an error code.  The digital shop thing is driving me crazy.  I’m thinking about just switching it around to the free download with donations thing just because this has gotten to be such a freaking headache.  Of course the thing is I have made as much off the headaches of digital downloads for two releases in a month as I have for the donation buttons that habe been up with twenty releases for three months.  I was really in a good mood about things & this was going to be a pretty upbeat blog until five minutes ago when I found out the digital shop was still screwed up.  Maybe I should look into Bandcamp, but I really like the idea of not having a third party (or fourth if you count Paypal) involved.

Took a poll & most people seem to think I’m better off recording more Remora in April instead of touring.  So maybe I’ll book one or two shows in Ohio, but that’ll be it.

Better day tomorrow.

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Collaborating & Other Stuff

Posted on February 10, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

Got in my entry for the “Locally Produced Digital Music Showcase” at WXYC today.  I’m not even sure what it means, but I was told I should enter for it, so I did.

Did some research for places to promote the Vlor video.  A lot harder than it probably should be for me to find them.  Running into a lot of websites that haven’t been updated for 5 years (who pays to have their dead site up that long?).  So if anyone knows places I should contact to promote the Vlor video, please let me know.

Did some research on Austrian radio stations to service.  I’m not even sure why.

I’ve been geeking out over that Alexa webstats site a bit lately.  Silber’s website somehow jumped 100,000 points in the past two weeks.  My hope was to break under a million for positioning.  I think I can actually get it to happen once I get QRD kicked back in gear & start running the new release promos.  Of course all it really means is more bandwidth used, but I need something to geek out about.

Still working on getting all the promos out.  Writing personal notes to the 200 folks who get physical promos can take a long time.  Got all the Aarktica ones out.  Still 100 or so left for Carta & Sarah June, but I should get all of the internationals done tomorrow.

I’m debating whether I should do a tour in April or just take that same time & dedicate it to working on recording.  It seems like working on recording might be time better spent (& less money spent).  What do you guys think?

Got some more panels to proof for the new comic “Epic.”  It’s interesting to see how people work on my comic scripts because I work giving them very little direction.  In Worms Kim Traub decided the first person narrator was a girl (I wrote it assuming it was a male, this is part of why it took a while for the second issue).  In Marked the guy has on a superhero suit instead of normal clothes.  In Epic the guy I thought of as a singer-songwriter was first the singer of a heavy metal band (which I vetoed as cliche) & now fronts an emo band.  That’s what is good about collaboration & why I don’t write tight scripts.  It allows stranger & more interesting stories than I expected to come out.

Got a bunch of stuff for finishing off the SPACE anthology, but I’m low on time at the moment.  Soon things’ll be ready.

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Vlor video

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

So here’s a pet peeve.  The post office I normally use is no longer accepting the “old” customs forms.  I went by the nearby post office because I need more of them & they still have the old forms.  I went online to try to order the forms & all they offer is pdf samples of them.

Assembling promo packages is more tedious than I remembered.  Got 50 or so going out tomorrow.  I’m hoping to get all the promos out by Wednesday, but Thursday is probably more realistic.

My nephew was trying to convince me today that I should do a Silberspy comic.  Which of course is true.

I just put up the Vlor video I’ve been talking about for a few weeks.  Enjoy.

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Some Work Almost Completed

Posted on February 7, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

More work getting the packages ready to send out Monday.  More of it tomorrow.

Got two weird musical requests today.  The band Lullabier wants to translate “I told Jesus Christ How Much I Love Her” into Italian to cover it.  Also I was asked to sing on someone’s track as part of their supergroup.

Watched the movie Ten Items or Less again & it makes me look at myself from the third person.  “He wears clothes that don’t fit properly as a sign of immaturity, that he’s still trying to grow into something.”

Got the first submissions in for the Artists Trading Card series today.

Got in the Vlor video.  I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet.

Talked to a buddy of mine about starting a doom band in a couple months.  We’ll see if my life ever gets organized enough to really be able to work on music on a regular basis again.

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Non-Profit Help?

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

Wrote up the blurbs for radio for Carta & Sarah June.  Planning on spending the next couple of days getting promos ready to mail out on Monday.

Hung out with Alan Sparhawk & saw Retribution Gospel Choir tonight.  Always good talking to Alan as he is a good guy.  Talked about the state of the music industry & of course Megadeth.

Talked to Bryce Eiman (Weather Machine) & he’s looking into turning 919Noise into an official non-profit & getting grants to pay the artists.  Anyone reading this have experience doing this?  Please contact Bryce if you have ideas.

I’m feeling worn out, not sure why, more tomorrow.

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Preparations

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

Spent some time altering some of the Aarktica Remix CDs for sending out to radio (putting them in jewel cases so they can live a good long life in a radio library).

Printed out the Sarah June press releases.

Getting ready to mail out all the promos.   Then I’ll have a couple weeks to really focus on what will be going on with the Silber digital release series (formerly titled Death in Silberia).

Did some more trolling the internet for new blogs to service.

I watched a video on Current about how to generate publicity to get internet fame.  There was a guy dressed as a banker begging for money in front of Wall Street.  Interesting to see people being totally retarded to promote their work (if it had been a blog about investments I would say it was fine).  I’m not sure how I feel about stuff like that.  Then again I thought Aaron Hibbs going for the hula hoop record was awesome.  Though I don’t know how much it promoted his status as a jazz balloonist.

I’m going to be doing a little tour in April going up to Ohio & another in June going down into Georgia if anyone is interested in me coming to there town.

I saw the movie of Stephen King’s The Mist today.  Bleakest horror survival ending I think I’ve ever seen.

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Continuing Work & Web Design

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

More research on new music outlets for review.  Mainly looked at british ones today.

Re-worked the frontpage again.  I think it is where I’m going to have it be.  I moved the radio link into the bar navigator moved the navigation bar below the banner.  The main thing is I added the embedded player thing (I went with the Yahoo one).

I got out the pre-orders to Aarktica: In Sea Remixes & uploaded the EP of extra mixes (I’ll get the links out to those with the orders tomorrow).

Got versions of the press releases for Carta & Sarah June up on the website finally.  Should print them out tomorrow & assemble the promos.

The new customs form for sending CDs international totally sucks.  They increased my work by maybe 90 minutes per promo mailing.  Annoying.

Tried to take some videos off my camera & realized that I bought the wrong cable (firewire instead of iLink).  Ordered a correct one from Hong Kong for $2.

Anybody use the SeaMonkey WYSIWYG web-design thing?  I’m thinking of upgrading from Netscape Composer because it messes up the scripts for Twitter & the Yahoo MP3 streamer some how & I need to re-insert them in Notepad & that’s kind of annoying.

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