Somewhat Relevant – Iggy Pop: Post Pop Depression

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Brian John Mitchell

People who’ve known me a while know I’m a pretty big Iggy Pop fan. I love the first Stooges record so much that I will buy & listen to pretty much anything he does. That said, a lot of his catalog I haven’t listened to much. Sometimes the producers try to slicken him into David Bowie & other times they try to make him 22 again & I have already got the music I need in those two categories. I need a record from the elder god of punk telling me where he is & who he is now.  The last time someone tried to do this was Don Was with Avenue B & I love that record. Now Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) has done the same thing & it is great. Current & essential & Iggy without a gimmick. A benchmark to beat for best album of 2016. It’s not the Nebraska style all Iggy album that I dream of making with him with him on a 4-track in a hotel room, but it’s probably better than that would be.  Highly recommended.

 


Posted in music, somewhat relevant | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Comments are closed.

Somewhat Relevant: Crimson Peak

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Brian John Mitchell

Crimson PeakI’d say I’m a fan of Guillermo Del Toro. So when I saw the trailer for a Victorian Era ghost story from him I was pretty excited.  If that’s what you are excited about, just stick with the trailer. As this movie itself says, “It’s not a ghost story, it’s a story with a ghost in it.” If you are interested in things like Jane Eyre & Wuthering Heights this is a match for you as Crimson Peak is closer to those than Pan’s Labyrinth.

 

Posted in movies & television, somewhat relevant | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Comments are closed.

Slow & Twisting & Frustrating

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Brian John Mitchell

If you’ve read the past couple of blog entries, you may have picked up on 2016 not being the banner year I’d hoped for.  So more of that is happening lately.  Been trying to find a day job & it is pretty rough going.  A couple hundred applications in & maybe 5 rejections & the rest as no responses.  I did get one job that sounded cool driving people to doctor appointments that I started last week, but while they made it sound like I’d be getting two or three jobs a day (most of the jobs are an hour long commute each way), so far it’s around two a week.  I did get invited to take the postal exam from an application to work locally & I passed the test, but now I failed to take a second test that I never knew about so that’s not looking super terrific.  But hey, how can I complain?  I had a great run of almost being a successful artist/musician for the last seven & a half years & people say change is good.  I really need the security of a consistent income right now.

Right now I’m trying to get the new releases from Thorn1 & Treyverb ready to go.  Then a bunch of other things including Hotel Hotel, Lum, two comps, & maybe a dozen 5in5s & QRD one day & a few comics.  Thanks for your interest & support, it’s always both needed & appreciated.

Posted in daily news | Comments Off

Comments are closed.

Nevada Hill, RIP

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Brian John Mitchell

Nevada Hill died. I don’t really imagine most of you recognize his name. He was a musician & graphic artist & dad. More or less interchangeable with me I suppose. I was first in touch with him because he was the guitarist for Zanzibar Snails (Michael Chamy’s band that appeared on a few Silber comps). Part of us hitting it off was he told me he was named after one of my favorite movies, Nevada Smith. He had just had a kid when I was launching my musician dad interview series & we did a phone interview, which was rare for me at the time. He had some insight in his interview that really stuck with me about having less free time making you find away to make art more immediately & spontaneously & though I have seldom worked that way, I admit it is where some of my best work comes from. Anyhow, he’s got an interview about being a touring musician in the next QRD (whenever I get my act together & get it out) & even though I knew he was fighting cancer it never occurred to me it would kill him. Sure he was going through experimental cancer treatments, but he was also booking a tour. He was talking about doing something for the 5in5 series if he could work it around his tour schedule, not around his cancer schedule. I don’t know, I only really knew him through a couple of phone calls & internet communications which I guess can be skewed from reality, especially when dealing with us artist types. When a friend who’s a junkie dies of an overdose or there’s another rock & roll suicide it doesn’t really hit me anymore, but when someone younger than me with their act more together than me it really hits. Maybe it’s because it’s the first time a friend has died since my daughter was born. Maybe it’s because I just saw a photo of me for the first time since I lost weight when I had pneumonia last month & can see how close I let myself get to dying (I look like a junkie now more than ever), but right now I’m terribly afraid of not having completed whatever my mission is (that’s a Nevada Smith reference). So thanks Nevada, for one last time helping to give me some perspective. Reminding me my time is short & I have work to do. I’m sorry we never got to hang out. I’m sorry to all you other friends I never see. One day I hope to see you all, but today I’m just going to try to get some work done.

Posted in daily news | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Comments are closed.

Darkwave & Space Rock from Heaven Falls Hard & Space Sweeper

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Brian John Mitchell

Hello,

I hope all is well.  Still recovering from the pneumonia here, but the amount of improvement from a couple weeks ago makes me able to pretend I’m in good health now after following guide of coolsculptny.  I really feel I live a blessed life, because if I’d gotten this sick a few years ago when I wasn’t married I probably would’ve let the disease go all the way until I died in my sleep.  Enough with the sadness, on with the Silber post rock party!

Heaven Falls Hard
Heaven Falls Hard is a minimalist darkwave band from Virginia.  They formed over 20 years ago & have has the typical struggle of bands in small southern towns of not being able to get attention except in Europe.  I like to thing the isolation of that is part of what’s led to a lot of the sounds of Silber artists.  Recommended if you liked Projekt or 4AD releases from the 1990s.  Anyway, listen at the links below or download from the Silber website.
Spotify – https://play.spotify.com/album/7K31AKIpXRIE8j4RYu8rms
Bandcamp – https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/the-mercy-go-round

Space Sweeper
Space Sweeper is a super group of Brian McKenzie (Electric Bird Noise), Ted Johnson (Tesla Recoils, National Holographic), & myself (BJM from Remora, Small Life Form).  Droning underwater soundtrack of a crashed spaceship made by guitars.  What more do you want?  Listen below or download on the Silber website.
Spotify – https://play.spotify.com/album/4USTnqyKVVIG5W9a9AzY6v
Bandcamp – https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/alien-oceans

We’re getting ready to relaunch the 5in5 EP series with releases from Anda Volley, Cloaca, Bronze Eye, Fullness Off Lack, & Azalia Snail.  So I’m running a Kickstarter to try to get subscribers so I can have money ready to pay the artists when the releases come out instead of waiting six months to see what sales are like.  In addition the prices are lower than normal for subscribing (20% off for 10, 25% off for 20) & you get the releases before they are available elsewhere.  If you can back it, that’s awesome.  If you can post on Facebook or Twitter to let people know about the project, that is also awesome.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/462361469/5-songs-in-5-minutes-ep-series

You may have already guessed, but the pneumonia thing not only kicked my ass healthwise, but also damaged the bank account a little.  So if you need some buttons made or some minimalist mastering done for a record or help with artwork, it’s an excellent time to hit me up.

More stuff coming soon including two compilations & releases from Treyverb, Thorn1, Lum, & Hotel Hotel as well as a new QRD & some new comics.  Thank you for your interest & support, I couldn’t do it without you.  If you want to be taken off the mailing list just let me know.

Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

Posted in daily news, music | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Comments are closed.

Low lately

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Brian John Mitchell

I saw Low the other night.  They were great.  I feel like 12 years ago or so I saw them about twice a year, but their touring schedule & my life schedule has made seeing them much less common.  Somehow I think this was only my second time seeing them in 10 years.  So anyway, there were a few things I noticed.
(1)    Mimi plays drums sitting down now.  She said it’s cut down on her getting tennis elbow.
(2)    Alan has two super small guitar amps (I’d guess ten inchers), but one was actually used for the drum machine (pointed straight at Mimi, which is a great help as I’m sure any live drummer who has played with pre-recordings or drum machines can tell you).
(3)    For years they have opted to have a soundman as their extra person on tour over a merchandiser.  I never really noticed how important the soundman (Tom Herbers) was before this show.  He really is the secret to them being able to sound as they do, changing the reverb on the vocals from this song to that, transforming the floor tom into a bass drum.  Blending everything together.  I thing for music that is subtle & minimalist having their own soundman is really necessary & I wonder if some other bands I’ve liked over the years could’ve been a lot better live if they’d made the same choice to have a soundman with them.
(4)    This tour they were playing two sets with no opening band & relatively early shows.  I’ve noticed a few bands at their level doing this & I think I like it.

Posted in music | Tagged | 1 Comment

One Response to Low lately

  1. TripleP says:
    February 10, 2016 at 11:00 pm

    Thanks for the review. It has been many more years for me since I saw them at the 40 Wstt. Do you think he was using a real low wattage tube amp?

Most Popular Silber Releases of 2015

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Brian John Mitchell

Hello,

Hope 2016 is off to a great start for you.  Mine’s a little miserable as I had a flu that turned into pneumonia (to quote the doctor, “You’re having trouble breathing”), but I’m still alive with antibiotics & a steroid inhaler so I can’t complain too much.  While it has slowed down some of the Silber plans (most notably the issue of QRD that’s been waiting to be edited since August), we still have big plans for 2016 starting with releases from darkwavers Heaven Falls Hard & prog droners Space Sweeper in February.

I made up a special download bundle (available on the front page at www.silbermedia.com , $20 download, right around half price, 6 hours of music) of the ten releases that were generating the most traffic on the Silber website last year.  While most of them were released last year & come as no surprise, it was interesting to see some oldies show up like Andrew Weathers’ entry in the 5in5 series & Aarktica’s Pure Tone Audiometry & The Wet Teens’ record (which I actually had to turn to a no index page a couple years ago because the porn traffic was effecting some stuff on the technical side of running a website, so I’m not sure how a release that is nearly unsearchable generated so much traffic, but I take it as a compliment to a fun record I like that really probably doesn’t belong in the Silber catalog).  Anyway, here’s the list:
Various Artists: Broken Hearts Broken Sounds
Andrew Weathers: They Turned the Heat On
Yellow6: No Memories Only Photographs
Aarktica: Pure Tone Audiometry
The Wet Teens: Let It Pee
Various Artists: Make Some Noise
Philip Polk Palmer: Here in the Deadlights
Various Artists: Kaiju Temple
Chvad SB: Outside the Shadow of an Aliquot Tree
M is We: M is We

If you just stream music these days, you can listen to them all on this Spotify playlist:
https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/7Cg2PlD9dxUuMwudgp5Bfb

Thank you for your interest & support, I couldn’t do it without you.

Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

Posted in daily news, music, silber monthly charts | Tagged , | Comments Off

Comments are closed.

The Box

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Brian John Mitchell

silber po boxBack in 1995 I opened this PO Box for QRD/Silber in Raleigh & kept it even when living in other cities.  I closed it a couple of days ago.  I know it’s just a box & physical mail now is almost non-existent compared to the 1990s, but it still holds so many odd memories of receiving the packages that held promises of the future.  The address might appear on 100,000 objects from over the years (CDs, zines, postcards, comics) & I always have the hope someone who loves my work will stumble on something old & contact me there, but that probably hasn’t happened in a couple years now.  Still, there was always the hope.  Goodbye box, I hope your next owner loves you as much as I did.

Posted in daily news | Tagged , | Comments Off

Comments are closed.

Hopeful Holidays

Posted on December 26, 2015 by Brian John Mitchell

I hope all is going well.  I had a good Small Life Form featuring Bride of Silber (& Drone Cub) show at Squidco’s Christmess show.  Some of the Christmas EPs are getting positive press.  So things are good.
A lot of tedious stuff on the website to work through.  I changed the mediaplayer to something much more to my liking, but it means changing the code line slightly for every MP3 on the website to fully utilize it.  Which is probably a thousand or more & a couple hundred pages to fix.  Not sure when I will work through that.  I just found out my sign-up sheet for the newsletter wasn’t working (no wonder no one has been signing up!) & I tried to fix it, but I wasn’t clever enough to make it work so I had to remove it from about 1000 pages.  Uggg… not rewarding work.

Got some plans or at least desires to get things to start rolling for the upcoming releases on Silber & I have plenty of interviews in the can for QRD.  Just need to gather the emotional energy to get work done, hoping to get everything I wanted done by last September finished by February….

Posted in daily news, music | Comments Off

Comments are closed.

Silber Christmas Music & More

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Brian John Mitchell

Hey Kidz,

Hope all is going well with the stress of the Christmas season.  We’re always trying to get a ton of stuff done, but of course we’re always running behind getting the word out, so here’s what’s up with us lately!

Luka Fisher
A few weeks ago we put out a new 5 songs in 5 minute EP from Luka Fisher of experimental, ambient, & primitive dance music.  Free to stream or $1 to support the music.
http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/Luka-Fisher-Sleep-Gallery.shtml

In other 5in5 news, the Drekka EP got reviewed in the magazine Rockerilla, which feels like a big deal to me & makes me want to really try to do some stuff to push the series a little harder.  So I’m thinking about doing a Kickstarter to get subscribers for the series so I can get the artists a budget for recording & get Silber a budget for advertising.  I’ve also got a few new folks interested in taking part in the 5in5 series like Anda Volley, Cloaca, & Bronze Eye.  So I’m feeling good.

Christmas EP
Of course it is Christmas & so this year instead of a compilation we went with the EP series again (I really think I prefer this format, compilations with hard deadlines are stressful to put together).  This time out we have EPs from Yellow6, Electric Bird Noise, Remora, Small Life Form, Baptizer, fornever, & Exercitus Dei.  All are pretty experimental & a lot have drone-iness, though this year no one did any takes on classic Christmas songs (for better or worse).  You can listen to them all on the Silber site as well as checking out our offerings from Christmases past here.
http://www.silbermedia.com/christmas

New Mini Comics
Last month we put out three new mini comics.  An auto-bio called HG about a difficult pregnancy, the second installment of sci-fi book Seabase 17, & a re-issue of Zombie Kisses #4.  You can get them all as a download bundle $1 or physicals mailed to you for $5.
http://www.silbermedia.com/comics/current.shtml

In more comic news I was a featured guest on the web show Comic Culture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2AAq_laIUc

I made a stop motion video for an Irata song.  I think I spent a week making it, but it was fun & I’m pretty pleased with the results.
https://youtu.be/mNS2ZzMXBGQ

If you are traveling this season, I have been doing my best to keep the Spotify playlist of the most recent Silber releases updated.
https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/4nuz7tocaNt9OkFetPsHhG

That’s it for now, but coming soon are a new QRD, musical debuts from Space Sweeper & Treyverb, new albums from Heaven Falls Hard & Lum, more comics, more 5in5 EPS, & other goodies.

Thanks for all your interest & support, it means a lot to us & helps us know we are doing work that is worthwhile.  Spread the word about us if you can.

Hrt
Brian John Mitchell
www.silbermedia.com

Posted in comics, daily news, music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Comments are closed.