Moodring, Aarktica, Lost Kisses, Marked news

Posted on August 29, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

Okay kids, another big day at Silber.

I finally knocked out the Moodring webpage on Silber – www.silbermedia.com/moodring

Also I made the press releases for Moodring & Lost Kisses, follow the links on the Silber home page.  Both are available for purchase now & you can listen to a track from Moodring.  In addition I made the one sheets for distributors today & sent out to get the distros to start soliciting stores.  Street date for stores is September 22.  I’ll stat sending out the promos as soon as the mood rings (literal rings) come in that I’m using as a gimmick promo.

I went through doing some more mining for reviewers (this time mainly New Zealand) & found an additional 30 folks to contact.  This next set of releases will make or break me.  Which is how it feels every time I suppose.

Probably going to take another stab at the Aarktica remix based on some input.

Got a new artist interested in drawing Marked, which is a comic that’s been abandoned by about ten artists over the years.

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Blazing Through

Posted on August 27, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

A lot done today.

I did a first draft of my Aarktica remix.  I’m not 100% sure on it yet & I sent Jon/Aarktica a copy for his opinion of it.

I contacted this Norwegian ambient distro about the next process in starting to work with them, I had kinda dropped the ball on working with them back in June letting an email go unanswered.  So hopefully that will come to fruition.

Did some more mini-comic follow-ups & some more reviews are starting to trickle in.

Got everything fixed up with the artworks for Aarktica & Vlor.  So they should be ready soon.

Finally got a first draft of the Lost Kisses DVD press release done.  Should be sweet.

Burned the extra copies of the Just A Man DVD & filled out the paperwork for submitting it to the Carrboro Film Festival.

Got in the band photo from Moodring, so I should be able to get their press release set to print tomorrow.

I haven’t been giving the shout-outs to my interns lately because I have been too busy doing various other things to really process their work.  But a big thanks to Ben Collins & Bill Pernell for their excellent work.

Plumerai have a new EP available.  You can listen to it online at www.plumerai.com.

I’ve got another potential comic book collaborator.  I need to start on working up a new series or two as more artists seem to be interested lately.

A lot to try to get done tomorrow, I want to get the LK & Moodring info off to my distributors so I can start soliciting stores about it.  Fingers crossed on having time to get it all done.

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Just A Man, Derivative, Malaysia, etc.

Posted on August 26, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

I got in the Just A Man DVD & it worked out pretty great.  I’ll be entering it in a couple festivals I think.

Finished the layout for the Remora: Derivative press kit.  Waiting for some photos to work on some of the other press releases.

Re-did the Remora MySpace page to clone the Remora Silber page.  I don’t know if that’s for the best, but it’s the easiest way to update things.

Did some research gathering Malaysian post rock webzines to service.  I feel it’s an under used market for Silber.  Silber has traditionally focused on North America & Europe & if we’re going to take over the world we need to pay more attention to the other 80% of the world’s population.

Running into a couple of typical snags on art problems for the Aarktica disc (matching pantones, etc) at the manufacturer, hopefully they’ll be set straight tomorrow.

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Today’s Accomplishments

Posted on August 25, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

I got the second draft of the Moodring press release done, so all that’s left is to lay it out for print.  Also instead of getting pins made, I ordered some mood rings (the rings that change color based on body temperature) to use for promo with the release.  Totally over the top & awesome.

Talked with Jon on the phone & finished up the Aarktica press release.  Just got to do the layout to print.  I’m ahead of the curve on that one.

Got an email from Kyle of Carta & the artwork should be coming in the next week or two & then it’ll be ready for manufacturing with a street date in November.

I got the art back already from Andrew White for Just A Man #3!  I haven’t even really printed issue #2 yet!  I’m not used to things coming back so quickly!

Martin sent me the DVD of Just A Man #1 in the mail & I theoretically will receive it tomorrow.  So I’ll be able to get it out for the Carboro Film Festival deadline on Friday.

I have a guitar tip that appears on the MB Underground Podcast at 25:25 on episode 7.

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Working on press releases

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

Got another draft of the Aarktica press release in from Jon that we need to kick back & forth a couple more times.

Finally got the first draft of the Moodring press release done.  Hopefully I’ll hear back from folks & get a second draft of that done tomorrow.

I realize some of you reading this don’t know exactly what a press release is & it’s importance in the music industry.  Basically it tells the story of the album & gives a reviewer some info from which they can decide if they want to bother listening to the disc or not.  So the goal is to create an accurate description of the music while telling some kind of story that makes people interested in the artists as human beings as well to get some personal/emotional interest in listening to the record as well.  The unfortunate side is that since we do pretty good press releases here, we end up seeing reviews that basically quote the press release & I have no idea if the CD was even listened to.  I use the term “North American Gamelan” (which I made up) in the description of the Moodring disc, & I think that we’ll see it in reviews which is fine.  Where it gets weird is when I coin a phrase like “post-apocalyptic-pop” in a press release & then see it start to be used to describe other folks as well.

Went through looking for podcasters who might be into the new music & was really surprised by the high percentage that seemed to be comedy based.  I guess music isn’t as cool as it used to be.

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Music & Comics

Posted on August 23, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

For those interested, the new Remora song for Just A Man is up on the Remora MySpace.

Martin Newman (Plumerai) is working on making the video of Just A Man so I can send it to a local film festival or two.

Did a re-write on the Aarktica press release.  In a few days I’ll probably be taking pre-orders.  Also completely re-working the Silber front page to deal with the new releases.

Jon DeRosa (Aarktica) pointed out to me that one of the Vlor songs essentially is an Aarktica song.  He’s kinda right, but you’ll have to buy both albums next month to know what I’m talking about.

I’ve got a couple more prospects for comic collaborators contact me in the past couple of days.  We’ll see if any pan out.

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Out for Manufacturing

Posted on August 22, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

A lot done in the past couple days.

Aarktica: In Sea & Vlor: Six-Winged both went for manufacturing today.  Which means I am done mastering the Vlor record & I laid out the artwork.  The release date for both is October 27.

Ran the test batch for Just A Man #2.  They seem fine.

Wrote the third drafts for Just A Man #3 & Lost Kisses #11.

Finally got started on writing the Moodring press kit.  It’s hard.  I’ve had two or three people listen to it & the general review is, “This is good, but I’m not sure how to describe it.”  So I’m not the only one with a problem.

Finished the re-sizing of images from Just A Man #1 to have it made into a video.  Also recorded a Remora guitar track for the soundtrack.  Minimal, loopy, & uses a tremelo bar (which is something I do not do).

Got in the stuff for doing the Aarktica remix.  I realized I also owe Hotel Hotel a remix, hoping to get them both done this weekend.

Between recording the Remora song & getting the remixes done, I’m getting my “studio” space a little in order, so hopefully I’ll start to work on some of the ton of recordings I have laying around as well as starting to make some new ones.

I’m wanting to try to move this blog onto Silber properly.  Anyone know how to put in an RSS feed?  The site is just HTML, no XML or CSS or Java.  Let me know if you know how to do this.  I know a lot of people do the thing where there blog is hosted elsewhere & kind of embedded in their site, but I kinda want the total control that goes with me hosting it.

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Bad News Don’t Get Me Down

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

I got a letter from the state that I am not getting the money to finance a Small Life Form tour in China.  Kinda sucks.  It is also worth noting that they reduced the number of people getting the $10,000 grants from 25 to 4.  Which makes it that much closer to not existing anymore.

Wrote the second drafts of both the new Just A Man & the new Lost Kisses.  Third drafts tomorrow.

Finally wrote the first portion of the Moodring press release.  Which makes me closer to ready to start promoting & selling the disc.

I had a few random sales in the past day,  I’ll have to check & see how they got to my site.

Laid out Just A Man #2 for print.  Hopefully I’ll get in the new Worms & XO around the time I finish the new Lost Kisses & can do a 4 way promo again.

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Some Videos

Posted on August 18, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

The video for Aarktica‘s cover of Danzig’s “Am I Demon?” is up now on YouTube.  In other Aarktica news I talked to Jon a bit about working on the press kit & various stuff about the remixes & sexy stuff like that.

In Hotel Hotel news, they now have a Facebook page.  Also a ton of videos (some musical & some comedic) from there recent tour are up on YouTube.

I wrote the first draft to Just A Man #3 today.  Hopefully I’ll get the second draft done tonight & mailed off to Andrew White to draw.  I also proofed the print of Just A Man #2 & did some minor edits & now I need to lay it out for print.

I got in my test bottle opener key chains.  Over the next couple of weeks we’ll see if the ink wears off or if they are the promo item to have made.  Speaking of which I’ve been thinking about remaking the Silberspy used in the logo.  Give him a second gun & wings.  Two versions – both white/pearl skinned, one with red eyes/wings/guns & the other with the classic blue eyes/wings/guns.  So the logo would be them facing opposite ways on each side of the words “silber media.”  What do you think?

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hope everyone is doing well

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

So if you go to Silber Media the Lost Kisses DVD is now available for purchase.  It includes a soundtrack by Small Life Form, so you can just leave the speakers on & turn off the TV if you want a new SLF album.

I’ve been having real writer’s block with writing the press releases for the Lost Kisses DVD & the Moodring CD & I need to have them done before I can try to get them ready for promo & distribution.  Hopefully I’ll get that stuff figured out soon.

Did some research to find some more comic book podcasts to promote to partially in research to help some buddies promote theirs.  The variance in quality & number of listeners is interesting because it seems like the two things are unrelated.  Weird.

I got the first order for a single issue of one of my comics in a while & it looks like I only break even on that as Paypal takes $0.33 & the post takes $0.44 which leaves me $0.23 for the envelope & paper & toner & staples & the little plastic bags.  Maybe I make a dime.

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