clickety-click-clack

Posted on December 9, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

So I worked on sending out some of the personal emails about the new web releases rather than just bulking them out.  I got a little over 600 done, so nearly halfway through.  Of course the problem is that with the exception of filling a couple orders that was all I got done today & all I’ll get tomorrow.  It’s like running a label is a job instead of just fun & games sometimes.

I’m supposed to be doing a remix for Heller Mason.  You may recognize the name as we put out an album by him a couple years ago as part of our “we don’t know how to promote americana albums in a way that they sell well even if they’re really good” series.  He’s got some tunes form his new album up on MySpace & if you are into americana in the slowcore vein you should probably check it out.

Everyone heard the rumor about Lycia doing a live show in Phoenix early next year?  I’m not saying it’s true; I’m just saying the rumor was started by Tara….

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Get into the groove

Posted on December 8, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Got a lot updated on the website about the new free releases.  Go to the news page to check them out.  Five releases & probably 4.5 hours of free music.  If you dig them, then buy one of our physical releases.

Talked to Nic Slaton (slicnaton) a bit today about trying to promote a cover tune & how to work it as a digital release that would make a little money.  That’s one of the great mysteries of life though, isn’t it?

Caught up on my emails today.  I have to do some stuff with updating my promo list as I’ve done some name swaps with a couple labels lately to expand things a bit.  After that I can start doing some more promo work on the music stuff.

Other things on the to do list are:
Register new works with BMI
Get a package ready for a music supervisor
Write press release for mini-comics
Send promos of mini-comics out
Make digital version of xo4
Layout panels for xo5 & Lost Kisses 7

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Free Releases from Small Life Form, Remora, Northern Valentine, & slicnaton

Posted on December 7, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

I’ve been writing in the blog everyday instead of updating stuff much here.  But there are five releases you can get for free download right now.  So yeah, check us out, we’re doing stuff.  Also you should buy things so we can keep doing stuff.

Remora: ensoulment Remora
ensoulment
MP3 Album 2008 | Ping Things
1 track, 70 minutes
free download from Ping ThingsA 70 minute aggressive ambient guitar excursion from Remora.
slicnaton/remora/northern valentine - clear field slicnaton / remora / northern valentine
clear field
MP3 Album 2008 | Silber 072
3 tracks, 44 minutes
free download from Archive.orgThe clear field recordings are a unique combination of elements of all three projects. You hear the loops & aggression of Remora’s guitar work, Northern Valentine’s ambient shimmering glacial guitars, & slicnaton’s orchestrated glitch & deep bass tones. While hearing all three individual musicians, it still is clearly a collaboration of the three rather than one of the projects with two special guests; it is a unique sound of its own.: Press release
small life form: alive small life form
alive
MP3 EP 2008 | Silber 071
3 tracks, 21 minutes
free download from Archive.org2007 marked Small Life Form’s live debut & over the next year the style refined, abandoning real horns for a piece of copper pipe, replacing organs with melodica, & vocals with feedback manipulation. Alive is collected from two live recordings in 2008.  They are massive structures built from scratch using a loop pedal, distortion pedals, & reverb units.: Press release
Northern Valentine: stars whisper northern valentine
stars whisper
MP3 EP 2008 | Silber 070
3 tracks, 21 minutes
free download from Archive.orgStars Whisper is a collection of three live songs from Northern Valentine, recorded in their hometown of Philadelphia with a line-up of Robert Brown, Amy Brown, Jeffrey Bumiller, & Marc Carazo. The individual tracks were recorded at The Fire & The Rotunda (as part of “Gate”, an experimental music series).: Press release
winterizing Various Artists
Winterizing
MP3 compilation 2008 | Silber 069
26 tracks, 118 minutes
free download pageThe 2008 installment of our Christmas compilation series.  Strangely enough there seem to be somewhere around zero covers of traditional Christmas tunes this time out.Complete artist roster:
Varde, Hotel Hotel, Clang Quartet, Andrew Weathers, Charles De Mar, Electric Bird Noise, Glissade, Sailor Winters, Miss Massive Snowflake, Goddakk, Gorgons, Small Life Form, Lauri des Marais, Ligo, Moodring, slicnaton, Remora, Moral Crayfish, The Carnage Visors, South West Airline, Northern Valentine, Spotlight Kid, The Left Channel, Recorded Home, The Child of A Creek, Subscape Annex

: Press release
: more info
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That’s clever, comparing my intellect to a cigarette lighter that doesn’t work

Posted on December 7, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Hard to get things going today.  Low energy level.  I guess I’ll have to make up for it tomorrow.  Planning to do some updates to the webpage in regards to the new internet releases & starting to do stuff to promote them.  Also another bout of promo on the Hotel Hotel & Northern Valentine.

I need to work on a press release for the new comic & making the digital version.

I haven’t registered any of my songs on recent releases with BMI yet.  I need to get on the ball about that.

My good friends the Wet Teens are trying to win a contest.  So go here & pick Wet Teens as smash.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something….

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Printing & Prepping

Posted on December 5, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Finished the layout for xo4 & printed out & assembled the first batch.  Now back to work on the follow up & catch up on emails & finishing the Clear Field press release.

Hopefully I’ll see some of you at the show tomorrow. It is going to be a slightly different Remora show than the past couple years.  All drone & what passes for Remora guitar solos.  I’m even setting up a drone guitar in front of the jazz chorus amp as a resonator amplified in the cube amp.  There will be cupcakes & I was going to be giving away the copies of the new xo.

Smell you all tomorrow.

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Free Music

Posted on December 5, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

So I’m uploading the last bit for Clear Field right now, but here are the links to the tons of free music available associated with Silber over the past two weeks.

this year’s christmas compilation
http://www.archive.org/details/silber069-winterizing

live stuff from Northern Valentine
http://www.archive.org/details/NorthernValentineStarsWhisper

live stuff from Small Life Form
http://www.archive.org/details/SmallLifeFormAlive

slicnaton/remora/northern valentine collaboration – clear field
http://www.archive.org/details/slicnaton-remora-northern-valentine_clear_field

Remora’s Ensoulment on Ping Things
http://www.pingthings.com/PTlabel.htm

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moving & grooving

Posted on December 4, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Finally got myself in a working groove (or maybe just seeds are starting to grow).

Scanned in the art for xo 4 & cleaned up the images.  Now it just needs the layout & printing & cutting & folding & stapling & bagging.  Hmm… doesn’t sound as close to done as I thought….

Got some orders filled today & it’s always nice to have a little income.

One of my distributors is wanting to change from the cool way of doing business where they pay up front (which no one does) to working on three month consignment (which is standard).  I guess I can’t complain.  Actually I have another distributor I don’t really work with anymore because my music doesn’t generally fit what they’re about that returned a bunch of stock they had paid for & when I tried to contact them about it, the buyer associated with my account had left & they had no records about things.  I honestly don’t know if they’re in business now.  Of course I could just as easily tell stories about a half dozen places that bellied up owing me money, but I’m trying to keep my good mood today.

Did the preliminary feeler interview for interviewing Northern Valentine for QRD.  Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what the interesting stories to ask about are going to be & the more obscure the artist, the more important that it be a good interview.

Finished the artwork for the Small Life Form Alive EP & got approval for the Northern Valentine EP art.  Tomorrow I’ll hopefully knock out everything for slicnaton/remora/northern valentine: clear field.

As I’m writing this I am uploading the Northern Valentine free EP & the Small Life Form free EP.  Get you stars some links tomorrow.

I’ve been hooked on that MechQuest game lately.  Which to me means playing for fifteen minutes a day.  My robot wears a pilgrim hat & has a pizza cutter for a right arm.

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moving so slowly

Posted on December 3, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Got something done today, sending out invoices to all my distros in the hopes of getting some cash in by the end of the year.  Maybe it will happen with some of them.  It’s weird when I see that Silber “owes” me $32,000 but that other businesses owe Silber $18,000.  I’m not complaining because I know it is the nature of the business, but it is kinda crazy.

Made the mistake of looking at my stock portfolio today.  Down 50% from six months ago.  When is this bounce back supposed to happen?

Caught up on my emails, so that’s always good.

Working on organizing some music for the art show I’m taking part in about 12 days from now.

Going to be working with Brian McKenzie on finally recording the Electric Bird Noise versus Remora disc at the end of the month.  Should be fun.

I need to look through my web statistics for the month of November as I just downloaded it.

Still trying to get things done for the Small Life Form EP, Northern Valentine EP, & Slicnaton/Northern Valentine/Remora EP & doing the mini-comics.  We’ll see what happens….

Does anyone have a good program for sending form emails?  I’m realizing it is cool that I write individual emails to a few hundred reviewers & DJs, but I’d probably be better off with some computer program that can email them for me….

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falling behind

Posted on December 2, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Sometimes it seems all I have time to do in a day is make food & I can’t make headway in my work.

Went to see a friend of mine play bass in a punk band tonight.  It’s funny how much it felt like 1995 to me, people were still wearing the same shirts.  Didn’t Crass & the Misfits break up when I was in elementary school?  You’d think things would’ve updated a bit.  Still a fun show.

Got some headway on the Mecha release finally coming out.  We’ll see.  There’s been a lot of problems with the art over the past 8 months (they’re supposed to be in metal tins & they allegedly were returned to the USA from Italy by customs (it sounds sketchy to everyone involved)).

I need to get some more work done on a lot of things & I need to practice for the Remora show Friday as I want the set to be a little different than the standard set of the past 4 years.  About sixty hours of work between now & Friday night, but I should be able to make it happen.

 

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losing crap

Posted on December 1, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

So I was planning on this Small Life Form EP to have pieces from 6 different performances, but it seems I lost three recordings somehow & one of the others had too much crowd noise (the idea of a crowd for this kind of music is funny I know, but it can happen).  So I edited down one performance & I have one performance to go unless I find the other recordings.

I caught up with all my emails which always takes longer than I anticipate.  & tomorrow marks the first of December & I want to get a bunch done paperwork wise for it being a new month & the last one of the year.  I really have no idea how I was managing to run the label while working a fifty hour day job, but I guess that I am giving the new releases this time a lot more attention (apologies to other bands on the label).

Back to the grind….

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