New QRD & New 5in5s

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Brian John Mitchell

Hello,

It’s been about a month & we’ve got a ton of new stuff for you.

First off we have a new issue of QRD.  This issue I went back to talk a little more with the label owners I interviewed four years ago to get some updates on their take of current events in the record industry.  A mix of people who are hopeful & burning out, so I think a pretty good snapshot of things right now.
www.silbermedia.com/qrd

Second through eighth off are new EPs in our five songs in five minutes EP series.  Analog synths, bedroom experiments, guitar drone, & more from Parties, PD Wilder, Llarks, LD&CO, Kirchenkampf, Sagan Youth, & X-Bax.  We even have a special sale going where you get these seven plus Chvad SB & Black Wedding’s 5in5 EPs for just $6.  Or if you don’t have the money, you can listen to them all as a stream.  Help spread the word about the series if you can.
www.silbermedia.com/5in5

Next is that after several months of silence on the comic front, we have three new comics!  New issues of REH & Walrus plus a re-issue of Zombie Kisses #2.  Subscribers should be getting them shortly.  Not already subscribing to our comics or want more info?  Just follow the link
www.silbermedia.com/comics/kickstart.shtml

Thanks for your interest & support.  Spreading the word about the work we’re doing can be just as helpful to us as financial support, so please let people know about us.  If you’d like to be taken off the mailing list just let me know.

Hrt
Brian John Mitchell
Silber Media
www.silbermedia.com

http://twitter.com/silberspy

Hello,

It’s been about a month & we’ve got a ton of new stuff for you.

First off we have a new issue of QRD.  This issue I went back to talk a little more with the label owners I interviewed four years ago to get some updates on their take of current events in the record industry.  A mix of people who are hopeful & burning out, so I think a pretty good snapshot of things right now.

www.silbermedia.com/qrd

Second through eighth off are new EPs in our five songs in five minutes EP series.  Analog synths, bedroom experiments, guitar drone, & more from Parties, PD Wilder, Llarks, LD&CO, Kirchenkampf, Sagan Youth, & X-Bax.  We even have a special sale going where you get these seven plus Chvad SB & Black Wedding’s 5in5 EPs for just $6.  Or if you don’t have the money, you can listen to them all as a stream.  Help spread the word about the series if you can.

www.silbermedia.com/5in5

Next is that after several months of silence on the comic front, we have three new comics!  New issues of REH & Walrus plus a re-issue of Zombie Kisses #2.  Subscribers should be getting them shortly.  Not already subscribing to our comics or want more info?  Just follow the link
www.silbermedia.com/comics/kickstart.shtml

Thanks for your interest & support.  Spreading the word about the work we’re doing can be just as helpful to us as financial support, so please let people know about us.  If you’d like to be taken off the mailing list just let me know.

 Hrt

Brian John Mitchell

Silber Media

www.silbermedia.com

http://twitter.com/silberspy

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Behind the Scenes

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Brian John Mitchell

I hope everyone is doing well.  I know I never blog lately.  Still planning to get back into it one day.  Anyway, some things are going on.

You may remember back in 2008 I was doing some stuff helping people with mastering their records & a few other things & after a couple years I let it fizzle out.  Anyway, the past week I’ve been doing a bunch of work on the next ten or so Silber releases (pretty ridiculous to be working on them all at once, I know) & I rediscovered how much I enjoy tinkering with other people’s music.  So I’m offering some services up again doing mastering & mixing for $25 an hour.  I just mastered an album for somebody & with the increase in computer speeds I was shocked to find it only taking an hour!  So yeah, I may be under charging, but I look at it as something I like to do using skills I actually have & it’s better than going back to work in retail (spoiler, this might happen).  Anyway, if you need help or know anyone who does, spread the word.  Here’s a link.

So as I said above, a ton of stuff coming up.  Seven EPs for the 5in5 series will all be coming out more or less at once.  Then a few other releases.  Also some comics (new REH & new Walrus).  & then a QRD.  So yeah, we’re working.  Hoping to bring more excitement to your world, or at least helping you to feel less uniquely alone.

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Homes

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Brian John Mitchell

So yesterday after two stressful months, closing finally came on the house I’m buying.  It’s a huge relief.  Now a week of trying to get everything moved in & getting my life in an order that makes sense to see if I can work more or less under the new system.  I have been having a real wax & wane over my hopes/plans for Silber in the future.  Some days I’m like, “Heck yeah!  Silber made a little money this week!” & other days I’m like, “What I made in a week, I need to make every single day.”  & I’ve read a couple articles in the past couple of days about people’s art being good instead of great because of spending more time running promotion than working on music & it feels true.  It’s been over two years since a Small Life Form release, three years since a Remora release, & almost 6 months since a comic.  I guess part of it was that the snow let me have time off from my daily grind this week & made me really notice the lack of income & the reality of my lack of output lately.

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New 5in5s from Chvad SB & Black Wedding

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Brian John Mitchell

Hello,

I announced in the first newsletter of 2015 that Silber was going to have a bunch of releases coming up. I know just a week or so ago I told you about the Broken Hearts Broken Sounds compilation (which has actually been getting more blogging buzz than anything we’ve done in a while, which is awesome) & a new issue of QRD, but we already have new things ready for you.  Our 5in5 series is back with two new installments.  If you aren’t familiar with the series, the challenge (or opportunity) is to make 5 songs with a total play time of 5 minutes.

Black Wedding: Recursive
Black Wedding is a collaboration between Joshua Heinrich (fornever) & Julie Johnson (Grave Concerns).  Their 5in5 entry is sure to please those interested in either new wave or darkwave.
http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/blackwedding-recursive.shtml

Chvad SB: Outside the Shadow...
Chvad SB is back with his first release of 2015 (this guy is doing a lot this year!).  For his 5in5 entry he’s exploring with his guitar doing music varying from soothing to unsettling.
http://www.silbermedia.com/chvad-sb/Outside-the-Shadow.shtml

What’s next? 5in5s from Llarks, Parties, & PD Wilder.  A live EP from Remora as a trio.  An EP from What Does the Scanner See.  More than that too… it might be a make it or break it year for us.  But aren’t they all?

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it in the newsletter previously, but I moved to a small town called Sanford, NC about a year ago & I’m actually buying a house here.  The cost of living is lower & the quality of living is higher & will hopefully end up giving me more space & time to dedicate to Silber.  It’s kind of a little scary to be honest, as it definitely is letting go of some of the Silber dreams, but it is also embracing the idea I’ve had since going to rural Mississippi back in 1997 that if I headquartered Silber some place more reasonably priced that it would take less money to make it work & that the lack of external distractions would cause more work to be done.  Almost 20 years late on the idea, but we’ll see if I was right.

Thanks for your interest & support; as always, spreading the word about the work we’re doing can be just as helpful to us as financial support.  If you’d like to be taken off the mailing list just let me know.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

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New Compilation & New QRD

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Brian John Mitchell

So we have a new compilation on Silber.  It’s curated by long time Silber friend Michael Wood.  I met him playing a show at his record store/club The Lazy I back in the 1990s.  He let me sleep in his house that night even though he wasn’t staying there at the time.  Punk rock at its finest.  Over the years he’s made numerous appearances here at Silber as Mister Science, Michael Mercury of The Wet Teens, & an interview in QRD as well as helping to book for some Silber bands & allies.  So he asked me about helping him release a compilation of some of the acts he’s working with as a booking agent & with Remora & Electric Bird Noise in that list I really didn’t have a choice but to help him out!  Anyway, here it is Broken Hearts Broken Sounds as a free download for a limited time.

I also just put up a new issue of QRD.  This issue has guitarists (including Fred Frith), cartoonists, & Electric Bird Noise.  Doing my best to bring you stuff to read while you are at work.

Lately I’ve been thinking about starting to blog again.  In part to get me back of the level of discipline it takes to complete projects on a regular basis & that blogging holds me more in the limelight as far as whether or not I am a good stewart of my time & talents & in part to just kick the dust off some of my writing ability.  Will I actually do it?  Who knows.

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Happy New Year from Silber

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Brian John Mitchell

Hello,

Welcome to 2015.  2014 was a pretty ambitious year for us at Silber.  25 releases, which I think is the most we’ve ever done in a year.  So what’s the plan for 2015?  Beat it.  If I can get my act together there will be around 16 releases in the first 4 months of 2015.  Digital re-issues of out of print releases from If Thousands, Rllrbll, & Electric Bird Noise.  Over a half dozen EPs in the 5in5 series.  Three compilations.  The Infant Cycle retrospective.  New releases from Chvad SB, Remora, Andrew Weathers, & Space Sweeper.  Probably more ready before all of that comes out.

20 years ago this month I was typing up & cutting & pasting together the first issue of QRD.  I probably only made 30 of them.  At the peak of popularity I think I printed up 700 copies, but a few years later the internet started to kill off zines & eventually I succumbed to being a webzine.  Anyway, I have about half of issue 70 done (so far mainly cartoonists), so hopefully that will come out next month.

I’ve gotten a few comic scripts out to artists to draw in the past week.  New issues of REH, Seabase17, Lost Kisses, & a new series called Ship should be out in the next couple of months & hopefully I’ll get the script for Walrus #4 finished as well as a script for another new series called Faun.

I started pushing people towards Spotify a few months ago to see if I could get streaming revenue to work for Silber.  Well, I got the answer.  I went from getting $3-$4 from Spotify a month to $20-$40 a month.  So I started making ten times as much, which is awesome, but it’s still not making up for the reduction of sales from just a few years ago.  Though I must say that I personally have had a lot of good feelings listening to the Silber catalog on random play.  There really has been a lot of good stuff we’ve put out over the years.  It only takes 90 hours to listen to the stuff we have on Spotify so far.
https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/27NjmkRh1NqqDYIf64Fmp1

Last year I did a digital download bundle of all the releases of the previous year at a discount & it was a pretty big hit.  So I’m offering that again along with a special on our ten most popular albums of 2014.  The special will expire the end of January.
http://www.silbermedia.com/sale/

Just a reminder for those of you in need.  I do custom one-inch buttons & magnets.  Trying to get a few orders flowing to start 2015 in the black if you or any one you know needs some.
http://www.silbermedia.com/buttons/custom.shtml

Thanks for your continued interest & support.

Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

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Silber’s Most Popular Releases of 2014

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Brian John Mitchell

What were the ten most popular releases on Silber in 2014?  It might surprise you as some of them suprised us.  You get all ten of them for just $20!  Here’s what you get:
Chvad SB: Crickets Were the Compass
Our biggest release of 2014 was pur first time working with Chvad.  Dark ambient & how did he come to work with us?  Through a suggestion from Clang Quartet!

Origami Arktika: Absolut Gehor
I love Origami Arktika & I guess other people do too.  That Einstürzende Neubauten had links to this album probably didn’t hurt the interest in this one.

Various Artist: QRD – The Guitarists
This massive beast took me hundreds of hours to work on (mainly because of the several thousand page associated interview book).  I really thought it was going to be a release that got people re-excited about Silber & would make all the people who thought we had gone out of business know who we are again.  While it didn’t work out quite like that, it is an awesome & massive thing.

Feel No Other: Feel No Other
I was surprised this ended up this high on the list.  The full length debut of this cinematic darkwave side project of Electric Bird Noise.

If Thousands: For
I’m so glad this made the chart.  A few months before we put this out with Silber, If Thousands put it out themselves on Bandcamp to limited notice & we were really glad to be able to help people hear the relaunch of this great band.

Thorn1: The Light of Random Star
This is my personal favorite album of 2014.  Another one I thought would get Silber a lot of attention, but I’m happy with the ability to get great records heard at all.

Electric Bird Noise: Kind of Black
Electric Bird Noise is becoming the flagship of Silber lately.  The title Kind of Black is a refernce to Miles Davis’s Kind Of Blue & this album is some kind of post jazz ambient guitar mash-up.

Various Artists: Across the Mountains
This compilation really follows one of my main goals with Silber, getting music from one corner of the globe to another.  A lot of people don’t even know Macedonia is a country, let alone are they aware of a healthy experimental music scene being there.  So I’m pretty stoked that this came together & that people care.

Yellow6: Closer To The Sea Without Moving
In 2013 we got to start working with Yellow6 because of the 5in5 series.  I never thought Jon would ask us to help him put out an album.  Pretty happy to work with a lifelong pier this far into both his & our legacies.

Slicnaton: Autoscopy
I’m really glad to have this in the chart as it was at least four years in the making & while it seemed to get some attention from Silber piers (notably Brian Bird Noise, Chvad SB, & Brian Remora), it didn’t seem to get the critical attention it deserved, but at least people are listening to it!

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& Now It’s 2015

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Brian John Mitchell

Looking back, 2014 was a pretty ambitious year for Silber.  25 musical releases including the massive QRD compilation & ebook.  4 issues of QRD. 14 mini-comics.  2 Kickstarters.  5 comic conventions. About 10 live shows from Remora/Small Life Form.  It was hard to accomplish & I couldn’t have done it without your financial & emotional support.  Thanks for your interest & support & I look forward to getting you all more good music, comics, & interviews in 2015.

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I’m the best? & the Silber Newsletter

Posted on December 6, 2014 by Brian John Mitchell

So as most of you know, I have pretty much always run promotion for Silber releases in house.  On occasion a friend hires a promotions house & they’ll get a copy of their promo list & send it to me to help expand the Silber list, which is really kind of them (usually in exchange I mention their release in the newsletter I send out to press).  Anyway, so this happened a few weeks ago & I’m just doing my new promo blast.  A third of the email addresses I was given are bouncing.  I totally understand that reviewers & bloggers get burned out quick & it’s a constant battle to keep things up to date, but if you are charging people between a couple hundred & a couple thousand dollars that shit is really unacceptable.  I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that I feel like I’m getting to be higher & higher in the ranks of competent people in the music industry as others get less professional.

Curious what I was promoting?  Here’s the newsletter:

Hey Kidz,
A lot going on here in Silberia this December.  Next week I’ll be emailing you about our Christmas EPs. It looks like there are going to be seven of them.  But here’s what’s up for now….
The 5 songs in 5 minutes series is back & going strong.  Last time I told you about the new one from Lost Trail.  This time out we have ones from Can Can Heads (Finnish no wave post jazz), Goddakk (guitar mutilations), Matteo Preabianca (sonic collages), & Frank Alexander (industrial noise to ultra smooth).  All free to stream on the site & show your support for your favorite by downloading it for a buck.  More coming soon.
http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/
Plumerai has recently reformed as DRLNG & we have their post-pop shoegazery debut EP available for download (& the band has limited quantities of it on vinyl if you need them).  If you loved Siouxsie & The Banshees or The Cure growing up, definitely check them out.
http://www.silbermedia.com/DRLNG/icarus.shtml
I know some people love Bandcamp.  I’ve been putting the new releases up there recently.  So if you want to follow us on that site, we’re at https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com
I got a few comic scripts done recently that I need to get out to the artists to draw (Seabase 17, REH, & a new series called Ship).  Trying to get caught up from the aftermath of the successful Kickstarter (we got five times the requested funding – if you missed the backing window, you go here – http://silbermedia.com/comics/kickstart.shtml ).
I guest starred on the Canned Air Podcast last week where I out-nerded some comic book nerds.  We talked about Star Wars, Howard the Duck, Doom Patrol, Steve Ditko, & of course my mini-comics.
http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/3206025
Thanks for all your interest & support, it really means a lot to me & if you can let a couple people know about us it really helps out.  If you want to be taken off our mailing list, just let me know.

Hrt
Brian John Mitchell
Silber Records
www.silbermedia.com

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Life is Worth Living

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Brian John Mitchell

I used to make a point to post on here more or less every day, now it’s one or two times a month & I wonder if that matters to anyone?  If it matters to you then maybe follow on Twitter or Facebook as I’m somewhat active on both of those lately.

Anyway, a lot going on & a lot of work here at Silber HQ & I’m being slowed down by my concerted effort to have a decent quality of life instead of dedicating every possible moment to Silber.  That said, we’re about to launch a bunch of music releases – new 5 in 5 EPs, the debut EP from DRLNG, & a bunch of Christmas EPs from Electric Bird Noise, Yellow6, Remora, Small Life Form, Firetail, Baptizer, & a Drekka side project.  If you live in the triangle area, Small Life Form & Clang Quarter will both be participating in Experimental Xmas at the Nightlight on December 12.

On the comic front I have five comics waiting for me to have time to draw & four comics waiting for me to have time to do second drafts of that are near ready to send to artists.

QRD of course will go on forever, but it is very much on the back burner at the moment until I get a bunch of other things out of the way.  Might get a new issue out this year or it may be early next year.  I tend to think next year as interviews can be hard to come by when everyone is running around with Christmas obligations.

I don’t think I mentioned it on here, but November 2014 was one of Silber’s best financial months in the past 5 years.  A perfect storm with decent unanticipated checks coming in from three different distibutors, some large personal orders, a bunch of button orders, & of course the comic Kickstarter.  I’m pretty stoked about it.  I can’t wait to get the paperwork done so I can get the checks out to the bands.

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