photo ops & email flops

Posted on November 10, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

So today I did a series of about 50 photos for potential use on Remora’s Mecha.  Waiting to hear back about that.  I also did a rough cover for Remora’s Ensoulment, but I’m always a little confuse exactly how covers & liner notes are supposed to work on MP3 only releases.

Still working on follow up messages for the two new releases.  Also sent out a little email with an order form to everyone who’s ordered stuff direct in the past five years.

Doing a little bit of researching for advertising.  Looks like I’ll be able to get some that are worth their price.  Think I’ll suspend my Google ad account to pay for them….

Some of the Christmas comp submissions are starting to roll in.

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misdirection

Posted on November 9, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

So today I worked on what I assume will replace “assassins” on the Derivative disc.  A song called “Misdirection”  which is a ripped off riff I play all the time & I think was pretty much identically used in one of the Panthan rock songs.  It’s based on Pere Ubu’s song “Final Solution.”

Tried to write some songs for “The Call of…” (what do you think, should the “of” be capitalized?) & discovered my ability to play my twelve string acoustic has diminished a bit over the three or four years since I played it regularly.  Still, the one song “We Come from the Sea” is pretty sweet even though it sounds like a b-side from Michael Gira’s I Am Singing to You from My Room.

I got a couple complete mini-comic series orders (the mini-comics are hot lately) & I had to reprint & assemble some, which shouldn’t take all day, but somehow does.

Does anyone know if MySpace lets you check if people have your songs loaded into the little personal players people have on their sites?  I want to change some songs, but would hate to lose the exposure if people are actually using them.

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still a day behind

Posted on November 8, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

I always think when I finish a layout that something is done, but it takes a day to print & assemble things.  Like say a little catalog for example that I spent 5 hours cutting up & packing for the mailing (this time out it’s only going to international folks who have placed more than one order in the past, but probably they’ll start going in every direct order).

Gears of Sand has agreed to put out Remora’s Derivative CD.  Going to be looking into changing out one of the songs, so I hope to finish up recording it this weekend.

Been chasing a couple leads for a little more distro, we’ll see what happens.

I’m supposed to have some practice/writing sessions for my new band “The Call Of…” next week.  I know, you’re thinking, “How many bands does this guy need to be in?” But this one I’m not the only member of!

Still need to try to get to work on cover art & ads.  But I have ideas, so they should move pretty swiftly.

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catlogging

Posted on November 7, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

So it took me basically all day, but I designed what I think is a pretty nice little print catalog.  Of course that means printing & assembling tomorrow.

Just about to go over today’s emails & such & update what’s going on with the new releases.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to design a few ads for the new places a couple places.  We’ll see what I’m able to actually get done.

It looks like Remora’s Ensoulment will be coming out on Ping Things.  Gotta design the cover art.

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envelop

Posted on November 5, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

I got some mini-comic orders today & needed to print, cut, & assemble them.  I got a review on a blog that I guess is popular enough to actually generate sales (over the years I’ve found reviews general generate name recognition, but not sales).

Did the mastering for Remora’s Ensoulment today.  Waiting to see if it gets accepted for Ping Things.  Kinda towards the heavy metal ambient side of Remora & maybe it has a little too much distortion & envelope filter (if that’s possible, I’m thinking about changing from a reverb based rig to an envelope filter based rig, nobody does that! I used two envelope filters on this & I don’t think they really work in conjunction, but to run on two or more channels might be pretty cool.).  Edited out a few minutes to bring it down to about 72 minutes.  It was actually kind of a pain to master because my computer kept freaking out because of the song size.

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Sleeping the Sleep

Posted on November 4, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Slept the day away a little (luckily I had some dreams which may come to fruition in issue 3 of Worms if I ever make it).  Then spent an hour making a semi-fancy breakfast/lunch type deal.

Filled a bunch of orders today & wrote some more follow up emails to press & radio.

Tomorrow is the big day as it’s the street release of Northern Valentine & Hotel Hotel.

Going to work on the Remora EP/album Ensoulment a little before bed.

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Even I Don’t Know

Posted on November 3, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

I meant to mention yesterday that Studs Terkel died on Friday.  For those of you who don’t know him, he’s kinda like a fifty year older version of Ira Glass.  Amazing interviewer & really smart guy.  I am kind of upset that the local press turned his obituary into an Obama ad, saying he had wanted to live to see Obama become president (in an interview a month ago Studs said both that he was ready to die & that he wasn’t convinced Obama could win, but what are facts to get in the way for?).  I mean who wants their obituary to mention something trivial like that?  It may as well have said he was hoping to live to see the release of Hotel Hotel’s The Sad Sea & Northern Valentine’s The Distance Brings Us Closer (both released November 4, election day).

I did some more updating on the Silber radio list thanks to Jim Kiley’s help.

I spent some time today talking to Robert Brown of Northern Valentine bullying him into joining BMI.  (I don’t know why so many musicians don’t join some place to get their publishing money.  It’s like saying, “Some money fell out of your pocket,”  & the reply is, “It’s too much work to pick it up.”)  Also discussed pushing back the free Northern Valentine EP back to coincide with the Christmas Compilation & a couple other internet only specials.

I’m not even sure where my day went.  Seems like I didn’t get a lot done today.  Probably because I joined these MySpace Mafia Wars & American Gangster apps with the idea people would see the current avatar ad & buy something (strangely enough I did get a friend request through it, so maybe the scheme will work).

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catching up

Posted on November 2, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

So I got in my submission for the grant.  Crossed fingers on that one.

Finally getting fairly caught up from a day without the internet.  What would I really do if I go on tour for a month?  Just never catch up I guess.

It looks like Silber is going totally exploitive on the child labor front.  Our record store contact list is going to be re-worked & updated by a group of high schoolers as a class project.  The teacher in charge of course is a fan.

The show No Heroics that I have been watching hit its season finale at episode six.  Now I need to find something else to look forward to every week.

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the power is on

Posted on November 1, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

So today I answered most of the 100 emails from the internet free day & filled the couple of orders.

I also found out that an application for a grant that I thought was do Monday by internet submission is required to have a physical application also (why both & not one or the other is beyond me).  So I need to get it done tonight to have it ready to mail the physical in the morning.

Got the word from Ping Things that they aren’t going to put out Remora’s Derivative release, so anyone interested in putting out a potential copyright infringing derivative work guitar record let me know.  That also means more work on Remora’s Ensoulment in a big hurry.

Hotel Hotel & Northern Valentine hit stores Tuesday. The reviews & radio spins are starting to come in.  I’ll be posting them here I suppose.

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losing lines

Posted on October 31, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

So my internet has been out the past couple days & I’m at a friends house to write the little blog.  My phone actually is out too, which is both nice & annoying.

Yesterday I spent inking my brother’s niece’s comic & then scanning it in & laying it out.  So it’s like I did a good deed.

Finished mixing/mastering the Small Life Form nuclear recordings & mailed those in to Environmental Aesthetics.

Worked on recording a new Remora EP thing tentatively titled “ensoulment.”  Long form guitar drone.  I’ll see what happens.  The main reason for doing it is not knowing if Ping Things is going to accept “Derivative” or not.

Printed out 50 copies of Lost Kisses 6 for if XO4 ever actually comes in so I’ll have the promos ready.  Driving me pretty crazy waiting on that.

Last night I watched Crash (the Cronenberg one) when working on some stuff.  I remembered trying to watch it 10 years ago & I couldn’t take it, I thought it was torture porn or something & only watched a couple minutes.  Maybe it’s because of having been in a car crash since, but the movie made sense to me as the weird metaphorical statement that I assume Cronenberg wanted to make.  I like Cronenberg a lot, but I think he’s too intense for me sometimes.

So just got on here to check emails & orders & it’s overwhelming.  Downloading my messages to my machine & I guess I’ll upload the replies tomorrow.

 

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