mixing & kibitzing

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

So I feel like today was a pretty good day.

Got the mixing done on the Small Life Form nuclear recordings.  I’ll need to send them to Environmental Aesthetics soon.  It’s a weird idea to have recordings that I don’t own, almost like being on a “real” label.

Had a bunch of orders to fill today, so that’s always nice.

I was looking at some of the Yahoo Groups I’m on that show their history of traffic over the past five years or so.  They used to get a few thousand posts a month & now they get a dozen.  I still haven’t figured out what happened to everyone.  Two years ago I would’ve said MySpace, but it seems traffic here isn’t as heavy either.  Are people starting to actually communicate with each other in each others physical presence or something?  No… that can’t be it….

Spent several hours doing the follow ups about the releases that went out for review.  A couple hundred personal emails wears me out.  I have no idea how I used to do this when I worked full time.

Ordered a Digitech JamMan pedal.  Not sure if it’s going to make much of an effect on my sound really, but I’ve been thinking about getting it since it was released.  I might having to slightly reorganize my effect chain though.

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start spreading the news

Posted on October 28, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

So today has been nice in accomplishing things.  Posted to a bunch of newsgroups & such about the new releases.  So if you are in any forums you think I should post it to, let me know.

Also added a Rollerball disc to the website that I picked up a few copies of last month.

Edited some more of my records on radio stations thanks to the continued hard work of intern Bill Pernell.  Also sent messages to a couple hundred stations I don’t normally service to see if they’d be interested in the new releases.  Probably about 4 of them will contact me back (I don’t normally service them for a reason).

Got back the word from a couple stations & reviewers that packages have been received.  Going to be doing some follow-ups tonight on the promos that went out.

Sent out some invitations about this years Christmas compilation.  A surprisingly large amount of people seem to think it is just a comp around Christmas time rather than a Christmas compilation.  Maybe that should be the title, “A Christmas Compilation.”

Filled some orders & got a nice big distro order again.  I got a small distro order that needs to go out tomorrow.

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sloppy copy

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

So I might have a problem, seems like I got some timidity from the Ping Things camp on the Remora Derivative record possibly being filled with copyright issues. Now it is theoretically all derivative works (hence the title), but I understand a label having problems with it.  I guess maybe I’ll end up going with a label in a less copyright protecting country if it doesn’t work out.  Of course that means I need to come up with something to record for Ping Things, but I have a couple ideas as always.

Sent the invite outs for the Christmas compilation.  We’ll see if it works out.

Talked Hotel Hotel through the process of filing their songs in a music library for film.  It’s hard to say if things are worth it sometimes as I still haven’t actually received cash since signing up for the music library.  I think contacting individual music supervisors is the way to go, but it’s hard to find the right ones.  On the plus side Panthan has gotten 50% of the listens in the library, which shows that at least the concept was right.

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blistery

Posted on October 26, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Think I finished working on Remora‘s Derivative album.  About 45 minutes long.  Got blisters on three fingers on my left hand from playing so much the past couple days, but one of them is my left thumb & I don’t know how I did that really. Still need to do the art & press stuff& am waiting to make sure Ping Things still wants to work with it.

I’m about 100 emails behind at the moment on the business account.  So I guess I need to get on that.  Sometimes labels actually do try to work for artists & not just steal their money.

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spin into a new sunrise

Posted on October 25, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Filled my first order to a distro of the new releases today.  Waiting for news from the other two or three distros that normally pick stuff up.  Been hearing a lot of people have had problems with that lately.  So it’s nice to know it’s not exclusively a Silber problem.

Filled a couple personal orders too.  Soon I’ll have to start posting about the releases I guess.

I don’t know what’s up with the Paypal links on MySpace, seems they work intermittently.  Maybe it’s about the browser people use.  I need to research it a bit….

Recorded some more parts for the Remora Derivative EP today.  Not sure if it’s going to really be proper to call it an EP as it’s going to be 9 songs & probably an hour long.  But it feels like an album is supposed to be something more well structured as a whole rather than just thematically united.  Anyway, tentative song titles for those of you who want to guess what the record is about are:
Death Planes, Spin into a New Sunrise, All Our Times Have Come, Assassins, Every Prince, Love Corrupt, Into the Light, I Ain’t Afraid, What Did You See There?

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short long days

Posted on October 24, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Just keeping the machine moving along.

Sent the Hotel Hotel & Northern Valentine discs off to record stores.  Emailed the rest of the record stores I’ve vaguely been in touch with over the years.

Wrote the sales blurb stickers for HH & NV.  They’re preliminary stickers as there haven’t been reviews yet & I feel a little more legit with the name of a magazine on the review of the disc.

Did rough mastering jobs on the first four songs for the Derivative EP & a live recording of Remora/Andrew Weathers.

Made Nic Slaton (slicnaton) listen to the preliminaries for Remora’s Derivative EP & he assured me it isn’t hack.  So that’s nice

Went to see some friends bands play (Bryce Clayton Eiman, etc.).  Makes me think I should start my own  brewing company.  Which sounds better Silbeer or Silbrew?

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promo shock

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Started the day late today.  Never a good idea.

I sent in some comics for the Isotope contest at APE in San Francisco.  Hopefully they’ll be able to get an honorable mention, but there’s no telling exactly who I’m up against.

Got the last few songs from the initial Panthan recordings.  So I’ll have to get to work on those at some point.

Wrote the letters for the 19 stores getting promo copies of the new releases, hopefully I’ll get those packages out tomorrow.  I’m always a little leary of sending promos to stores because I know that half of them just go straight to the used bin, but I figure stores that sell my records might give them a couple listens first & sell an extra two copies which makes up for the promo.

Sent out the email solicitations about the release dates to the rest of my record store list.  Also the emails to the press folks that I don’t consistently service.  So just a promo email out to unknown radio folks to go on that end.

Just made a special for you consistent fans.  Five dollars off if you order the Northern Valentine & Hotel Hotel together at our sale page.

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remora-ing

Posted on October 22, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Spent the day working on the Remora: Derivative EP.  Not sure how I feel about it as it feels a little bit uninspired & hack in a way.  A little bit Remora by numbers.  I guess I’ll let a few people hear the results & see if I should abandon it.

Finishing up making the digital promo versions of the new releases.

Figured out a way to make musical equipment glitch.  Take something that uses AC current (like an Alesis Nano Verb) & give it DC power in the proper voltage (in this case 9 volts).  Probably not too great for the unit or the power supply, but it acts pretty nutty.

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Silbering

Posted on October 21, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Talked to the people in charge about the nuclear recordings & it ends up I had the due date wrong, so I’m not going quite as crazy.

I finished sending out the promos to press & radio for the current releases & now I’m working on putting together the digital promos.  Next week I’ll send out the promos for stores.

Started collecting the addresses for sending out the postcards.  Somehow I lost the old file & it’s going to be a bit of a pain to change the data from how it is in my database to what it needs to print them.

I really need to get on the ball getting the word out as I haven’t really posted anything at all as yet.  So over the next week you might see the info on various newsgroups & forums.

I also need to contact folks about the Christmas comp &/or decide if I’m going to actually do it.

I got a check for this quarter’s advertisement links on QRD. $5!  I don’t even know what percentage of the links work these days.  I wonder if anyone makes money off of the Google program.  I think I’ve had it up for maybe two years & am up to $13.65.  Nobody clicks those things!  & I can’t get paid until it makes it to $100.  Maybe you can use www.silbermedia.com/start as your homepage & use that Google search & I’ll get to $100 by 2012.

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mix master

Posted on October 20, 2008 by Brian John Mitchell

Worked more on the nuclear recordings.  Sometimes I get a little anal on things.  I should be able to do the last bit of mixing tomorrow.  I also talked to one of the guys in charge at Environmental Aesthetics (who sponsored the recording) & it ends up that I thought the recordings were due two weeks earlier than they are, so I’m ahead of the curve on exactly one thing in my life.

I guess I’m going to send the last of my promo packages out tomorrow with just Lost Kisses inside.  Which means XO will be in tomorrow afternoon.

 

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