Upcoming Releases, SLF show, Robert E Howard, Headaches

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Brian John Mitchell

Wow, I haven’t typed up anything in the blog in almost a week. Apologies to you avid fans.

Been pretty busy trying to work up the press release for the new Remora, trying to figure out some stuff for the upcoming mwvm, Goddakk, & Plumerai. & of course some things with the new Azalia & Electric Bird Noise.

The Small Life Form show the other morning was good. I wish I’d recorded it. The new amp seems to work great for the show.

I got in the art for my “auto-bio” comic about Robert E. Howard. Not sure when it’ll come out. I also have a couple new potential collaborators that I need to get scripts for. Just trying to find the time to get everything done.

For unknown reasons I’ve been exhausted lately. Probably because I also have been getting these headaches from sun exposure that I don’t remember getting since I was in middle school. I guess they are what most people would consider migraines, but having dated a girl who really had migraines (meaning headaches where she’d be slumped in a chair drooling & non-communicative & I’d carry her to bed) I wouldn’t call them that. I think the cure for them might have been chronic use of hallucinogens? Hmmm… I might be getting way too old for that solution.

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Commissions Project – Remora’s russian pop cover

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Brian John Mitchell

Okay, so I finally gave up on this cover song for the commissions project.  The video is intentionally semi horrible.

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2 Responses to Commissions Project – Remora’s russian pop cover

  1. GoddakkAttack says:
    June 17, 2011 at 8:32 am

    so did you wear the captain america shirt to rep your home team or because you liked teh star motif going on?

  2. Brian John Mitchell says:
    June 17, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    I thought about wearing the whole russian military uniform I got for the short film I never made, but it’s too hot around here.

Typical Stuff & A Dumb Video

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Brian John Mitchell

Well I got a little bit done today.  I sent out the email newsletter.  I stickered up a bunch of discs going out for distribution.  Sent out a bunch of emails to comic reviewers.  Worked a bit on Lost Kisses #22.  Worked on a little ad for the new releases.  Did some work on the mwvm artwork.  I guess that covers most of the day.

Oh, here’s a dumb little promo I made for the new Remora record.

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Special Sales, Maker Faire NC, Nostalgia Equals Distortion, Drone Chef?, Reviewer Research, QR Codes, Dreams

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Brian John Mitchell

I forgot to mention on the blog the other day that I have some sale specials going on.  Pre-order physical copies of the new Remora album for just $5, get 4 previous Remora albums for $15, or get the Azalia Snail & Electric Bird Noise bundled together for $20.  So yeah, get stuff at a good deal for a limited time.

So today I got my mini-comics table confirmed for Maker Faire NC (this Saturday).  Which is great, except it means I need to print & assemble a bunch of mini-comics.  I’ll also be doing a Small Life Form show at 10am.  So come out & watch me play & assemble comics.

There are a couple new posts over on Nostalgia Equals Distortion, one about guitar pedals & one about Red Dawn.  Hope you dig them.

I’ve been thinking about making a cooking blog as well (tentatively titled Drone Chef).  I don’t know.  I’ve been talking about it for a while & it seems like it could be fun, but of course I fear it would stall out after ten entries like most blogs do.

Did some work on finding more reviewers to service today & that was the big time taking task for the day.

So I’ve been looking into making some QR Code (the two dimensional barcodes decipherable by smartphones) stickers as promo items.  Sarah June gave me the idea & I think she got it from Lupe Fiasco.  Basically you just put the stickers up around town & people wonder what they are so they scan them & then they are on your website or whatever.

Last Night’s Dreams:
A girl from my distant past comes to my house to meet me for breakfast at 5am.  I’m exhausted & tired & feel drained before she gets to the house & still am after eating.  I tell her I want to take a shower & she says she’ll join me & the idea doesn’t come across as either exciting nor repulsive; I simply don’t care.  I’m in the shower & when she steps in she’s still wearing her clothes which really confuses me.

I’m working on a comic that is basically done by tracing photos (which I guess is what some comics do), but strangely the woman who’s agreed to star/model for it is Gwyneth Paltrow & I’m taking pictures of her sitting at a desk in a cave.

I find a pile of small stones in the basement that are both magnetic & radioactive.  I’m not sure what to do with them.

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One Response to Special Sales, Maker Faire NC, Nostalgia Equals Distortion, Drone Chef?, Reviewer Research, QR Codes, Dreams

  1. GoddakkAttack says:
    June 14, 2011 at 9:25 pm

    that barcode thing….there’s some sort of ScavengerHunt promo thing they do here with that. I never looked into it…but maybe you can get sponsorship with your local DQ.

Myrtle Beach, QRD, Long Days

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Brian John Mitchell

My Myrtle Beach trip & Remora show was a lot of fun.  Irata was pretty awesome as a three piece.  I got some pretty good video of Electric Bird Noise.  Rode a 20 story ferris wheel after a half dozen tequila shots.  Swam in the ocean a couple hours.  Good times.

I got up the Father’s Day Special of QRD.  I’ve been pushing QRD for a year as an experiment to raise visibility, traffic, & revenue & it looks like the experiment maybe failed.  So after I get the three issues up that I’ve got the files for already, things might go back to the intermittent schedule of an issue or two per year.  I don’t know.  I guess I just have to play it by ear with how I feel & what my priorities are.  But the bottom-line is it seems the 200 interviews generated $50 in revenue in somewhere near 200 hours of work on my end.  Maybe long-tail they will generate more revenue, but I was really hoping to get around $1000 for it all.  I feel like I offer a way better deal than any other webzine for advertising with the permanent ad placement thing & a price of $10, but I contacted around 1000 potential advertisers (including labels featured in the magazine) to only get 4 advertisers.  Of course when I go to other music webzines it seems like the advertisers are all kickback deals from cell phone companies or iTunes or Honda.  So whatever.  One day maybe I’ll figure out a way to make money on QRD, but it hasn’t happened yet.  I’m thinking about trying selling digital versions of it as PDFs on Amazon or something & see if anything happens.

I worked on Lost Kisses #22 a bit today.  I think about 1/3 of it drawn.  Of course I always do the easiest panels first….

It’s been a long day trying to catch up on things from being out of town for a few days.  I guess that’s normal.

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Remora, QRD, New Releases, Jack Kirby

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Brian John Mitchell

Did the adjustments for the Remora: Scars Bring Hope art to make the digital booklet.  So I should be getting up the digital version for sale pretty soon.

Packed some of the stuff for the Remora trip/show on Saturday.  I also practiced a bit (rare I know) for the show.  & then Friday night is a full band practice down in Myrtle Beach.

Got out the Azalia Snail & Electric Bird Noise to the distros.  $50 in shipping.  Hopefully the money will come back in fairly soon.  Still have a couple distros I haven’t heard from for getting them out.

I found a vocoder plugin I kinda like for making some robot voice stuff.  Look out for the future in a couple songs.

I got in the roughs for the new mwvm & Jon DeRosa (solo poppy thing from Aarktica) releases.  Going to check them out in the car tomorrow & start working on press releases in my mind.

Did some work towards the next QRD.  I might get it up tomorrow.  Just depends on how the morning goes.

Nick Marino shared a link to this Jack Kirby documentary, worth checking out…

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3 Responses to Remora, QRD, New Releases, Jack Kirby

  1. Nick says:
    June 10, 2011 at 5:51 am

    Will the new mwvm have a physical release?

  2. Brian John Mitchell says:
    June 10, 2011 at 8:00 am

    We’re planning to have a physical of the mwvm. Still debating exactly how to do it packaging wise, so the release probably won’t be out before August.

  3. Nick says:
    June 11, 2011 at 7:47 am

    Thanks for the good news, Brian.

Azalia Snail, Electric Bird Noise, Peter Aldrich, Dreams

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Brian John Mitchell

Did some more work today on the Azalia Snail & Electric Bird Noise releases.  Wrote up the blurb stickers for the copies going to stores, contacted a bunch of radio stations, started prepping the copies going out to stores, sent videos to video blogs.  Things are starting to roll with those.  Just time to start crossing fingers sales wise.

I was talking to Brian McKenzie (Electric Bird Noise) today about how it seems like since 2008 politics seem hipper than music.  I know it seems like I see more political than music posts on Facebook & that’s kinda weird to me.

Peter Aldrich stopped by Silber HQ to borrow an amp.  So it seems like he’s going to be doing a little bit more music sooner rather than later.

Last Night’s Dreams
My niece & nephew are staying over & they keep waking me up making noise.  They finally lay down ready to sleep when it’ time to get them in the car for our trip & I wake them up saying, “Sorry mother fuckers, it’s time to go.”

I have my body covered in the gelatin that gummi bears are made of forming an inch thick coating around my clothes.  I’m at the beach with my girlfriend & we’re about to have sex under a pier when I realize I want to break up with her & tell her so & start to walk away.  She starts yelling, “I’m an hour & a half, not fifteen minutes!” & is hitting me & I can’t out run her because of the gummi suit.

I’m setting up a table for a mini-comic convention is Savannah & Silber intern Bill Pernell shows up having driven up from Florida & is wearing the same clothes he has on in his Silber staff photo.

I’m on tour as a three piece band & we have three separate hotel rooms so that we can have time away from each other.  I lose my key & my wallet is in my room so I don’t know how to get back in the room as the desk won’t give me a key without an ID, so I sleep leaning against my door.  I wake up in the morning & there’s a bunch of cops around because a ton of people were robbed last night on the other side of the hallway in which I was sleeping.

For some reason I’m in Dayton & Jason Young (Veggie Dog Saturn) got me a temp job working at Mavericks (the comic shop where he works).  Either he doesn’t trust me or really loves the shop because he’s there on his day off hanging out at the gamers’ table.

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3 Responses to Azalia Snail, Electric Bird Noise, Peter Aldrich, Dreams

  1. GoddakkAttack says:
    June 8, 2011 at 8:13 am

    kids figured out politics create conversations and music creates a void.

  2. GoddakkAttack says:
    June 10, 2011 at 8:32 am

    also i think your 2008 timestamp is incorrect as it started much earlier.

  3. Brian John Mitchell says:
    June 10, 2011 at 12:24 pm

    2008 is when I got laid-off from the airport so getting the extra free time probably helped me notice as I hadn’t really had much free time since my grandma moved in back in 2002.

Remora, Harlan Ellison, Peter Aldrich, Dreams

Posted on June 4, 2011 by Brian John Mitchell

Yesterday I finally got the new Remora record sent out for manufacturing.  Which of course means I now need to get on the ball about writing up the press release.  I’m always torn about writing my own press release, so if anyone is interested in helping on it, give me a shout.

Yesterday I finally watch Dreams With Sharp Teeth (the Harlan Ellison documentary).  You can check out my review on Finally Checking It Out that also has some interviews with Ellison that I think are more revealing & interesting than the documentary.  Anyway it’s made me think a bit more about am I an enthusiastic amateur artist or a struggling/failing professional one & which is it better to be?  & where is the line between the two?  It seems that the professional artist class is slowly dying off (perhaps in part replaced by the totally bizarre professional celebrity class) so I guess one day the difference between the two will be a bit of a novelty.  I should think about more upbeat things.

So I was hanging out with Peter Aldrich last night & he relatively recently bought one of those $600 pedals that can do everything you’d ever want & of course he’s running into the too many options thing with it.  So he started approaching it as it only having the ability to be his three most important pedals & he says he’s much more satisfied with it.  It’s interesting how that works.  It’s a lot easier to push limits when you can see what they are.  Anyway, his album should be ready around December 24, 2012 (the day after the end of the world).

I sent a script out to a potential new comics collaborator.  We’ll see if it works out.

Last Night’s Dream
I’m on tour for comic book stuff & I get to the city a day early & I have no place to stay.  It ends up my eldest brother has a room at the hotel across the street from where I have a room & invites me to stay with him.  When I get to the room there are over a dozen other people staying in the hotel room & they’re all drunk.  I’m too fucking old for this shit.

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death & dreams

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Brian John Mitchell

So I finished going through the bouncing promo emails this morning & two of the contacts kinda messed with me.  The sites were down (which of course happens with blogs) & when I Googled the reviewer names to see if they were still doing reviews, all the articles that came up were obituary stories.  It’s probably worth noting that they didn’t die together & weren’t related in anyway.  The other thing it makes me wonder about is if I died & there were such articles about me, would people assume it was some kind of publicity stunt like they did with Andy Kaufman?

Last Night’s Dreams
I’m flying home on one of those 50 seat ERJs & when I get off the plane & onto the tarmac I instinctively walk up to the cargo bin & start unloading luggage.

I’m on tour with Alan Sparhawk & while it is not after the apocalypse, it is after the second civil war that divide the US into smaller nations & decimated a lot of the infrastructure including the power grid (umm… the John Titor thing?).  He pulls the van off the road by a bridge crossing a frozen river & he tells me we’re going to be sleeping on the ice.  I ask him if it’s safe & he says usually it doesn’t flow too much.  At some point in the night I wake up with several feet of snow having buried me in my sleeping bag & I am stretching up trying to find the top of the snow but it’s too deep.

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Keeping on

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Brian John Mitchell

Most of today I was working on the Remora artwork.  I’ll be thankful when I really do stop doing physical releases with some of the headaches involved with that.  You know, doing the artwork in one program & then having it converted to a preferred program by a print shop creating slight shifts in placement & such.  So this time I’m trying to make it in a way harder to screw up than usual by not using any fonts (all handwritten) & all tiff files that can’t be adjusted.  We’ll see how it works out.

I got an email today from Johnny Chiba (who’s worked at CMJ for probably ten years or something) about how internet marketing is becoming ineffective for promoting music these days.  Of course the dilemma is how do you spread the word about a release these days much less sell it with how decimated the music magazines & record stores & even college radio stations have become?  Final analysis, keep doing things as well as I can as long as I can.

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One Response to Keeping on

  1. GoddakkATTACK says:
    June 1, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    based on what i’ve witnessed first hand. What you do is you start DJing at clubs/bars. People seem to be more interested in guys playing CD’s than guys playing guitars these days. It seems to be cooler to know the DJ at a such and such bar than to know the singer/guitarist/bassist/drummer of such and such band. Come to think of it, it’s probably cooler to know the bartendar at the bar than any band member as well.