New Post Rock, Shoegaze, & Psych Pop from Hotel Hotel, Moon Gravity & d’Animal

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Brian John Mitchell

Hello,

I hope all is going well.  The warm afternoons we’ve had lately I’ve tried to out maneuver work & take my daughter to play at the park, but we’ve still managed to get some stuff ready for your eager ears the past few days.  An EP of epic guitar & violin based post rock from the final Hotel Hotel studio recordings from back in 2009, the debut EP of glacial krautgaze from Moon Gravity, & an album of psychedelic/experimental pop gems from d’Animal (Dan West of LoveyDove & Sidewalk Society).  More info on them all below & you can save $2 on the download on our sales page – http://www.silbermedia.com/sale/

Of course if you’re a Spotify user you can always listen to the ten latest releases from Silber here – https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/4nuz7tocaNt9OkFetPsHhG

Over the next few months I plan to be putting the entire Silber back catalog up on Bandcamp.  So if you’ve ever thought about doing the Bandcamp subscription thing, now is probably a great time to do it.  In fact for $7 you get the three newest releases plus four out of the back catalog along with the stuff coming soon.  Here’s the link – https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/subscribe

As far as the up & coming releases, the M is We/Thorn1 split as well as the Space Sweeper album have been postponed a little by us making videos for them, but should still be out soon as well as releases from Fullness Off Lack, Jon Dawson, Andrew Weathers/Shaun Sandor, Moodring, & Small Life Form.

Thanks for caring about our work.  It’s always good to know some people still care about the work we’re doing.  If you want to be taken off the mailing list, just let me know.

  Hrt
Brian John Mitchell
www.silbermedia.com
https://www.facebook.com/silbermedia
http://twitter.com/silberspy

Hotel Hotel: Cactus hands
HOTEL HOTEL: CACTUS HANDS
Recorded in 2009, Cactus Hands is the first half of the follow-up to The Sad Sea.  The band expanded from what I think of as their classic three piece line-up (guitar, violin, drums) to have piano, bass, & a second guitar.  Soaring shimmering instruments, this is post rock from Texas.
Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/hotelhotel/cactushands.shtml
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/cactus-hands
Listen on Spotify – https://play.spotify.com/album/250kddxiwRRBiiQbgeq1dg

Moon Gravity: Antarctica
MOON GRAVITY: ANTARCTICA
Moon Gravity’s debut Antarctica is a droney, shoegazey soundtrack for freezing winters, its sound living in the realm somewhere between Slowdive & Stars of the Lid.
Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/moongravity/antarctica.shtml
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/antarctica
Listen on Spotify – https://play.spotify.com/album/1ivc9DPztJaZOomCn9goTJ

d'Animal: d'Animal l'Ogic
d’ANIMAL: d’ANIMAL l’OGIC
This is a poppier spin on the Silber style & we’re excited to have it in our catalog. Combining both timeless 1960s psychedelia & ahead of its time experimental pop, d’Animal l’Ogic fits in at the party whenever the collective time machine crash lands in a post modernist pop paradise.
Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/danimal/logic.shtml
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/danimal-logic
Listen on Spotify – https://play.spotify.com/album/3R7laxuT6scuCXfDeepajF

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Remora – Music Box Stuff

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Brian John Mitchell

Here’s a couple videos from music box reworkings of Remora songs.  The style will probably be the foundation of the next Remora album….


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Going My Way

Posted on February 16, 2017 by Brian John Mitchell

So in the past couple days some fluke positive things have happened.  I won a contest where I get 48 free Silber t-shirts & not only that, I got a design together that I like in just a second attempt.  It’s super satisfying to feel like something positive is happening.

I might not have mentioned it here before, but a couple of months ago it was announced that my comic Genius Junkies was nominated for a prize at the only comic convention I bother to attend.  Always nice to be thought of kindly.

Now just a few minutes ago I was solicited by This American Life about wanting to cut a licensing deal for using an If Thousands song on an episode of the show.

A few days ago I got a bigger than normal check for Spotify earnings.

It’s weird to feel this much hope & love for the work I do.  Thank you all for your support.

silber-new-shirt

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Merrick

Posted on February 6, 2017 by Brian John Mitchell

One of our cats died today.  Hit by a car & I can’t even be mad about it because the cat loved to sit in the street & block the driveway & things like that; but he was a feral cat who moved in three years ago, so the idea of making him an indoor exclusive cat felt kinda cruel so that wasn’t really an option.  In a way it was a blessing because even though he was only four years old or so, it was clear he wasn’t in the best health.  Two vets diagnosed him as blind even though he routinely caught mice & snakes that he brought into the house & while his eyes were clearly screwed up from something before moving in with us, he could see well enough.  But his screwy eyes are why he was named after The Elephant Man.  Ever since he moved in he walked with a weird gunslinger swagger, presumably from something wrong with his hip or back & presumably the same issue made it so he couldn’t properly groom himself & I had taken to combing him every day to keep him a little more presentable.  More recently he’d started to gain a lot of weight & it seemed to make the hip/back issue worse.  But he was the sweetest cat I’ve known, the ambassador & soul of our home.  When my wife was pregnant & had hyperemesis graviderum he laid next to her pretty much every moment except for her hospitalizations, he’d stand outside the bathroom door waiting for her to come out when she went in to throw up for 30 minutes.  After Violet was born & started to move around & the other cats started freaking out, he’d let her use him to pull herself up off the floor with tufts of his fur coming out in the process.  When we took Violet for walks we’d have to lock him in the house to keep him from following us.  He was not a normal cat & I am happy he moved in with us & gave us all he had to give.

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Brian Eno & Donald Trump

Posted on January 29, 2017 by Brian John Mitchell

Last week an interview with Brian Eno in The Guardian went up & it’s been misconstrued because of the click bait tagline on it that he supports Trump & Brexit.  If you bother to read the interview, it’s clear he doesn’t, that he feels Trump/Brexit may be good because they will wake people up.  But he does make a few interesting points about the phenomena of nationalism going on worldwide.  Basically that those of us in the elite intellectual/artist class think of us as edgy & progressive & revolutionary are so in our own world & oblivious to the rest of society that we didn’t really notice that they were suffering & they are having a revolution without us.   Which I think is accurate.  I think that revolutions are more likely from the silent majority than the vocal minority in general, when you’re able to get the anger out there’s no real need to revolt as you already are out of energy.

I’m torn about the whole nationalism/globalism thing.  I understand the hope of globalism, letting us in the west suffer a little bit to help the rest of the planet & I’m fine with that; I mean, who wouldn’t be?  At the same time I’m not particularly interested in it meaning I can stay at The Hilton in Budapest or go to Starbucks in Prague.  I’m really not into the way I’ve seen so many cities become homogenized over my 20 years on & off the road working in music.  I used to really feel like towns had their own unique vibes & all that character seems to be slipping away.  It’s awful.  I don’t want every place the same except for the 200 year old landmarks.  I want Austin to stay weird, I want there to be decaying buildings in old industrial towns, I want to feel like there is still magic in the world when I travel.  I’m not sure if that is nationalistic as much as small town minded, but it’s where I’m at.

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The Beaver

Posted on January 24, 2017 by Brian John Mitchell


So last night I saw a movie called The Beaver.  It wasn’t some stupid remake of Leave it To Beaver or some National Lampoon teen sex comedy like the name implies.Well people those usually are singles enjoys telefonsex chat and have fun.  It was a really bleak, disturbing, & somewhat honest look at depression.
The general description seems like it has to be a comedy, depressed man uses a beaver puppet to talk to the world; but Mel Gibson plays the role more seriously than I’ve seen him play anything since the original Mad Max.  It opens with a portrait of Gibson as a depressed man sleeping as much as he can to avoid the life he has where he’s a failure as a father, husband, & businessman.  His wife (Jodie Foster (who also directed this)) throws him out & in a drunken stupor he tries to hang himself in a hotel & fails & then tries to throw himself off the balcony & fails at that because a beaver puppet intervenes.  This is only five minutes into the movie, so I feel it’s not a spoiler.
So the beaver puppet is what Gibson uses to communicate to the world for the majority of the movie.  & the puppet is a better father & husband & businessman than Gibson ever was.  Of course the puppet is a mask.  Which is what can happen when you get into the level of suicidal depression.  You know that you are not functioning properly, that you are letting down everyone that cares about you, that you’ve become a burden to the friends & family that have tried to stick it through with you.  So you decide to put on a mask.  You decide to play the part of a good person, a better person than who you were before depression destroyed you.  You fake it & it’s totally ridiculous, but somehow most people think you are great now, that you are awesome; things are finally going your way.  But the mask is cheap & cracking & that people can’t tell it’s a mask just makes things worse & make it harder to see any possibility of ever getting out.
So I think this movie is well done, but I’m not sure who I can suggest it to.  People who liked Leaving Las Vegas, He Was A Quiet Man, & World’s Greatest Dad but aren’t in a dark enough place that it hits too close to home?
Oh, I will say the sex scenes with the beaver are ridiculous, but played so straight they just make the viewer feel weird, at least if the viewer is me.

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2016/2017 A Look Back & Forward with Silber

Posted on January 16, 2017 by Brian John Mitchell

Hello,

Happy 2017. I hope all is going well for you. While I didn’t get as much completed in 2016 as I’d hoped to, looking back I did get some things done & hey, that just gives me more to look forward to for 2017! Here’s a look back & forward at this year here at Silber….

Last year we ended up helping make 8 albums & 15 EPs available from Electric Bird Noise, Yellow6, Small Life Form, X-Bax, Heaven Falls Hard, Space Sweeper, Treyverb, Thorn1, Azalia Snail, Anda Volley, Chvad SB, M is We, Bronze Eye & LD, Dyr Faser, Cloaca, Koyl, Premature Burial, Luka Fisher, Magnetic Ghost, Remora, & Nonconnah. It’s a lot looking back & I’m surprised that’s all from the same year. I feel bad because I still have more that I’m the slow down on them coming out from Fullness Off Lack, Jon Dawson, Andrew Weathers/Shaun Sandor, Moodring, Hotel Hotel, Lum, Ms., & DR plus two compilations & all of that should be coming out early in the year this year. In addition to that there are new releases almost ready to go from Thorn1/ Mis We (a split single), Space Sweeper, Dan West, Moon Gravity, DR, & Small Life Form; plus studio stuff in the works from Remora & Azalia Snail & I’m sure some other stuff will turn up, so it’s promising to be a big year. If you missed some of the releases from this year you can download them all in one swoop for $30 on the front page at www.silbermedia.com or listen to them streaming on Spotify https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/7hFtrbrr0PEAJTzAoC6Yda

On the comic front I wrote a couple dozen scripts & I got I think 4 comics that just need layout done, but I somehow didn’t actually put out anything except the experimental comic/storybook hybrid I did with Bride of Silber called Faun & a short I did with Nate McDonough that appeared in Copy This. Hopefully I’ll get back on track & put twelve out this year. I’ve been talking about doing a little book that will be 100 dream vignettes (I’ve still been keeping a dream diary like used to appear in the blog, just not typing it anywhere) with a sketch done for each one in the near future as well as a slightly larger than my normal minis that will be a collection of vignettes about small town life. So things are going to happen for sure, I just need to be patient & realize my scarcity of time.

I thought I’d put out zero issues of QRD last year, but saw I’d put out two a mere six months ago. Time’s a limited resource for me these days, but QRD will be back. Hopefully sooner than later. My personal goal is to complete a lot of the other projects on my plate before committing to work on another set of interviews.

I’ve started to try to get the blog happening more regularly again. Not the tedious day to day stuff as much as reviews of whatever I feel like. Trying to get my writing chops back up to snuff to make working on other things easier & less daunting. I probably did about 15 posts last year & this year I’m already up to 3. We’ll see how long it lasts.

I do think this will finally be the year I launch my long threatened podcast. At one point I had a name for it, but I forgot it now. I wanted to do something that kinda used a phrase I often use like Joe Kendrick did with “What It Is” & Jared Catherine did with “Figure It Out”. My basic idea is the same format a lot of the podcasts I like do where it is a half guided conversation & my idea is each week I’ll talk to a different one of my artistic friends about what they are currently working on. Like I said, we’ll see if I can get to it before the end of the year. But I’m open to name suggestions.

Thanks as always for your interest & support. It’s always good to know some people still care about the work we’re doing.

Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

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Emerald City

Posted on January 8, 2017 by Brian John Mitchell

I think pretty much everyone born after 1940 has the 1939 MGM version of The Wizard of Oz stuck in as the definitive version of the story & so do I.  It’s a part of childhood & for me connected to various other good times.  When I heard they were making a TV show based on The Wizard of Oz I wasn’t too excited, but when I heard it starred Vincent D’Onofrio as The Wizard, I felt a need to check it out.  I’ve been a fan of his since I saw him play Robert E. Howard in The Whole Wide World & I thought he was really great in the Daredevil show as Kingpin.  This show as far as I can tell is fairly unrelated to the MGM version or the Oz books, to the point where it would be better to have just changed a few names & have it be its own animal.  Oz is family friendly in my world & the few sexed up ideas in here are less than necessary.  I think if you want to make a sexy series about someone flung to a strange new world you could have easily gone with John Carter of Mars or a dozen other pulp stories that would fit the mold better, but I suppose a more recognized brand sells better.  I will probably end up watching this series more hoping for D’Onofrio to have an episode where he’s the main focus, but if it ends up starring Dorothy every week I’ll check out for sure.  I’m not sure if it is a positive review of the show or a negative review of television in general that I’m going to watch another episode.

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The Terminator 10, 11, & 13 (NOW Comics)

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Brian John Mitchell

Terminator

First off I’d like to say this image is appropriately blurry.  So back in the late 1980s there was a Terminator comic by a short lived but fairly well distributed publisher NOW Comics.  I’ve been a fan of Terminator since my brother brought the VHS home when I was 9 & I was spending a lot of my money & time on comics when this book came out; but I never bought it because I didn’t like the artwork, though in retrospect it’s not really much worse than a lot of comics of the era.  The genre of this comic is one of my favorites, post-apocalyptic road trip — which I didn’t realize was a genre much less one of my favorites until I read this.  It’s kind of a mess & doesn’t compare to things like Killraven, Kamandi, & Ex-Mutants; but it’s fun enough for a comic you can often find for under a dollar.  One of the things I find interesting about this book is it pre-dates T2 & has it’s own really weird interpretation of Skynet.  Over the years we’ve all come to think of Skynet as an unbeatable logic machine, but here Skynet is more of a developmentally stunted artificial intelligence; which kinda makes more sense in a way if mankind is to stand a chance.  Imagine if you gave all the knowledge & power in the world to your junkie cousin & you see how there could be hope of humanity’s survival.  So while I wouldn’t say these comics are good, you could probably read the whole series in an afternoon without feeling any more guilty about wasting your time than if you spent the day scrolling through Facebook.

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From The Desk of Warren Ellis

Posted on January 1, 2017 by Brian John Mitchell

From The Desk of Warren EllisAbout 5 years ago my grandma died & I kinda lost my mind.  I spent the next couple of years traveling the country in a haze doing music & comic book stuff.  Whatever city I ended up in I’d try to find a local comic shop & dive into their cheap bin & flip through the nostalgia.  Occasionally I’d buy some stuff, but I’d very rarely end up finding the energy to actually read them, so I have what feels like an infinite read stack.  I picked up the first two issues of From The Desk of Warren Ellis I believe at a con in Fort Wayne, but it could’ve been at a con in rural Ohio.  Anyway, I assumed they were collections of short comics, 4 page fillers from early in his career & such, but I read this last night & it ends up they are collections of his blog entries from the 1990s.  Thoughts on current events & career struggles that are often just as valid today as 20 years ago.  Interestingly enough to me, the entries don’t seem to have gone through a grammar checker or editor before being re-published & I’m fine with that; I feel like it makes the experience more human & immediate.  So the whole experience of reading them last night was really inspirational to me.  It made me want to start doing the blog again not because it might matter to someone or people might read it; but because I realize if I want to start actually working on things I care about again in a meaningful way, I need to start practice the craft of writing more.  So here we are, my first entry of the year & I plan to start posting more than I have in years.  I get that people aren’t likely to read every entry & I don’t really expect them too.  I’m just trying to force myself to get back in a groove where I can write at the level I used to feel I was capable of again.  Because one of the worst things about feeling you’ve done good work is feeling like there’s no reason to do non-good work & falling into the dread of never doing anything good again.  So I’m getting ready.  I’m going to try to start doing good work again & the start is working at it every day, forcing myself to have the extra few minutes.  I feel pretty sure it will make me a happier & better person.

So if you came across this entry simply looking for a review of this comic, it’s not a comic but it may inspire you to start working on one & what more can you ask for?

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