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Lately we're mainly using Twitter to let you know about new reviews of our music & comics & other Silber things on the web. The best source for individual artist's upcoming concerts is maybe their individual Facebook pages. Read our blog for tales of our daily adventures & dreams. Thank you for helping support the Silber family so we can all continue to work on our art.

September 3, 2018

Hey Kidz,

I hope all is going well. Still going at a snail’s pace trying to get all the work at Silber done & hopefully things will be getting structured a little better with me being able to get more things done the next few weeks as the drone cub is back in pre-school three days a week. Meanwhile we have four new releases for you with more coming soon. This time out there are releases from Remora, Space Sweeper, & Goddakk all dealing in drone guitar experiments plus an album from slicnaton of electro-acoustics & glitch fused with post jazz. Links below to purchase or listen or of course you can listen to them all on Spotify here: http://tinyurl.com/latestfromsilber

Thanks for your interest & support, spread the word if you can.

Hrt 

Brian John Mitchell

www.silbermedia.com

https://www.facebook.com/silbermedia

http://twitter.com/silberspy

NEW FROM SILBER


Remora - Warm Bodies Remora - Warm Bodies
MP3 EP 2018 | Silber 269
1 track, 26 minutes
$2 download
Listen on Silber | Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
Since 1996 Remora’s been exploring the guitar as a source for aggressive ambient soundscapes. "Warm Bodies" is Remora’s latest & most ambitious exploration of guitar feedback. Remora leader Brian John Mitchell controlls the feedback on three guitars while five other guitars & a bass are controlled by Nicholas Slaton (slicnaton), Martin Newman (Goddakk, DRLNG), Michael Wood (M is We), Micheal Madden (M is We), & Rowland Yeargan (Sportsmanship).
: Listen to Warm Bodies
: Press Release
: Reviews

slicnaton - ensemble slicnaton - ensemble
MP3 Album 2018 | Silber 268
7 tracks, 58 minutes
$5 download
Listen on Silber | Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
Led by Nicholas Slaton, slicnaton mixes elements of jazz, electroacoustics, no input mixing, glitch, drone, & noise. With a background in jazz & classical composition, Slaton comes to the drone & noise table with an exceptionally musical ear & nuance often lost in the genres. On the new album Ensemble he expands on his electroacoustic drone roots.
: Listen to the track Gluem
: Press Release
: Reviews

Goddakk - VI: A Good Day for Crows Goddakk - VI: A Good Day For Crows
MP3 Album 2018 | Silber 267
8 tracks, 38 minutes
$5 download
Listen on Silber | Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
The final installment of Goddakk’s exploration of drum machines, analog synths, & aggressive ambient guitars. Melodies & mutations rise only to fall from the sky & be devoured by the carrion eaters.
: Listen to the track A Monument To A Ruined Age
: Press Release
: Reviews

Space Sweeper - Collision Space Sweeper - Collision
MP3 Album 2018 | Silber 266
1 track, 40 minutes
$5 download

Listen on Silber |
Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
40 minutes of aggressive ambient guitar spacescapes from Ted Johnson (Tesla Recoils), Brian Lea McKenzie (Electric Bird Noise), & Brian John Mitchell (Remora).
: Listen to Collision
: Press Release
: Reviews

June 26, 2018

Hey Kidz,

Sorry there hasn’t been too much news coming out lately. A lot going on to completely zap me lately & gum up the gears at Silber. So even though stuff is happening, I’m not really getting the word out well. But here I am trying to fix all that.

The main impediment to Silber at this point is that we’re facing the same death of a thousand cuts as most labels & artists with a little less money coming in each month & that means me needing to get more income from day jobs, which limits my time to work on Silber which lowers the new content & promotion which of course further reduces the income & that means more work at the day jobs & you see where that means things are headed. But I love Silber & I’m as incapable of stopping it as I am of keeping it from slowing down. That all said this past couple of months has been pretty rough, my wife’s grandmother died & it was a pretty hard hit to the family & a week later when we were at the funeral our cat Iris died (fun fact: the Small Life Form piece “It is not safe, but it is warm” is about her sleeping on cooling electric burners). There’s nothing to be sad about because the grandmother was 92 & the cat was 16 & they both lived full lives, it’s just a problem of missing them giving comfort when needed in ways they did that no one else does. So we’ll keep moving on. Working & helping others in the way we uniquely do.


So what’s up here? New music out from Rowland Yeargan, P.D. Wilder, Small Life Form, & a couple remixes for Azalia Snail from Anda Volley & Alan Sparhawk of Low (more info on them all below).

While I’m writing this, there’s a Remora show coming up tonight as a feedback drone ensemble. We will attempt to record it & see if it’s interesting enough to unleash on the world. Next month will have the debut live appearance of my Muscle Mass project (primitive dance/drone). Still planning to record some of the Remora music box material from last year & the Small Life Form organ ensemble stuff before I forget about having done those things.

There’s a lot of new music on Silber waiting on me to come out including Space Sweeper, slicnaton, Goddakk, Stoic Automaton, Luka Fisher, Chvad SB, Philip Polk Palmer, Jon Dawson, Petri Dish, & Nebh. I just gotta start making a dedicated effort to getting things to come out first & worry about the time to promote them second or things aren’t going to happen at all.

There are a couple comics that came out, but they aren’t even available to order on the website as yet. One was written by the drone cub & is a two panel comic that was interpreted by half a dozen cartoonists. The other is the third installment of Seabase 17, which is turning into a near future Cthulhu story.

QRD has a ton of interviews ready to go, but I just haven’t had the time to make it all come together. I have a goal of proofing an interview a day & catching up, but it’s been hard to get that habit started!

So that’s most of the news from here. Spread the word if you can. Let us know if you want to be removed from the mailing list. Thanks for your interest & support.

Hrt 

Brian John Mitchell 

www.silbermedia.com

https://www.facebook.com/silbermedia

http://twitter.com/silberspy

NEW FROM SILBER

Azalia Snail - Field Rep Azalia Snail - Field Rep (Alan Sparhawk Remix)
MP3 Remix Single 2018 | Silber 264
1 track, 3 minutes
$2 download
Listen on Bandcamp
"Field Rep" from the album Neon Resistance remixed by Alan Sparhawk of Low.
 
Azalia Snail - Head On Over Azalia Snail - Head On Over (Anda Volley Remix)
MP3 Remix Single 2018
| Silber 265
1 tracks, 3 minutes
$2 download
Listen on Bandcamp
"Head On Over" from the album Neon Resistance remixed by Anda Volley.
 
Rowland Yeargan - Close Your Eyes Rowland Yeargan - Close Your Eyes
MP3 EP 2018 | Silber 263
5 tracks, 5 minutes
$1 download
Listen on Silber | Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
Five minutes of drone from new Silber ally Rowland Yeargan.
: Press Release

: Reviews
P.D. Wilder - Remember to Remind Me P.D. Wilder - Remember to Remind Me
MP3 Album 2017 | Silber 261
5 tracks, 62 minutes
$5 download
Listen on Silber | Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
P. D. Wilder, ex-Hotel Hotel, continues in the age-old tradition of hillbilly beardos playing ambient drone music solo armed with a guitar & a dozen pedals. Now a father, Wilder recorded much of “remember to remind me” during the nine months before his son’s birth. A reflection & meditation on life with change during the anticipation of change. Birth, life, death, birth, always changing always moving forward, always the same – yet always building & changing, drone is forever.
: Press Release

: Reviews
 
Small Life Form - Fragments Small Life Form - Fragments
MP3 Album 2018 | Silber 260
10 tracks, 80 minutes
$5 download
Listen on Silber | Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
Small Life Form started as a studio project of sound exploration in 1998 & became a live project in 2007 focusing on electro-acoustics & super simple synthesizers. Fragments collects studio recordings from 2012-2014 dominated by the live rig of the era complimented by a few computer sound sculptures ("slow silence", "so sincere", "BPM65", "fluorescent", "buzz"). The stage is set with "something organic to service the machine" inspired by Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth, & I Must Scream" for a slab of post-apocalyptic sci-fi doom drone. After mankind has fallen, sound still needs to be explored.

: Press Release

: Reviews

March 23, 2018

Hello,

 

I hope all is well.  It's been a rough few weeks here at Silber.  I think I might have done legitimate damage to my shoulder doing a tiling job back in January, which I assume to be some kind of bone spur scenario based on the type of pain it is; but I keep re-aggravating it because I can't not use my shoulder & have a two year old drone cub, so even though it's been the six weeks it should take to heal, seems like it might be a bit longer.  Makes working on anything that requires concentration hard, in addition my data entry job has had some crazy issues that have basically doubled my workload (good for the wallet, bad for quality of life & getting Silber-ing done).  But life is still good, this week my wife stumbled on a picture of our cat (& Silber spokesmodel Gideon) on an animal shelter site (he's been missing since July & we'd given up months ago).  We got him back in the house & his personality seems to have been altered during his extended spirit quest, so trying to get him back in a good place in the household.  Anyway, still a lot of good stuff going on.

There's a new album from former lo-fi pop queen Azalia Snail (why former?  because there's nothing lo-fi about the new high fidelity album!).  We've worked with her a couple times in the past & are psyched that she wanted to work with us again & while I know it's not an exact match for those of you who think of Silber as a heavy drone label, I hope you can give this indie pop gem a chance & can help spread the word.  More info on it below.  There are physical CDs available shipped straight from Azalia herself, but I set the links up so you can just order them on the Silber website. http://www.silbermedia.com/azaliasnail/NeonResistance.shtml

 

You may remember that last year Electric Bird Noise did a video for Phil Fox's play "The Moon Flower".  There's a video of the play up now on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt-bHXwBzUU

Coming soon is the return of the 5in5 series & a couple of compilations about silence & symphonic music & some new stuff from slicnaton & PD Wilder & Goddakk & Philip Polk Palmer & Small Life Form.  It's always busy around here & that's a good thing.

 

More news soon.  Thanks for the interest & support & spread the word if you can.

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

 

NEW FROM SILBER

Azalia Snail: Neon Resistance

Azalia Snail - Neon Resistance
CD Album 2018 | Silber 262
12 tracks, 39 minutes
Download on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/azaliasnail/NeonResistance.shtml
Listen on Bandcamp

“She has always written very personal songs and on her new album, Neon Resistance, that is still very much the case. Its lead track, ‘Celeste (Can You Feel It)’, is huge, an epic pop song that will ear-worm its way into your life. Let’s hope there really is that parallel universe where Azalia is a star & appreciated for producing songs like this & then lets all go live there!”
~ Stephen Rennicks, Ambient Analogue

Azalia Snail has been making her uniquely sweet, hypnotic, noise-inflected brand of pop music since the days before Nirvana broke. Her entire catalog has a spirit of timelessness where you could believe the music was rare gems from the late 1960s as well as from the 1990s when she first appeared on the scene or today. Upbeat, triumphant, & joyous – this is the true sound of resistance & it's irresistable.

: Press Release
: Reviews

: Watch video for Field Rep


February 3, 2018

Hello,

I hope all is going well.  This past month flew by here at Silber trying to avoid & recover from minor disasters, so while we don’t have any new material this time out, we have lots of news for you.

First off we have two sales for those of you who do downloads.  In 2017 we ended up putting out 11 albums, 11 EPs, 2 singles, & 2 compilations, & you can get all 26 as a bundle for half price ($32) over here - www.silbermedia.com/sale  In addition, as some of you may have noticed we’ve been sneaking up a lot of the back catalog onto Bandcamp the past few months & with 125 releases up there, we’re right around halfway done & for a limited time you can get them all as a bundle for 75% off ($93.03) & while I’m not savvy enough to give a direct link for getting the whole thing, you can get it on this page for a Vlor re-issue that’s a free download - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/sacred-places-in-the-city

We have a lot of stuff that should be coming out fairly soon.  A new album from lofi queen Azalia Snail due out in about a month (check out the video for the single "Field Rep" here - https://youtu.be/0XXmgL2gc0Y ).  5in5 EPs from Petridisch (old friend, new to the label, maybe call it electropop) & Rowland Yeargan (new friend, new to the label, aggressive ambient).  A new album from PD Wilder of Hotel Hotel.  The final album from Goddakk (at least that’s the word on the street).  Two collections of old songs from Philip Polk Palmer (followed by a collection of new ones).  An album from Small Life Form (collecting pieces I have no memory of recording in 2012 (for personal reasons)).  Possibly a new album from If Thousands (in the mixing process).  & I really think the two compilations I’ve been trying to put out for 2.5 years are going to be done soon as well.  Plus more I’m not sure enough of to mention.

I actually do have some news on the comic front this time out.  I’ve been talking to some of my collaborators & I’m hoping for the end of April to have at least one new issue of each of the following in our standard format: Pow Wow, Seabase17, Star, XO, & Lost Kisses.  I bought a new printer &, to be honest, not having a good printer was keeping me from being motivated to get new comics finished.  It’s also looking like things will be started on a second issue of Faun, a large scale Genius Junkie, & a series of short comic stories titled Small Town Tales.

Thanks for your support & interest.

Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

December 30, 2017

Hello,

I hope you are well, while 2017 is almost out the door, we have a release just out from Chvad SB. This time out Chvad is doing guitar drones in the style that’s been associated with Silber from the very beginning, more info & places to stream or download listed below.

While we are always trying to get more out, we are pleased to say in the end we had 26 music releases this year (including 9 in our Christmas series), three mini-comics, & one issue of QRD. I have every hope that next year will be even more productive & with enough interviews for an issue of QRD, a half dozen records almost ready to go, & more than a dozen comic scripts waiting to be typed up out of my notebooks -- it already seems promising.

If you missed any of the music we put out in 2017, you can listen to it all on Spotify here - https://open.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/0q0IG85VcgLk3O0ISmyStH or of course you can peruse the back catalog here – http://www.silbermedia.com/catalog

Thanks for all your interest & support & helping us to not only exist, but thrive in this era where so many labels are having difficulties. It really means a lot to both me & all the artists in the roster.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell
www.silbermedia.com
https://www.facebook.com/silbermedia
http://twitter.com/silberspy  
Chvad SB - Structure Chvad SB - Structure
MP3 Album 2017 | Silber 257
2 tracks, 44 minutes
$5 download
Listen on Silber | Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
 
Chvad SB’s sonic experiments focus on new sounds & textures, but always with a human edge. On Structure we have densely droning stings & slide guitar for tow slabs of drone caught in an endless moment.

: Listen to the track Column
: Press Release
: Reviews

December 19, 2017

Hey Starz, I hope all is well. Still recovering in life here. I replaced a big chunk of the kitchen floor due to busted water pipe & of course now new weak spots are developing around the rest of the kitchen floor. It's enough to make you feel like renting is a better deal than home ownership, but rebuilding things like that does kinda make me bond with the home in the same way that sleeping in the car & putting in 200,000 miles on tour with my beloved & deceased Escort made me bond with that car. Meanwhile, still dealing with the pre-school plague. So still catching up, but we got nine Christmas releases ready now (more info below or go to www.silbermedia.com/christmas or on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/2vOOsPkcz99CBsMJudwAJM) & new music from Chvad SB, & maybe Space Sweeper & Small Life Form super soon & Azalia Snail in the new year.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell
2016 Christmas Bundle 2017 Christmas Bundle Download all 8 EPs & the compilation for just $8 (Half Price!)!
For Christmas 2017 we have 8 EPs from Electric Bird Noise, Yellow6, Small Life Form/Remora/Heavy for the Vintage/Philip Polk Palmer, Nonconnah, Lullabier, Baptizer, Hyperborean Echoes, & Dusty Tears plus the Experimental Christmas double compilation. Get them all for a discounted bundle of joy.
Various Artists - Experimental Christmas Series One Part One Various Artists - Experimental Christmas Series One Part Two Various Artists - Experimental Christmas Series One Parts One and Two MP3 Compilation 2017 | Silber 259 18 tracks, 73 minutes $5 download Listen on Bandcamp to Part One Listen on Bandcamp to Part One
The Experimental Christmas Show is an artistic communal experience created in 2008 by Adrian Wilson as part of his Maya Presents shows & expanding as an annual mini-tour across North Carolina in 2014. It's primarily a musical event, but has incorporated & is always open to consciousness-expanding short-plays, art shows, stand-up comedy, performance art, etc. The musical expression is usually “noise” or “experimental” in nature, but with strange open ears the event has included banjo players, kora players, accordion players, trumpeters, etc. as well as musicians who have unnamable instruments of their own creation. : Press Release Track Listing: Series One Point One Knives of Spain - Winter (Ancient Music) Small Life Form - Old Style #7 deathstar flux - Existentialist Waltz subterrene - haunted, ghosting Corneius F Van Stafrin III - Manifest Clairvoyant Ecstasis The Sound of Square Triangles - Mutation 7.1 Nonconnah - This is Anti-Music Clang Quartet - Escape from Herod Series One Point Two Remora - O Come, O Come, Emmanuel Spookstina - Winter Underland Bryce Eiman - Promise & Myth Tristan Brooks - i can't predict the ghost of christmas past actions bLIND iNFANCY - Waking the Living (mixdown 2) Quilla - Sacred Field Orphling - My Mother's Dreams Adrian Wilson - Trash Can Lid Lullaby Bret Hart - Xmas on Saturn
Nonconnah - Running to the Red (merry6mas 2017) Nonconnah - Winter EP '17 MP3 EP 2017 | Silber 255 5 tracks, 22 minutes $1 download Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
Nonconnah is back with what we hope to be an ongoing annual series of Winter EPs here at Silber. Shoegaze, minimalism, & field recordings echoing through a tunnel in the ice. Can you escape before everything collapses? : Press Release : Digital Booklet Track Listing: When You Sank Into The Leaf-Strewn Earth When The Blackbirds Formed An Inverted Cross When Your Hands Trembled As You Watched The Barren Fields When The Ceiling Hit The Floor As The Barn Collapsed Around You You Said "The Snow Is Like Amnesia. I'm Forgetting Everything"
Yellow6 - Running to the Red (merry6mas 2017) Yellow6 - Running to the Red (merry6mas 2017) MP3 Album 2017 | Silber 254 13 tracks, 77 minutes $1 download Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
The 19th in the ongoing series of merry6mas releases from Yellow6 composed of material recorded during 2017 that ends the year with no other home than this collection. Nearly 20 years in, do we still need to tell you that Yellow6 is post-angst guitar driven ambient? : Digital Booklet Track Listing: later that evening (running) 6 x VI we should be building bridges not walls lo-fi loop junky #2 full moon The Guildford Loop looking glass (piano) summer rain summer skies torrent the next day when is the day later that evening 2 (running to the red)
Hyperborean Echoes - A Yule Offering Hyperborean Echoes - A Yule Offering MP3 EP 2017 | Silber 251 3 tracks, 19 minutes $1 download Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
Mesmerizing aural memories from a land of giants. Track Listing: Yule Bells The Wanderer Brings Gifts Snowfall
Electric Bird Noise - nam wen eht fo htrib Electric Bird Noise - nam wen eht fo htrib MP3 EP 2017 | Silber 249 1 tracks, 21 minutes $1 download Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
Electric Bird Noise returns with a 21 minute journey of loop driven ambient & claustrophobic guitar exploration. Elevator music for art galleries... really creepy art galleries. Track Listing: nam wen eht fo htrib
Baptizer - Crisis of the Modern World Baptizer - Crisis of the Modern World MP3 EP 2017 | Silber 252 2 tracks, 18 minutes $1 download Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
Baptizer explores the unfolding of the present dark age as a prelude to the return of the King. Other than vocals by Baptizer’s six and eight year old sons, the only sound source is a 5u analog synthesizer. Droning tension for the final credits of the end of the world. Track Listing: Crisis of the Modern World Prelude to the Return of the King
Lullabier - 2512 Lullabier - 2512 MP3 EP 2017 | Silber 258 4 tracks, 14 minutes $1 download Listen on Bandcamp
A collection of Christmas songs from Lullabier, the covers personally translated by Andrea to make them more his own. : Digital Booklet Track Listing: Natale A Ceneda (feat. Faro) Natale A Serravalle White Dizziness (Acoustic) With A Star (Brian John Mitchell Remix)
Dusty Tears - Dusty Christmas Dusty Tears - Dusty Christmas MP3 EP 2017 | Silber 253 3 tracks, 10 minutes $1 download Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
Dusty Tears is Jamie Smith (Danghead) & Shane de Leon (Miss Massive Snowflake). They formed in 2016 after Smith’s daughter stated that her freshly dyed hair smelled like “dusty tears”, though the two first played together in Billings, Montana in 1987. For Dusty Tears return to Silber with Dusty Christmas, Smith & de Leon record content looping Morricone soundscapes alongside Dinosaur Jr. guitar burnings. A mix of vocal, instrumental, electronic & acoustic instrumentation, strong melodic wanderings, & inspired lyrics. It’s Christmas, wipe those tears away & put your sweater on. Track Listing: Fat Wallet Dream Within a Nightmare All My Love
Various Artists - Silent Nights Various Artists - Silent Nights MP3 EP 2017 | Silber 256 4 tracks, 14 minutes $1 download Listen on Bandcamp | Listen on Spotify
Four versions of the Christmas classic "Silent Night" - electroclash, ambient, & cacophonic mashups from Heavy for the Vintage, Philip Polk Palmer, Remora, & Small Life Form. Track Listing: Silent Night (Heavy for the Vinage) Silent Night (Philip Polk Palmer) Silent Night (Remora) Silent Night (Small Life Form)

November 14, 2017

Hey Starz,

 

I hope all is well.  Life’s been giving me a deluge of work to keep me from getting things done.  Pipe in my crawlspace sprung a leak & I had to tear out & rebuild some of my floor & now my hot water heater sprang a leak & my daughter brought home a pre-school plague to share.  So I’m behind, but should be back on track soon.  Two new releases right now & hopefully nine Christmas releases in a week or so & then new music from Chvad SB, & maybe Space Sweeper & Small Life Form.  I can pretend I’ll get the new QRD done before the end of the year too!

 

So anyway the new releases are a five in five EP of cinematic shoegaze meant for a sci-fi soundtrack from The Corrupting Sea & an album of post-punk electro-clash from M is We.  More info on them below.

 

For Cyber Monday I did a thing where 19 of the releases in the Silber catalog were available for free download.  I realize it is kind of BS that I exclusively promoted it through social media while I know the newsletter readers are the hardcore fans who would most appreciate them, so here you go - http://silbermedia.com/blog/index.php/silber-cyber-monday-sale/

 

More news soon.  Thanks for the interest & support & 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

 

NEW RELEASES ON SILBER!
The Corrupting Sea

THE CORRUPTING SEA: LOOKING TO THE STARS
Jason T. Lamoreaux of Somewherecold faces the 5in5 challenge with his project The Corrupting Sea. Five minutes of cinematic sci-fi soundscapes, who needs the movie when you can just get the soundtrack?
File Under: Ambient/Experimental/Electronica
Recommended if you like: Curved Light, The Ears on the Trees, Orange Crate Art, Touch Test
Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/The_Corrupting_Sea-Looking.shtml
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/looking-to-the-stars
Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/23LJRpIgEVWtD0pJwHQIIO
Download sample track "Inhabitable Planet" - http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/The_Corrupting_Sea-Looking_to_the_Stars-5-Inhabitable_Planet.mp3

 

m is we oceans

M IS WE: OCEANS
M is We is back with the illustrious Michael Wood leading the band from post punk to shoegaze to darkwave. Imagine Sunny Day Real Estate forming a Christian Death tribute band & or Ride covering The Stooges & you’re in the right place.
File Under: Electroclash, Post Pop Punk
Recommended if you like: The Cure, Joy Division, Sunny Day Real Estate, Heavens, Jawbreaker, Cold Cave
Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/miswe/oceans.shtml
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/oceans-2
Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/4Cyhg9oXkaVB8A5fRvu8vI
Download sample track "Quicksand Beach" - http://www.silbermedia.com/miswe/M_is_We-Oceans-1-Quicksand_Beach.mp3

 

NOVEMBER RELEASES ON SILBER:

Max Kutner

MAX KUTNER: DISAFFECTION FINDS ITS PURE FORM

Max Kutner came to Silber via Luka Fisher & Records Ad Nauseum, ambient guitar drone experiments is one of our hallmarks & especially when it’s about isolation & self discovery.  On Disaffection Finds Its Pure Form, Max wrote a one & a half page score but with fifteen sets of rules to navigate with an electric guitar for thirty sets of six-string interaction while remaining one unified piece.

File Under: Guitar Drone, Post Rock, Ambient

Recommended if you like: Brian Eno, Tortoise, The Durutti Column, GYBE, Electric Bird Noise

Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/MaxKutner/disaffection.shtml

Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/disaffection-finds-its-pure-form

Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/6vpaDLdpwexJE6akY6qTEj

Download sample track “I”- http://www.silbermedia.com/MaxKutner/Max_Kutner-Disaffection_Finds_Its_Pure_Form-1.mp3

 

Baptizer

BAPTIZER: HOLY WAR RENEWAL

Baptizer is noise & drone & power electronics & industrial & southern & anti-modern & Christian & intense.  We get it; it's not for everybody.  It's music by & for those who feel trapped in the wrong place in space & time.  A nightmare, a dream, or a world of its own.  If you can imagine Phillip K Dick & Ezra Pound & Saint Ignatius of Loyola collaborating & collaging & colliding, you won't be far off the mark.  Enter the caverns & be saved from the modern world by the hands of Baptizer.

File Under: Noise, Power Electronics, Industrial

Recommended if you like: Genocide Organ, Green Army Fraction, Propergol, Deathkey

Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/Baptizer/holywarrenewal.shtml

Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/holy-war-renewal

Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/1gi1TURhTkCi4pVNSD61wE

Download sample track “Deo Vindice” - http://www.silbermedia.com/Baptizer/Baptizer-Holy_War_Renewal-09-Deo_Vindice.mp3

 

SLF

SMALL LIFE FORM: FIRST RECORDINGS

Small Life Form started in 1998 as seeing how sound could be shaped & manipulated on a computer using ideas inspired by the works of George Crumb & Gyorgy Ligeti. Sound experimentation with limitations forcing creativity & these are the results from before the project even had a name.

File Under: Aggressive Ambient

Recommended if you like: George Crumb, Gyorgy Ligeti, Tore Boe, Lustmord

Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/smalllifeform/first-recordings.shtml

Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/first-recordings

Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/7frcE0twpr0xuxQqlnJvrl

Download sample track “mouthed” - http://www.silbermedia.com/smalllifeform/Small_Life_Form-First_Recordings-02-mouthed.mp3

 

LUM

LÜM: THE STAIRWELL SESSIONS

LÜM is a mixture of jazz, ambient, noise, drone, & chamber music & simultaneously all & none of these things.  Three stalwart members of the North Carolina noise community, Charles Wright (violin, vocals, percussion), Nathan Maxwell (viola, vocals, percussion), & J.M. Borer (harmonium, vocals, percussion) got together in 2014 & 2015 with the idea of doing ambient jazz improvisations naturally informed by their drone & noise backgrounds & the results of four recording dates is The Stairwell Sessions.  Sit back & relax & drone on.

File Under: Ambient Noise Jazz, Chamber Music

Recommended if you like: Popol Vuh, Kronos Quartet, Supersilent, Sun Ra

Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/LUM/stairwell.shtml

Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/stairwell-sessions

Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/2gVSuXr3gZzafnbsabnNsT

Download sample track “I” - http://www.silbermedia.com/lum/Lum-Stairwell_Sessions-1-I.mp3


November 14, 2017

Hey Kidz,

 

Hope all is going well.  It’s been a little while I know, but stuff is happening.  A lot of stuff.

 

In the past couple of months we’ve released a lot of music.  Guitar drone compositions from Max Kutner, minimalist sound experiments from Small Life Form, noise drone power electronics from Baptizer, & ambient noise jazz from LÜM.  Links below to listen or download or you can hear them along with other recent releases on Spotify here - http://tinyurl.com/latestfromsilber

 

We've also been putting a lot of the back catalog up on Bandcamp, here are a couple that are currently free downloads:

Remora: Ambient Drones for One Guitar - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-drones-for-one-guitar 

Kobi: Outward from a Core Area of the North - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/outward-from-a-core-area-of-the-north

 

A lot of new music coming too with new stuff from M is We, & The Corrupting Sea in the next couple of weeks not to mention this year’s Christmas EPs from Yellow6, Electric Bird Noise, Nonconnah, Dusty Tears, Baptizer, Hyperborean Echoes, & maybe more.  It’s a scramble to get it all done for sure & we still have some music that should be ready early next year.

 

The new issue of QRD is still waiting for me to edit.  It’s embarrassing how much I let things drag on that.  I really do feel like QRD is one of the best things I do, but it’s also the thing easiest to put off because it doesn’t generate the interest it used to.  I guess there’s a similar issue with me not bothering to get the scripts I have for comics out of my notebooks & to the artists.  One day I’ll have things caught up & who knows what I’ll have in store then.  We do have some openings for unpaid intern positions if you have a few hours a month where you’re bored & looking for something to do & want to help.

 

More news soon.  Thanks for the interest & support & 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

 

NEW RELEASES ON SILBER!

Max Kutner

MAX KUTNER: DISAFFECTION FINDS ITS PURE FORM

Max Kutner came to Silber via Luka Fisher & Records Ad Nauseum, ambient guitar drone experiments is one of our hallmarks & especially when it’s about isolation & self discovery.  On Disaffection Finds Its Pure Form, Max wrote a one & a half page score but with fifteen sets of rules to navigate with an electric guitar for thirty sets of six-string interaction while remaining one unified piece.

File Under: Guitar Drone, Post Rock, Ambient

Recommended if you like: Brian Eno, Tortoise, The Durutti Column, GYBE, Electric Bird Noise

Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/MaxKutner/disaffection.shtml

Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/disaffection-finds-its-pure-form

Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/6vpaDLdpwexJE6akY6qTEj

Download sample track “I”- http://www.silbermedia.com/MaxKutner/Max_Kutner-Disaffection_Finds_Its_Pure_Form-1.mp3

 

Baptizer

BAPTIZER: HOLY WAR RENEWAL

Baptizer is noise & drone & power electronics & industrial & southern & anti-modern & Christian & intense.  We get it; it's not for everybody.  It's music by & for those who feel trapped in the wrong place in space & time.  A nightmare, a dream, or a world of its own.  If you can imagine Phillip K Dick & Ezra Pound & Saint Ignatius of Loyola collaborating & collaging & colliding, you won't be far off the mark.  Enter the caverns & be saved from the modern world by the hands of Baptizer.

File Under: Noise, Power Electronics, Industrial

Recommended if you like: Genocide Organ, Green Army Fraction, Propergol, Deathkey

Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/Baptizer/holywarrenewal.shtml

Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/holy-war-renewal

Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/1gi1TURhTkCi4pVNSD61wE

Download sample track “Deo Vindice” - http://www.silbermedia.com/Baptizer/Baptizer-Holy_War_Renewal-09-Deo_Vindice.mp3

 

SLF

SMALL LIFE FORM: FIRST RECORDINGS

Small Life Form started in 1998 as seeing how sound could be shaped & manipulated on a computer using ideas inspired by the works of George Crumb & Gyorgy Ligeti. Sound experimentation with limitations forcing creativity & these are the results from before the project even had a name.

File Under: Aggressive Ambient

Recommended if you like: George Crumb, Gyorgy Ligeti, Tore Boe, Lustmord

Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/smalllifeform/first-recordings.shtml

Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/first-recordings

Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/7frcE0twpr0xuxQqlnJvrl

Download sample track “mouthed” - http://www.silbermedia.com/smalllifeform/Small_Life_Form-First_Recordings-02-mouthed.mp3

 

LUM

LÜM: THE STAIRWELL SESSIONS

LÜM is a mixture of jazz, ambient, noise, drone, & chamber music & simultaneously all & none of these things.  Three stalwart members of the North Carolina noise community, Charles Wright (violin, vocals, percussion), Nathan Maxwell (viola, vocals, percussion), & J.M. Borer (harmonium, vocals, percussion) got together in 2014 & 2015 with the idea of doing ambient jazz improvisations naturally informed by their drone & noise backgrounds & the results of four recording dates is The Stairwell Sessions.  Sit back & relax & drone on.

File Under: Ambient Noise Jazz, Chamber Music

Recommended if you like: Popol Vuh, Kronos Quartet, Supersilent, Sun Ra

Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/LUM/stairwell.shtml

Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/stairwell-sessions

Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/2gVSuXr3gZzafnbsabnNsT

Download sample track “I” - http://www.silbermedia.com/lum/Lum-Stairwell_Sessions-1-I.mp3


August 30, 2017

Hey Kidz,

Hope all is going well.  A lot going on here at Silber Headquarters.  Music, QRD, movies, comics, it’s all happening at once.

We just released two new shoegaze oriented releases.  First we have an installment in our 5in5 series from Poland’s Fullness Off Lack & it leans more towards the post rock & drone side of the genre.  Then we have the first full-length album from Myrtle Beach’s Ocean Forest & it lends itself towards both the post punk & jangle pop ends of shoegaze.  Links below to listen or download or you can hear them along with other recent releases on Spotify here - http://tinyurl.com/latestfromsilber

Our good buddy Joe Badon has been working on a film called The God In My Ear for a little while now & when it comes out the odds of you hearing some Small Life Form audio sculptures in it are pretty good if you pay attention.  Will let you know more about the film as it gets ready for release.

I recently got invited to take part in a project done by my friend Jeremiah Paddock where he sends a microcassette recorder in the mail to me to record whatever I want.  I like the idea of it bringing a return to immediacy & fun to music.  Hopefully I’ll have more info on that in a few weeks.

There’s a lot more new music coming soon from Max Kutner, Chvad SB, Small Life Form, The Corrupting Sea, Petri Dish, & a few compilations.  Pretty excited to feel like I’m at a place where a lot of the releases that have been kinda waiting in the wings to come out will be out soon. 

The new issue of QRD is shaping up to be a bit of a behemoth with interviews in the guitarist, tour musician, comic shop owner, label owner, & cartoonist series.  Hoping to get it ready in a week or two.  I’m hoping to move back into some of my catching up interviews with folks in the next issue or two.

A few of my comics made the nod for SPACE prize nominations (REH: Another Life #1, REH: Me & Bob, Daughter of Brothers & Daughters), which is always nice.  I have a bunch of scripts in my little notebooks & I’m going to do a slightly larger than my normal size comic of vignettes about small town life collaborating with Jason Young & Nate McDonough hopefully for next spring.

More news soon.  Thanks for the interest & support & 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

Fullness Off Lack - Shitty Heavens
FULLNESS OFF LACK: SHITTY HEAVENS
Based in Warsaw, Poland Fullness Off Lack is a solo project of Mat Gut.  The original concept of FOL was to make music that felt like a full shoegaze/post rock band despite the limitation of a single member, but now things have shifted to more ambient sides of the genre, leaning towards drones & soundscapes, which is how things land on Shitty Heavens.  Vocals as a texture with words indecipherable, so the listener can make their own lyrics based on their own life experiences of rebellion & struggles & victory.
File Under: Shoegaze, Post Rock, Ambient
Recommended if you like: My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Cocteau Twins, Nothing
Listen or buy on Silber -
http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/Fullness_Off_Lack-Shitty_Heavens.shtml
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/shitty-heavens
Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/7LE9yPFSHsoKOFpDkcnHqZ

Ocean Forest
OCEAN FOREST: OCEAN FOREST
Three Myrtle Beach natives come together with pop hooks, complex harmonies, & a sound equal parts 1960s, 1990s, & today. From accessible psych pop to urgent post punk to classic shoegaze, all while carving out their own musical world of janglegaze as they slip into the sun. Recorded by Brian McKenzie of Electric Bird Noise.
File Under: Psych Rock, Indie, Shoegaze, Dream Pop, Surf Rock
Recommended if you like: Tame Impala, Band of Horses, Modest Mouse, Joy Division
Listen or buy on Silber -
http://www.silbermedia.com/oceanforest/oceanforest.shtml
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/ocean-forest
Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/7evZtj6NASqAGcY61RzQdx

JUNE RELEASES ON SILBER:

Dusty Tears
DUSTY TEARS: INTERNET HITS
Shane de Leon (Miss Massive Snowflake) is back to Silber with his long time friend Jamie Smith (Danghead) & together they are Dusty Tears.  Recorded by Smith when de Leon was on a tour stop for Miss Massive Snowflake, Internet Hits really captures one of the great things the 5 in 5 series can do.  You have an afternoon of downtime as a musician on tour?  Hang out with a pal & make something.  Part punk, part lo-fi pop, & part experimental streams of consciousness, this pretty much captures how a mind works after long drives, sleeping in the van, & living the rock & roll daydream.
File Under: Lo-Fi Pop, Streams of Consciousness, Road Life
Recommended if you like: Rllrbll, Miss Massive Snowflake, Danghead, Beck
Listen or buy on Silber -
http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/DustyTears-InternetHits.shtml
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/Internet-Hits
Listen on Spotify -
https://play.spotify.com/album/3yqgbopfh9DcoZ25LMGLHT

EBN The Moonflower
ELECTRIC BIRD NOISE: THE MOONFLOWER
The Moonflower is a murder mystery play by creative powerhouse Philip James Fox (Wicked Gift, Gratisphere) & the Electric Bird Noise soundtrack is essentially a greatest hits collection covering the past seven years of the band. Nearly every musical side of Electric Bird Noise is represented, from discordant ambient jazz structures to synth pop to ambient drone to darkwave to electro. Sit back & solve a murder mystery or how all of these songs come from the same project.
File Under: Ambient Jazz, Drone, Darkwave, Soundtracks
Recommended if you like: Music for art gallery elevators
Listen or buy on Silber -
http://www.silbermedia.com/ebn/the-moonflower.shtml
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/the-moonflower
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/7KswoLDBkx17Apx2ykrYrX


June 30, 2017

Hello,

I hope all is going well.  I’m feeling pretty good about things here at Silber. 

The new issue of QRD is up with interviews about music, art, & fatherhood.  I always feel good when a new issue comes together.  It feels good.  Maybe it’s because it’s the thing I’ve been doing the longest, but I often do feel like it’s the one thing I do that would make the most sense for me to be able to make a living off of even though I admit I have no idea how to make it make money.  But there’s something good about being able to make something that is what I want to read when no one else seems to be doing it.  77 issues & 22 years in, I feel like it might be my greatest success.
http://www.silbermedia.com/qrd/archives/77about.html

Two new musical releases from us this time out.  Dusty Tears (a collaboration between Shane de Leon (Miss Massive Snowflake) & Jamie Smith (Danghead)) relaunches our 5in5 series with a fun bit of lo-fi pop & experimental tour haze poetry.  Electric Bird Noise did the score/soundtrack for a play called The Moonflower that’s essentially a greatest hits collection of the past several years of EBN.  A little more info on each below (along with the three releases from earlier in the month).

As I briefly mentioned last time, there may be some weirdness with the Silber digital shop in July where I’ll have to manually send links when you purchase stuff there.  I really don’t find out if that’s the case until it suddenly is & at that time I’ll try to switch things over to Bandcamp.  My only problem with that is it means another cut away from the money I can pay out to bands, but it’s good to have options.  My experiment last month about giving releases away for free on Bandcamp to create a spike in support didn’t really work out; but it’s okay, I’ll figure out how to work that platform to Silber’s benefit eventually.

Thanks for your continued interest & support, & if you want off the mailing list just let me know.

Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

www.silbermedia.com
https://www.facebook.com/silbermedia
http://twitter.com/silberspy

Dusty Tears
DUSTY TEARS: INTERNET HITS
Shane de Leon (Miss Massive Snowflake) is back to Silber with his long time friend Jamie Smith (Danghead) & together they are Dusty Tears.  Recorded by Smith when de Leon was on a tour stop for Miss Massive Snowflake, Internet Hits really captures one of the great things the 5 in 5 series can do.  You have an afternoon of downtime as a musician on tour?  Hang out with a pal & make something.  Part punk, part lo-fi pop, & part experimental streams of consciousness, this pretty much captures how a mind works after long drives, sleeping in the van, & living the rock & roll daydream.
File Under: Lo-Fi Pop, Streams of Consciousness, Road Life
Recommended if you like: Rllrbll, Miss Massive Snowflake, Danghead, Beck
Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/DustyTears-InternetHits.shtml
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/InternetHits
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/3yqgbopfh9DcoZ25LMGLHT

EBN The Moonflower
ELECTRIC BIRD NOISE: THE MOONFLOWER
The Moonflower is a murder mystery play by creative powerhouse Philip James Fox (Wicked Gift, Gratisphere) & the Electric Bird Noise soundtrack is essentially a greatest hits collection covering the past seven years of the band. Nearly every musical side of Electric Bird Noise is represented, from discordant ambient jazz structures to synth pop to ambient drone to darkwave to electro. Sit back & solve a murder mystery or how all of these songs come from the same project.
File Under: Ambient Jazz, Drone, Darkwave, Soundtracks
Recommended if you like: Music for art gallery elevators
Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/ebn/the-moonflower.shtml
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/the-moonflower
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/7KswoLDBkx17Apx2ykrYrX


June 11, 2017

Hey Starz,

Been a while, I hope all is well in your part of the world.  I feel like things are going well even though the world’s been throwing a bunch of curves at me.  The main Silber computer had a hard drive failure & I had to rebuild it.  The whole family had a stomach flu that made me go junkie thin.  My crawlspace flooded under the house (still trying to figure out why).  Some other health issues as well making life a little harder (new low fat, low sugar, low carb, low salt diet is a bit of an adjustment).  My webhost doesn’t want to do a security patch so the digital shop may start failing in July (in which case my contingency plan is getting the catalog up on Bandcamp, which I was planning to do anyway).  But I think it’s a good time to be alive & positive things are happening too.  I got a new fairly industrial paper cutter (thanks to Blake of Copy This for the tip!) that’ll cut down the assembly time of my comics.  I had a good first show of Remora as a drone rock trio with me on guitar & organ & Jason Ward (Irata) on drums & Brian McKenzie (Electric Bird Noise) on bass.  I recorded a pilot for a podcast (still trying to figure out if it’s something I can manage to do in a way I like).  & we have new stuff available for you.

In the comics front we have three new mini-comics about Robert E Howard.  Two pseudo-biographical pieces (REH #10 & REH Another Life #1) & then an autobio book about my lifelong relationship with the man who killed himself over 40 years before I was born.  So yeah, a niche market on these books, but I admit I really only make them for myself anyway at this point.  You can check them out here:
http://silbermedia.com/comics/current.shtml

In the music front we have three new releases.  A new album of art rock meditative jazz from Moodring recorded at the edge of a volcano that really is worth checking out if that sounds even vaguely interesting to you.  A moody pop single from Philip Polk Palmer.  & a split single of post punk & post rock from M is We & Thorn1.  More info on them below, & more stuff coming soon from Electric Bird Noise & Small Life Form & Dusty Tears (a Miss Massive Snowflake side project) & Chvad SB & lots more.  If you are a Spotify user, you can always listen to the latest from Silber on this playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/4nuz7tocaNt9OkFetPsHhG

As mentioned above, we're probably going to be expanding working with Bandcamp.  As an experiment to how Bandcamp works, I'm offerring 100 free downloads of the massive compilation QRD: The Guitarists.  If you are interested in it, just send me an email. 

There is going to be a new issue of QRD out in time for Father’s Day (hopefully!) with about a half dozen interviews with musicians & cartoonists.  Keep an eye out on Twitter & Facebook for when it goes live.

Thank you so much for your interest & support over the years, it really does make it feel like the hard work isn’t in vain.  If you want to get off the newsleter just let me know.

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

Moodring: Cottage Mess
MOODRING: COTTAGE MESS
Moodring is back to Silber with art rock jazz meditations recorded on the edge of a volcano.
File Under: Art Rock, Meditative Jazz
Recommended if you like: Rllrbll, Bauhaus, Can, Bardo Pond
Listen or buy on Silber
Listen or buy on Bandcamp
Listen on Spotify

Philip Polk Palmer - Who Knows?
PHILIP POLK PALMER: WHO KNOWS?
An outtake from 2015’s Here in the Deadlights, it seems the time has come around for a song admitting what we’ve become.  There’s a mood to this moody pop gem.
File Under: Moody Pop, Pundit Conspiracies
Recommended if you like: The Church, The Reds, Echo & The Bunnymen, Nick Cave
Listen or download for free on Bandcamp
Listen on Spotify

M is We/Thorn1
M IS WE/THORN1: YOU CAN’T GET BACK/ASTHMA
Thorn1 & M is We return to Silber with a split single post punk & post rock showing their darkwave & goth roots. Both tracks mixed by Brian McKenzie (Electric Bird Noise).
File Under: Post Punk, Post Rock, Darkwave
Recommended if you like: The Twilight Sad, Aarktica, The Cure, Cabaret Voltaire
Listen or buy on Silber
Listen or buy on Bandcamp
Listen on Spotify


March 3, 2017

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, 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.

  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


January 16, 2017

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, 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


December 23, 2016

Hello,

Merry Christmas, I hope this message finds you well.  Running it a little closer to Christmas than anticipated, but we've got five special EPs from Small Life Form, Yellow6, Electric Bird Noise, Nonconnah, & X-Bax this year.  No covers of Christmas classics, but plenty of droney & noisy & shoegazery shimmery walls & guitar experiments.  You can listen to them all for free on our website at http://silbermedia.com/christmas/ & you can download them or show support for a couple dollars. You can also listen to them along with our past Christmas releases on Spotify at https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/2vOOsPkcz99CBsMJudwAJM 


Remora's rarities compilation is still available for free download on Bandcamp.  98 tracks & 6.5 hours. I'm not sure I'd ever call Remora the flagship band at Silber, but I would say it's been my main music project for 20 years.
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/scraps-scrapes

More soon.  Thanks for your interest & support & spread the word about the new releases if you can.

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


November 23, 2016

Hello,

Happy Thanksgiving.  I hope you all are well.  Doing my best to be thankful for the relatively good place I’m in even though life has been routinely difficult this year.  But hey, life is supposed to be hard work anyway right?  We’ve got three new releases ready for you now & then in just a few days the Christmas EPs will be ready.  Maybe more stuff too as I’m trying to get out all the stuff that’s been waiting on me, some for over a year now.

Magnetic Ghost
So first up is Magnetic Ghost’s debut Loss Molecules.  It’s a bit of a post punk & post rock hybrid.  The thing it reminds me most of is Windsor for the Derby’s Difference & Repetition, which is an album that gave me a lot of ideas about music.  Anyway, you should check it out.  I agreed to put it out after hearing the first three minutes.
Listen or buy on Silber - www.silbermedia.com/MagneticGhost/lossmolecules.shtml
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/loss-molecules
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/4mwQocOx3oBlz5tbAQdCBH

Luka Fisher
Luka Fisher put out a 5in5 last year & he recorded another little EP for us (this one 3 songs in 7 minutes).  Improvisational drone collaborations.  Worth checking out.
Listen or buy on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/LukaFisher/minddrone.shtml
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/mind-drone-business
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/2WqtztfODfxQhq345omwKL

Remora
Finally there’s an epic rarities release from Remora.  98 tracks & 6.5 hours.  Available exclusively on Bandcamp as a free download for the next month, so nothing to lose -- especially if you listen to it at work!
Listen or buy on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/scraps-scrapes

More soon.  Thanks for your interest & support & spread the word about the new releases if you can & 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
https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy



October 26, 2016

Hello,

Hope everyone is doing well.  Life is good here at Silber even if I am struggling to get everything to happen in a timely manner.  The hurricane that came through & flooded a lot of communities around me had no effect here in the new Silberia.  The power didn’t even go out, but then walking around the neighborhood I saw an oak that feel splitting a neighbors house in two, so I count my blessings that things are so good for me.  My little drone cub just turned one & in good health & spirits & that she vacuums up all my spare time is something I don’t mind.  Silber has always been about family to me anyhow & it’s interesting how huge of a percentage of Silber artist.  So anyway on with what’s up lately including three new 5in5 EPs.

Koyl - Fingerprints
Koyl comes to Silber with five songs in five minutes, one about each finger. But are the fingers originally on one hand or are they fingers from dead men stitched together to tell tales of angst & woe? No matter, now they all are part of the one & making incredible soundscapes with a guitar & lapsteel.
Buy or listen on Silber: http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/koyl-fingerprints.shtml
Buy or listen on Bandcamp: https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/Fingerprints
Listen on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/0RGPOSGY42MBliHNbjjJt2

Premature Burial - Factions
Joshua Heinrich (Fornever/Black Wedding) returns to Silber for a 5in5 EP with his Premature Burial project. Mixing industrial & ambient elements, f/a/c/t/i/o/n/s paints a portrait of the current political climate of divisiveness & corruption. The bureaucracy is spreading like a Kafka novel. Listen to Premature Burial while you're on hold for hours.
Buy or listen on Silber: http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/PrematureBurial-factions.shtml
Buy or listen on Bandcamp: https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/factions
Listen on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/71nRox49Xq7Xr09ixIiPN5

Cloaca - Almsgiver
Cloaca has offered up five minute long aggressive ambient drones created with pedals & a mixing board. Numbing & overwhelming like the chemicals in your IV before brain surgery….
Buy or listen on Silber: http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/cloaca-almsgiver.shtml
Buy or listen on Bandcamp: https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/Almsgiver
Listen on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/3LFDxh9rqp5nv8HpXCDVbK

Something went weird recently where some of the Silber Spotify playlists went private, but I fixed it & you can check them out here:
Last Ten Releases - https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/4nuz7tocaNt9OkFetPsHhG
Entire 5in5 Series - https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/7ge7yufxSf6IR9Tpu7YIgh
Entire Silber Catalog - https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/27NjmkRh1NqqDYIf64Fmp1

New Releases coming soon from Ms, Fullness Off Lack, Jon Dawson, Moodring, Hotel Hotel, Lum, DR, Remora, Small Life Form, Magnetic Ghost & before you know it Christmas EPs from Electric Bird Noise, Yellow6, Remora, Small Life Form, Baptizer, & more.  A batch of comics about Robert E Howard coming soon (all drawn, just need to set them up to print). & of course inevitably a new QRD.
 
Thanks for your interest & support & spread the word about the new releases if you can & if you want to be taken off the mailing list just let me know.

  Hrt
Brian John Mitchell


August 4, 2016

Hello,

 

Hope all is going well with you.  You may have already heard about it on Facebook or Twitter, but last month my parents' basement flooded destroying about a fourth of the physical inventory, but if you even mildly follow the music industry you know that physical sales have been in dramatic decline for ten years so I am trying to play it positive as making me clear out some trash rather than $10,000 worth of CDs.  My main regret of the experience is it really highlights that I should have done lower press runs the first 15 years & then I could've helped more bands.  Live, learn, & move on, right?  The future looks good.  Anyway, we've got three new releases for you.

Electric Bird Noise: Nighttime Tides

Electric Bird Noise is back with a 32 minute epic ambient guitarscape.  Longtime fans who loved the Le Vestibule era of EBN should definitely check this one out.  Feel the pull of the ocean as the fog rolls in, or is it a smoke machine?
Buy or listen on Silber: http://www.silbermedia.com/ebn/nighttime.shtml
Buy or listen on Bandcamp: https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/nighttime-tides
Listen on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/6Vi7uO0NXwR7vpuUgSb4fD

Special! - Download all 8 EBN releases on Silber for just $12!  Half-price! - www.silbermedia.com/sale  

 

Azalia Snail: Dream Dazzler

We're super happy to work with lo-fi queen Azalia Snail again here at Silber.  She made a 5in5 of lo-fi dance jams & such.  Dive in to the broken toy daydream.

Buy or listen on Silber: http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/as-dreamdazzler.shtml
Buy or listen on Bandcamp: https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/dream-dazzler
Listen on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/6FJSxVKn1ZDGYH3czPs8l8

 

Dyr Faser

Dyr Faser is Eric Boomhower & part of Boston’s growing lo-fi post-punk/proto-goth scene. Taking notes from godfathers of the genres like Joy Division, Depeche Mode, Suicide, Durutti Column, & Coil – Dyr Faser blends it all together & gives you five one minute shots that hit you like $2 shots at an after hours bar. You can’t help but nod your head to the drum machine rhythms as you wait for the creature lurking in the darkness to destroy you. Don’t worry; the monsters have always been your friends.

Buy or listen on Silber: http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/dyr-faser.shtml
Buy or listen on Bandcamp: https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/dyr-faser
Listen on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/37Ypl00iqiUZEdbrd90WvY

 

We still have some download codes left for anyone who orders a physical copy of any of the Lycia or Lycia related releases (Mike VanPortfleet, Tara VanFlower, Black Happy Day) through Silber to get a free download code for the new Lycia album A Line That Connects.
http://www.silbermedia.com/lycia

 

New Releases coming soon from Cloaca, Ms, Koyl, Fullness Off Lack, Jon Dawson, Moodring, Hotel Hotel, Lum, Premature Burial, DR, & more in the coming weeks.  A batch of comics about Robert E Howard coming soon. & of course inevitably a new QRD.  Also thinking about re-starting the Silber Blog, let me know what you'd want in it - http://silbermedia.com/blog/?p=6231 

 

Thanks for your interest & support & spread the word about the new releases if you can & 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
https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy


June 14, 2016

Hello,

 

Hope all is going well with you.  As mentioned last time the increased feeling of financial stability (if not actual stability) has created a dramatic increase in productivity here at Silber.  The new releases from a couple weeks ago (Chvad SB, Yellow6, & Anda Volley) seem to be getting some attention & that makes it feel like the label is thriving instead of declining.  The weather is hot & the days are long, but things seem good & promising & the future seems unstoppable.

 

m is we

M is We is back with us for an entry in the 5in5 series.  Post punk & proto goth somewhere between Christian Death, The Germs, & Cabaret Voltaire.  Good stuff & only 5 minutes to check out.
Buy or listen on Silber: http://www.silbermedia.com/miswe/feelslikefivedays.shtml
Buy or listen on Bandcamp: https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/feels-like-five-days
Listen on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/6SkL1A9fzdycePg0H6FHNk

 

BELD

Bronze Eye & LD Beghtol collaborated for a 5 minute EP of experimental pop music.  I’m pretty stoked about this EP because the two of them got together because of LD’s 5in5 last year.  Helping artists discover each other & work together has been a goal of Silber from the start, so this is awesome for us.
Buy or listen on Silber: http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/beld-adventure.shtml
Buy or listen on Bandcamp: https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/adventures-in-love-and-culture-onceability
Listen on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/4yKIDimUAPOAT1YCEdBlqM

 

Lycia offered up a special with us.  First 50 people to order a physical copy of any of the Lycia or Lycia related releases (Mike VanPortfleet, Tara VanFlower, Black Happy Day) through Silber will get a free download code for the new Lycia album A Line That Connects.
http://www.silbermedia.com/lycia

 

QRD

The new QRD is out in time for Fathers’ Day with a half dozen more installments in our artistic dad interview series (Tanner Garza, JB Sapienza, Jason Handelsman, Jon Madof, Josh Doughty, Loďc Josinski) plus more installments in our guitarist (Casey Harvey (Thrushes), Gabriel Douglas (The 4onthefloor)), touring musician (Nathan Amundson (Rivulets), Aaron Snow (Landing)), & cartoonist (Jeff McClelland, Peter Kuper, Josh Howard) interview series.  Please help spread the word if you can.

www.silbermedia.com/qrd

 

New Releases coming soon from Dyr Faser, Cloaca, Azalia Snail, Ms, Koyl, Fullness Off Lack, Jon Dawson, Moodring, Hotel Hotel, Lum, Electric Bird Noise, & more in the coming weeks.  Thanks for your interest & support.


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


June 1, 2016

Hello,

 

I hope you are doing well.  Things are going well in Silberia at the moment, no one is sick for the first time in a while.  Things in life have taken weird turns with me ending up with five part time jobs (plus Silber!), but bills seem to be getting paid & the stability has made me not be so stressed out as I have been the past year so I’m finally getting in the right space to be able to get some Silber work done.  So suddenly, bam! Three new releases this week & probably a few more next week (maybe earlier with some of them).

 

Yellow6

We’ve been working with Yellow6 a lot over the past couple of years & I wish we’d been working with him longer.  The new micro-EP/single Springsun is a recording from a couple months ago of loop driven ambient guitar drone.  Great stuff worth checking out.

Buy or listen on Silber – http://www.silbermedia.com/yellow6/springsun.shtml

Buy or listen on Bandcamp – https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/springsun

 

Chvad SB

Chvad SB has been working on Phenomenalism, Cartesian Doubt and Bomb #20 for a couple years & I’d almost given up on it coming to fruition.  Chvad built a modular synth capable of self-generating musical pieces & putting it together & taking it apart was part of the collaboration process between man & machine on this piece influenced by classic sci-fi movies about the nature of artificial intelligence as well as their soundtracks.

Buy or listen on Silber – http://www.silbermedia.com/chvad-sb/pcdab20.shtml

Buy or listen on Bandcamp – https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/phenomenalism-cartesian-doubt-and-bomb-20

Listen on Spotify – https://play.spotify.com/album/6h7FRuwEQJ23KsUnN4t4Oh

 

Anda Volley

The 5in5 series is back & launching this batch (I think there are about ten coming out in the next few weeks) is Anda Volley.  I’m kinda surprised I never ran into Anda before as she lived in NC back in the 1990s, but I’m glad to have run into her now.  The music on Paper Moon is in the vein of some of the 1980s avant pop stuff like Laurie Anderson or Siouxsie and the Banshees.  If it sounds interesting, it only takes 5 minutes t listen, so check it out.

Buy or listen on Silber – http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/anda-volley-paper-moon.shtml

Buy or listen on Bandcamp – https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/paper-moon

 

For you Spotify users, I am doing my best to keep a fresh playlist of the ten latest releases from Silber on it.  Follow the playlist & I think Spotify will tell you when I add stuff to it.

https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/4nuz7tocaNt9OkFetPsHhG

 

Working on the next issue of QRD which will include some more entries in our fathers interviews as well as some interviews with guitarist, touring musicians, & cartoonists.  Hope to be getting that out shortly as well.  Ads start at $5 if you are interested.

 

Thank you for your interest & support, it really does help me to keep things going.  Spread the word on social media about anything you think is interesting or cool.  If you want to be taken off the mailing list just let me know.


 
 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell


May 15, 2016
Hello,

I hope all is going well.  It's been a few years in the making, but QRD finally launched the touring musician interview series (featuring Alan Sparhawk of Low, Phil Dole of Chord, Shane DeLeon of Miss Massive Snowflake, Chris Brokaw of Lemonheads, Mkl Anderson of Drekka, & a few more).  Let me know what you think of the series & if I should keep it going.  This issue also has feature interviews with M is We & Lycia as well as a label owner interview with Manuel of Records Ad Nauseum & a cartoonist interview with Larry Johnson & a couple short stories from Phil Dole & Nathan Amundson.  Spread the word about whatever interview is your favorite if you can.
www.silbermedia.com/qrd

In the music news front there is a ton of stuff about to happen.  Releases from Chvad SB, Bronze Eye+LD, Yellow6, Anda Volley, Moodring, Electric Bird Noise, Hotel Hotel, Dyr Faser, M is We, & a ton of others are all about to happen given I figure out how to balance time well enough to get press releases & promotions ready.  So keep an eye out on social media & your inbox for when those things happen.  I'll be sending newsletters out a little more often than every two months once releases start kicking out every couple of weeks.

If you need one inch buttons made, I added a new option where you get 35 buttons with up to 35 different designs for $17 plus shipping.  Great option for people with a lot of design ideas, but not ready to commit to the typical requirement of 100 buttons per design.  Get the template & more info at www.silbermedia.com/buttons/custom.shtml

That's it for me for now.  Thank you for your interest & support, I couldn’t do it without you.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell
Silber Media

March 5, 2016

Hello,

I hope all is well.  It’s probably worth noting that Silber’s first release came out in March 1996 twenty years ago.  It’s been a long journey & while it’s been hard at times, I’m pretty proud to have survived the tumultuous business of the music industry this long & to continue to be able to help serve both musicians & music fans.  Thank you for your help in making Silber continue.

We have two new releases here at Silber that I’m pretty excited about from Treyverb & Thorn1.  Also the Space Sweeper & Heaven Falls Hard are getting some nice press.  Floorshime Zipper Boots says Space Sweeper's Alien Oceans is "an expansive journey through experimental guitar based ambient soundscapes" & Heaven Falls Hard's The Mercy-Go-Round is "Ethereal, atmospheric and completely compelling, this album is super strong from start to finish."  It feels good that people care.

Treyverb
Treyverb is a project of Trey McManus (The Drag, King of Prussia).  A Year Without Words is an instrumental surfgaze record for fans of bands like Orange Cake Mix, Spaceman 3, & The xx.  Check it out & listen below.
On Silber – http://www.silbermedia.com/treyverb/ayear.shtml
On Spotify – https://play.spotify.com/album/3EJLxWfeK4007WhWB6tdwg
On Bandcamp – https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/a-year-without-words

Thorn1
Thorn1 is the Russian drone pop/minimalist post rock project we’ve been working with for a few years.  The new album is pretty great & may end up my favorite Silber release this year (we’ll see how the competition goes as the year progresses).  Recommended if you like The Twilight Sad, The Cure, or Aarktika.  Check it out & listen below.
On Silber – http://www.silbermedia.com/thorn1/leavesofleaves.shtml
On Spotify – https://play.spotify.com/album/3Fb3ZK6W0FjNb8wgt3uxYB
On Bandcamp – https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/the-leave-of-leaves

I have started trying to use Soundcloud a bit.  Link up if you’d like.
https://soundcloud.com/silbermedia/

The Kickstarter to help get more financing for the 5in5 series is still going for another week.  At this point I don’t think it will make financing, which is fine because the series will go on as it has been, but it would be nice to be able to give the artists more compensation for their work.  So if you want to back the project or spread the word please do.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/462361469/5-songs-in-5-minutes-ep-series

Thank you for your interest & support, I couldn’t do it without you.

Hrt
Brian John Mitchell
Silber Records


February 11, 2016

Hello,

I hope all is well.  Still recovering from the pneumonia here, but the amount of improvement from a couple weeks ago makes me able to pretend I’m in good health now.  I really feel I live a blessed life, because if I’d gotten this sick a few years ago when I wasn’t married I probably would’ve let the disease go all the way until I died in my sleep.  Enough with the sadness, on with the Silber post rock party!

Heaven Falls Hard
Heaven Falls Hard is a minimalist darkwave band from Virginia.  They formed over 20 years ago & have has the typical struggle of bands in small southern towns of not being able to get attention except in Europe.  I like to thing the isolation of that is part of what’s led to a lot of the sounds of Silber artists.  Recommended if you liked Projekt or 4AD releases from the 1990s.  Anyway, listen at the links below or download from the Silber website.
Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/7K31AKIpXRIE8j4RYu8rms
Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/the-mercy-go-round

Space Sweeper
Space Sweeper is a super group of Brian McKenzie (Electric Bird Noise), Ted Johnson (Tesla Recoils, National Holographic), & myself (BJM from Remora, Small Life Form).  Droning underwater soundtrack of a crashed spaceship made by guitars.  What more do you want?  Listen below or download on the Silber website.
Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/4USTnqyKVVIG5W9a9AzY6v
Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/alien-oceans

We’re getting ready to relaunch the 5in5 EP series with releases from Anda Volley, Cloaca, Bronze Eye, Fullness Off Lack, & Azalia Snail.  So I’m running a Kickstarter to try to get subscribers so I can have money ready to pay the artists when the releases come out instead of waiting six months to see what sales are like.  In addition the prices are lower than normal for subscribing (20% off for 10, 25% off for 20) & you get the releases before they are available elsewhere.  If you can back it, that’s awesome.  If you can post on Facebook or Twitter to let people know about the project, that is also awesome.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/462361469/5-songs-in-5-minutes-ep-series

You may have already guessed, but the pneumonia thing not only kicked my ass healthwise, but also damaged the bank account a little.  So if you need some buttons made or some minimalist mastering done for a record or help with artwork, it’s an excellent time to hit me up.

More stuff coming soon including two compilations & releases from Treyverb, Thorn1, Lum, & Hotel Hotel as well as a new QRD & some new comics.  Thank you for your interest & support, I couldn’t do it without you.  If you want to be taken off the mailing list just let me know.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell


January 26, 2016

Hello,

Hope 2016 is off to a great start for you.  Mine’s a little miserable as I had a flu that turned into pneumonia (to quote the doctor, “You’re having trouble breathing”), but I’m still alive with antibiotics & a steroid inhaler so I can’t complain too much.  While it has slowed down some of the Silber plans (most notably the issue of QRD that’s been waiting to be edited since August), we still have big plans for 2016 starting with releases from darkwavers Heaven Falls Hard & prog droners Space Sweeper in February.

I made up a special download bundle (available on the front page at www.silbermedia.com, $20 download, right around half price, 6 hours of music) of the ten releases that were generating the most traffic on the Silber website last year.  While most of them were released last year & come as no surprise, it was interesting to see some oldies show up like in the 5in5 series & Aarktica’s Pure Tone Audiometry & The Wet Teens’ record (which I actually had to turn to a no index page a couple years ago because the porn traffic was effecting some stuff on the technical side of running a website, so I’m not sure how a release that is nearly unsearchable generated so much traffic, but I take it as a compliment to a fun record I like that really probably doesn’t belong in the Silber catalog).  Anyway, here’s the list:
Various Artists: Broken Hearts Broken Sounds
Yellow6: No Memories Only Photographs
Aarktica: Pure Tone Audiometry
The Wet Teens: Let It Pee
Various Artists: Make Some Noise
Philip Polk Palmer: Here in the Deadlights
Various Artists: Kaiju Temple
Chvad SB: Outside the Shadow of an Aliquot Tree
M is We: M is We
If you just stream music these days, you can listen to them all on this Spotify playlist.

Thank you for your interest & support, I couldn’t do it without you.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

December 14, 2015

Hey Kidz,

Hope all is going well with the stress of the Christmas season.  We’re always trying to get a ton of stuff done, but of course we’re always running behind getting the word out, so here’s what’s up with us lately!

Luka Fisher
A few weeks ago we put out a new 5 songs in 5 minute EP from Luka Fisher of experimental, ambient, & primitive dance music.  Free to stream or $1 to support the music.
http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/Luka-Fisher-Sleep-Gallery.shtml

In other 5in5 news, the Drekka EP got reviewed in the magazine Rockerilla, which feels like a big deal to me & makes me want to really try to do some stuff to push the series a little harder.  So I’m thinking about doing a Kickstarter to get subscribers for the series so I can get the artists a budget for recording & get Silber a budget for advertising.  I’ve also got a few new folks interested in taking part in the 5in5 series like Anda Volley, Cloaca, & Bronze Eye.  So I’m feeling good.

Christmas EP
Of course it is Christmas & so this year instead of a compilation we went with the EP series again (I really think I prefer this format, compilations with hard deadlines are stressful to put together).  This time out we have EPs from Yellow6, Electric Bird Noise, Remora, Small Life Form, Baptizer, fornever, & Exercitus Dei.  All are pretty experimental & a lot have drone-iness, though this year no one did any takes on classic Christmas songs (for better or worse).  You can listen to them all on the Silber site as well as checking out our offerings from Christmases past here.
http://www.silbermedia.com/christmas

New Mini Comics
Last month we put out three new mini comics.  An auto-bio called HG about a difficult pregnancy, the second installment of sci-fi book Seabase 17, & a re-issue of Zombie Kisses #4.  You can get them all as a download bundle $1 or physicals mailed to you for $5.
http://www.silbermedia.com/comics/current.shtml

In more comic news I was a featured guest on the web show Comic Culture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2AAq_laIUc

I made a stop motion video for an Irata song.  I think I spent a week making it, but it was fun & I’m pretty pleased with the results.
https://youtu.be/mNS2ZzMXBGQ

If you are traveling this season, I have been doing my best to keep the Spotify playlist of the most recent Silber releases updated.
https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/4nuz7tocaNt9OkFetPsHhG

That’s it for now, but coming soon are a new QRD, musical debuts from Space Sweeper & Treyverb, new albums from Heaven Falls Hard & Lum, more comics, more 5in5 EPS, & other goodies.

Thanks for all your interest & support, it means a lot to us & helps us know we are doing work that is worthwhile.  Spread the word about us if you can.
 
 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell


October 23, 2015

Hey Kidz,

 

As a lot of you know, we just had Daughter of Silber (aka "Drone Cub") arrive here at Silber headquarters & while there is a major challenge in time management, Silber is a juggernaut.

 

Two new releases just in time for Halloween!  A 5in5 EP from Drekka built from field recordings in a haunted house & an album of drone ambient inspired by a fear of drowning from Kirchenkampf.  Sound interesting?  More info on both below.

 

Remora has been releasing it’s out of print material with a new old release going up on Bandcamp every Thursday.  All of them are free downloads for a limited time.
https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com

 

We do have three albums, two EPs, & two compilations we're hoping to have ready for you in November along with a couple new comics & a new issue of QRD & some holiday specials come December. 

 

Thanks for all your interest & support, it means a lot to us & helps us know we are doing work that is worthwhile.  Spread the word about us if you can.

 

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell
www.silbermedia.com

 

Drekka: Ghost House
RIYL: Mount Kimbie, Lukid, Steve Reich, Daniele Sciolla, Ghost Hunters
File Under: Field recordings, sound experiments, ghosts.
Recordings of a haunted room amplified into music at the hands of Drekka.
Purchase from Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/Drekka-Ghost-House.shtml
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/6uhKzcDgab9kCR9kSuihS8
Listen on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/ghost-house
Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT3IfTT-mu0

 

Kirchenkampf: Swimming Towards the Light
RIYL: Brian Eno, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter, Gyorgy Ligeti
File Under: Horror soundtracks, ambient meditation
Ambient daydream of drowning & surviving fears from Kirchenkampf.
Purchase from Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/kirchenkampf/swimming.shtml
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/3o7NLMOrJNBrUEWCmGun0T
Listen on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/swimming-towards-the-light


September 17, 2015

Hello,

Normally I only send out a newsletter when there's a new release or whatever, but this time I'm just sending out to let you know there's some positivity afoot.  The other day I accidentally ate something I was allergic to & it tore my system up for a day, followed by the best & most rewarding & rejuvenating sleep I've had in years.  I woke up feeling everything was good with the world & when I checked my email I found that this pretty good interview with me about my mini-comics (that includes a link to download the newest issues) was up on Word of the Nerd.  I also got an email listing new mentions of Silber on the net & there were a ton of links of people using QRD interviews for citations in Wikipedia articles, which makes me feel like the work I do on the interviews is really worth it.  Floorshime Zipper Boots also posted up the first review of Remora's Almost Live Series & they said "this album marks that rare find that serves to expand the sonic landscape for an important ambient artist," which is maybe the most flattering thing I've ever seen about my music.  To top it off the same day I finished shooting a five minute stop-motion animation video for a song on Irata's new album (out soon on Retro Futurist).  Pretty much the best day I could imagine, but I'm hoping for days better than I can imagine. 

Hope all is going well on your side.  Thanks for continuing to support all the work I try to do here at Silber, it really does mean the world to me.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell


ugust 8, 2015

Hello,

 

I hope all is well.  Feeling hopeful for a future more stable than the present at the moment, so how much better could things be?

 
Yellow6 - No Memories, Only Photographs

New music in from Yellow6.  It’s guitar drone driven & called No Memories, Only Photographs.  I'm really happy to have Silber associated with this album as I think it might be my favorite Yellow6 record so far!  We do have a limited number of physical copies available while supplies last.  More info here:
http://www.silbermedia.com/yellow6/nomemories.shtml

 

Remora - Almost Live Series
We also have a new & old release from Remora.  While going through some files on an old hard drive I found a ton of rare Remora material including this radio session from 2007 for Ambient Ping.  Aggressive guitar drone & ambient arpeggios & some songs never before released that were part of the live set at the time.  More info on how to get it for $1 or less here:
http://www.silbermedia.com/remora/almostliveseries.shtml

 

To celebrate both of those releases, we have a couple sales going on for both Yellow6 & Remora releases. The entire Silber catalog of either band (4 for Yellow6, 10 for Remora) available for just $9!

http://www.silbermedia.com/sale/

 

Genius Junkies

We do have three new comics out.  A  speculative biography on Robert E Howard, a story about local drug addicts, & the re-release of a zombie survival zine from years ago.  You can get digital versions or physical versions from right over here:
http://www.silbermedia.com/comics/current.shtml

 

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.

 

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell


August 8, 2015

Hello,

 

I hope all is well.  Things are rough here at Silber, but we are still getting things done & have some news for you.

QRD #74 First off we have a new issue of QRD.  Over 25 interviews with guitarists, bass players, cartoonists, & label owners about their work plus a feature interview with Rivulets.  I don’t know why, but I think this issue is especially good.  Read through & let me know what you think.
http://www.silbermedia.com/qrd/

Fathers - Balancing Family & Art I did the editing to make Fathers (the interview book about balancing art & family) available as a hardcover through Lulu.  I’m pretty excited about it.  It’s a little bit pricey, but Lulu usually has sales about once a month to give you 20% off if you keep your eyes open.
http://www.lulu.com/shop/brian-john-mitchell/fathers-balancing-family-art/hardcover/product-22278235.html

 

Lure of the Unknown - Day of Endings New music in our 5in5 series from Lure of the Unknown.  It’s definitely toward the experimental electronic end of the spectrum & is five sound tracks to six-word microstories.  Why not spend five minutes checking it out?
http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/LureoftheUnknown-DayofEndings.shtml

M is We - Sinking We also have a new collection of remixes of M is We’s “Sinking”.  It’s free to stream or download over at Bandcamp.  If you didn’t listen to the M is We album a couple months ago, the music is electroclash & synthpop & post punk oriented.
https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/sinking

 

Some old friends of ours have some albums coming out over the next few months, I’m sure you are savvy enough to find info on the internet about the new albums from Low, Irata, & Lycia.

 

Hopefully we’ll have some new releases from Drekka, Kirchenkampf, Chvad SB, & Space Sweeper done soon.  Life keeps pushing things back a little, but we’re sure we’ll win eventually.

 

While the comics’ front has been a little stagnant lately with actual releases, a lot is going on with scripts being written again.  So hopefully the art will start to flow in & we’ll have stuff for you to read soon.

 

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.

 

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


July 8, 2015

Hello,

 

I hope all is going well for you. Another really productive month here at Silber.  In a way things going not so terrific in life helps give me a need to really throw myself into the work.  For those not in the know, me & The Bride of Silber are having a baby daughter, which should be a totally exciting time; but she has hyperemesis gravidarum, which has meant several stays at the hospital with me just feeling powerless & praying for the best.  It’s rough to have your own powerless thrown in your face, but I try to look at it as an opportunity to strengthen our marriage & to look at this time where I can seldom leave the house as an opportunity to give Silber a last hunk of time before the baby comes.  Anyway, on with the news.

 

First off three new releases:

Philip Polk Palmer - Here in the Deadlights

Shoegaze & melancholy pop from Philip Polk Palmer

Recommended if you like The Church, The Reds, Echo & The Bunnymen, Nick Cave, Remora

A few years in the making, this album was engineered & co-produced by me & mixed by Brian McKenzie (Electric Bird Noise).  In a way it’s a follow-up to Remora’s Scars Bring Hope, but written by someone else.  The songs tell stories of the ghosts & people of Savannah.

Buy or learn more on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/palmer

Listen on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/here-in-the-deadlights

Watch "Better in the Books" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb0qclwTYpo

 

Remora - Swash

Post punk & proto-apocalyptic pop from Remora

Recommended if you like Killing Joke, Joy Division, Wire, Cabaret Voltaire, Television, Swans

Back in 2011 Remora started occasionally playing shows as a live band with three to five members instead of as a solo or duo.  On here Remora is more aggressive & gnarled than ever.  Oh, & it’s free to download on Bandcamp.

Buy or learn more on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/remora/swash.shtml

Listen on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/swash

Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/0So49zZgXC61RCEZ7pyKSi

Watch "The Doctor’s Wife" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVyo3DwL-1I

 

Heaven Falls Hard - Three Hundred Seconds

Cinematic soundtrack to an imaginary film from Heaven Falls Hard.

Recommended if you like John Carpenter, Goblin, Ennio Morricone, Electric Bird Noise

Our 5in5 EP series is back with Heaven Falls Hard.  Around 20 years on the darkwave scene & we’re pleased to have them give us a little piece of music to put forth to the world.

Buy or learn more on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/HeavenFallsHard-threehundredseconds.shtml

Listen on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/three-hundred-seconds

 

Our playlist on Spotify that has the ten latest releases streaming will be updated as soon as the PPP & HFH releases are up, but you can check the other recent stuff out there in the mean time.  https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/4nuz7tocaNt9OkFetPsHhG

 

I set up a place to buy our ebooks on the Silber site.

http://www.silbermedia.com/books/

Also the Fathers: Balancing Family & Art ebook is now up on Amazon (the Kickstarter was successful), so if you already got it please give it a review.

http://www.amazon.com/Fathers-Balancing-Brian-John-Mitchell-ebook/dp/B00ZY6RD7S/

 

I was on a podcast recently where I geeked out about comics & went over brainstorming an idea for some comics hopefully coming out this December with my collaborators Jared Catherine & Shawn Atkins.

http://figureitoutpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/06/figure-it-out-63-big-one.html

 

July 17 is SPACE (Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo) up in Columbus, OH.  While I’m not going to be able to make it up there this year, Jared Catherine is going to be there representing Silber in general & Walrus in particular.  It’s nice to have someone helping out & really gives me the feeling of community Silber is all about.

 

In order to make a little extra cash around the house, I bought a bunch more button parts again & am hoping to push the button factory a little again if you or anyone you know is interested in some buttons.

http://www.silbermedia.com/buttons/custom.shtml

 

I joined two new social networks that are supposed to bring some of the fun back to being on social networks.  Instagram (which I assume everyone knows already) & This Is My Jam (you just put a link to a song you are into at the moment & one sentence about it).  Link up if you’d like.

https://instagram.com/silberspy/

https://www.thisismyjam.com/silberspy

 

Coming up soon (maybe within the next month?) are three 5in5 EPs (Drekka, Joseph Kyle, & Joeseph Simon), remix EPs from M is We & Philip Polk Palmer, an album from Kirchenkampf, an album from Space Sweeper, an album from Chvad SB, a new issue of QRD, some new comics, & much more come September.

 

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.

 

 Hrt

Brian John Mitchell


June 8, 2015

Hello,

A lot going on this time out, we’ve been busy.

 

First off three new releases:

 

The Infant Cycle: The Bundle of Joy
Sound experiments & drone from The Infant Cycle
Recommended if you like Zoviet France, Troum, Hafler Trio, or Small Life Form.

Three hours of rarities spanning a 20 year career of electro-acoustic manipulations.

Buy or learn more on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/infantcycle/bundleofjoy.shtml

Listen on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/the-bundle-of-joy


M is We
Post punk electroclash from M is We.

Recommended if you like Dirty Beaches, Depeche Mode, New Order, Section 25, or SAVAS

An EP from the new project of Michael Wood (SAVAS, The Wet Teens, Mister Science)

Buy or learn more on Silber - http://www.silbermedia.com/miswe/miswe.shtml

Listen on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/m-is-we

Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/0MT2aoo4AxpaB8HDDuOmhX

 

In semi-related news we made a playlist on Spotify that has our ten latest releases streaming so you can keep up with our releases as they go up if that’s your main listening platform.  https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/4nuz7tocaNt9OkFetPsHhG

 

QRD 73
Second off we have a new QRD with the most interviews of any single issue.  Over 40 interviews with musician & cartoonist dads about balancing art & family life.

http://www.silbermedia.com/qrd/archives/73about.html

 

In related news we have an ebook coming out for Father’s Day collecting all hundred or so artistic father interviews I’ve done over the past 8 years.  Doing a Kickstarter to pre-order it in time for Father’s Day.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/462361469/fathers-balancing-family-and-art

Coming up soon are the Philip Polk Palmer album, remix EPs from M is We & Philip Polk Palmer (contact me if you want the remix packs), the Remora live EP, some 5in5 EPs & much much more.

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


April 30, 2015

Hey Kidz,

The good news is there should be a new newsletter from me fairly soon with more new releases, but I wanted to go ahead & get you some news out before things have slipped my mind.

First off a couple years ago there was this thing going around where noise folks posted photos of cheerleaders holding up “Make Some Noise” posters & somehow this twisted into a compilation of noise, drone, electroclash, & prog that is available for free download & free streaming on the Silber Bandcamp.
https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/make-some-noise

We have up a new QRD!  21 interviews this time with musicians, label owners, comic shop owners, & comic creators.  So pretty much all we do crammed inside of one issue.  The next issue will be for our musician/artist dad series if you have any nominations.
http://www.silbermedia.com/qrd/archives/72about.html

Speaking of QRD, I have a Patreon running to try to help QRD level up.  Basically it’s an automatic pledge of a dollar or two per issue to help try to get some things going better & getting some more time dedicated to it.
http://www.patreon.com/qrd

We have out three new mini-comics.  An issue of Walrus, an issue of REH, & a re-issue of Zombie Kisses #2.  May 2 is Free Comic Book Day & in honor of that, I’m giving out digital copies of these three issues & our next three issues to anyone who emails me telling me they want them by Sunday.

I’ve actually somehow had a streak of good movies I’ve seen over the past couple weeks.  I suggest the following if you like weird sci-fi Congress & Predestination.  For horror there is Babadook.  For drama I suggest Whiplash.

Talk to you soon. Thanks for your interest & support.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell


March 17, 2015

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


February 17, 2015

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


February 6, 2015

Hello,

Well, it took us a month to get back into the grind here at Silber for 2015, but we got a couple things ready for you.

Broken Hearts Broken Sounds First up is a compilation curated by our good friend Michael Wood.  Broken Hearts Broken Sounds collects 18 bands with links to the Carolina music scene (sometimes the link is Silber for folks like Miss Massive Snowflake & LoveyDove (featuring Azalia Snail)).  Shoegaze, experimental pop, Americana, this one has a lot of cool stuff.  It reminds me of when I was a zinester in the 1990s & I’d get a tape from a zinester in Hungary showcasing their awesome & eclectic music scene.  Anyway, we’re putting this one up as a free download for a short time or of course you can pay a couple bucks to help support the artists.  I do feel like it’s worth mentioning that a song written for my wedding appears on here.
QRD #70 I’ve got a new QRD up including interviews with indie cartoonists, guitarists, & Electric Bird Noise.  I’m actually pretty excited by the guitarists who took part this time.  Fred Frith of Henry Cow is of course pretty legendary, but I personally am a bigger fan of Chris Jeely (Llarks, Accelera Deck) & Phil Dole (Chord, X-Bax) & they both have agreed to take part in the 5in5 series in the near future!  I’m always stoked when Silber/QRD crossover & build on each other like that.

I know some of you are a fan of Rivulets.  Nathan Amundson has a new release of him doing some reverbed out guitar explorations that I think some of you might dig.
https://rivulets.bandcamp.com/album/western-songs

I don’t know if I should leak this or not, but Jamie Barnes recently told me he is working on some new material that will be released on Silber.  Not sure if it will be completed in 2015 or not, but I’m super excited to be working with him again.

We’ve got several releases on the cusp of being released.  5in5 from Chvad SB, Llarks, Black Wedding, Parties, & PD Wilder as well as EPs from Remora & What Does the Scanner See.  So you should be hearing from us sooner than later.

Oh, for those who haven’t taken advantage of it yet, our blow out digital sale of our 10 most popular albums of 2014 for just $20 is going to be up for another week or so while I work on the new releases.
http://www.silbermedia.com/sale/

Thanks for your interest & support.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

January 12, 2015

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, & 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

December 12, 2014

Hello,

I know it's a second newsletter in December, but if you read up last time you know we were trying to get the Christmas EPs ready & now they are out!  7 EPs, 37 tracks, & just over three hours of music.  Surprisingly only 3 traditional Christmas songs make it out for re-workings ("Little Drummer Boy" by Firetail & "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" & "Carol of the Bells" by Remora) & all the rest is new noise, drone, post-rock, & sound experiments from Small Life Form, Electric Bird Noise, Yellow6, Baptizer, Ronja’s Christmas Witch (Featuring Mkl Anderson of Drekka), Remora, & Firetail.  Anyway, feel free to stream it on our site or throw a couple bucks in to support the music.  Spread the word around if you can.
http://silbermedia.com/christmas/

In addition all our past Christmas comps are available for free download on the same page or you can listen to them on Spotify.
https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/2vOOsPkcz99CBsMJudwAJM

In Memory of John Peel is having people vote for the best indie songs of the year.  I’m not saying you need to vote for Silber songs like "Clearly & Consciously" by Thorn1 or "It Haunts Her" by Chvad SB or "Det Syng for Storegut" by Origami Arktika or "Square with a Little Bit Rectangle" by Can Can Heads, but you could.  While I’m at it, don’t forget us in your end of year lists if you make such things.
http://inmemoryofjohnpeel.com/festive-fifty-one-2014-voting/

Thanks for all your interest & support & helping make 2014 a great year for Silber.  Talk to you in the New Year with new music, comics, & interviews for QRD.

Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

December 4, 2014

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.
 
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.

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 can go here).

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.

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.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

October 21, 2014

Hello,

As always, a lot going on here at Silber.  In fact so much so that you’ll probably get another email from us in a week or two.

First off in music news is that we have a new album from Yellow6.  Yellow6 has been a pretty steady force in guitar experiments & shoegazery drone for almost 20 years & we’re super pleased to have him officially on the Silber team.  The new album, Closer To The Sea Without Moving is about a lighthouse being claimed by the sea.
http://www.silbermedia.com/yellow6/closertothesea.shtml

Second off in music, we’ve relaunched the 5in5 series!  First off is a nice little cinematic drone set from Lost Trail.  We’ve got about ten more that should be coming out soon.  If I can get myself on a regimen, maybe one or two a week until we’re all out.
http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/lost-trail-rural-entropy.shtml

Third off in music, we’ve got a bunch more coming before the end of the year including at the very least a trio of Christmas EPs from Drekka, Remora, & Electric Bird Noise.

Our experiment with pushing people to listen to music on Spotify a bit seems to have worked out a bit in that we got six times as much money through Spotify in August as July.  So I’m hoping that encouraging you folks to listen to the Silber catalog in that way while continuing to purchase music from any artists you particularly want to support can encourage to help the label continue to exist in the currently tumultuous music industry.
http://tinyurl.com/silber-spotify

In comic news, we’ve got three new things coming out this week.  Barbarian in Vegas #0 about a barbarian trapped in Las Vegas drawn by Nate McDonough.  The re-issue of Zombie Kisses #1 from 1998 about life after a zombie apocalypse.  Walrus #3 about working as a musician in an elevator drawn by Jared Catherine.  Going out to subscribers over the weekend.  If you’re not a subscriber already, we’ve got a Kickstarter going to get new subscribers.  Spread the word about it if you can.
http://tinyurl.com/tiny-comics

In QRD news.  The new issue is about to happen.  We have about a dozen interviews in, just have to get them all laid out.

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.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell
Silber Records
www.silbermedia.com

OCTOBER RELEASES ON SILBER
Yellow6: Closer to the Sea
Yellow6: Closer To The Sea Without Moving
RIYL: Aarktica, Labradford, Pan American, Twin Peaks, thisquietarmy
File Under: Ambient, Space Rock, Post Rock, Shoegaze
Info:
Yellow6 comes to Silber with an ambient tale of life & decay.
More Info - http://www.silbermedia.com/yellow6/closertothesea.shtml
Sample track "Looking Back Towards The Sea" - http://www.silbermedia.com/mp3s/Yellow6-Closer_to_the_Sea-01-looking_back_towards_the_sea.mp3
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/0cGCc44AA5aeUApr9q3Smd
Listen on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/closer-to-the-sea-without-moving

Lost Trail: Rural Entropy EP
Lost Trail: Rural Entropy EP
RIYL: Electric Bird Noise, Godspeed You Black Emperor, John Carpenter
File Under: Ambient, Drone, Cinematic Soundscapes
Info:
Lost Trail creates 5 cinematic soundscapes in 5 minutes.
More Info - http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/lost-trail-rural-entropy.shtml
Sample track "Blood Forcefield" - http://www.silbermedia.com/5in5/Lost_Trail-Rural_Entropy-01-Blood_Forcefield.mp3
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/4BL1VLPYokYvEjr8ayBEAI
Listen on Bandcamp - https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/rural-entropy-ep


September 17, 2014

Hello,

I hope all is well.  Another fast paced month for me, in part because I actually had a vacation.  I went to Great Sand Dunes & it is awesome & re-invigorating.  Maybe I should move closer to them so I can get more work done.  This month is three re-issues of Silber bands before they were on Silber.  All three of them are available as free streams on Silber or five  bucks to download/show support or get them bundled together on our sales page - www.silbermedia.com/sale

Rllrbll had a long history before Silber, in 2000 they put out Bathing Music & they began to get the attention they always deserved.
www.silbermedia.com/rollerball/bathingmusic.shtml

Electric Bird Noise’s first album from 1999, Unleashing the Inner Robot, goes all over the place from prog rock to industrial to darkwave, but always with the cinematic feeling that EBN has always had.
www.silbermedia.com/ebn/unleashing.shtml

If Thousands first album that is maybe their darkest & most aggressive take on their ambient blanket soundscapes, we’re happy to make Candice Recorder available again.
www.silbermedia.com/ifthousands/candice-recorder.shtml

As you may know we’ll be putting out Yellow6’s new record in a month or two & so I thought some of you might want to check out this recording from a recent live show.
https://yellow6.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-fuse-bradford-22-aug-2014

Last month I started my experiment of asking you fans to start listening to Silber on Spotify to see if streaming really can be something that makes a difference, it ends up taking a couple of months before the paperwork comes through.  So if you can continue to help with the experiment, here is the Silber playlist & you can just put it on random to hear the whole catalog if you listen at work for a couple weeks.
https://play.spotify.com/user/silberspy/playlist/27NjmkRh1NqqDYIf64Fmp1

I do seem to have finally cracked my writer’s block on the comic front & have written six scripts in the past couple of weeks for REH, Walrus, & Lost Kisses.  So I’m excited that I might actually be getting some things done on that front.  Now I just need to get myself drawing again.

As far as what’s coming up, between albums, compilations, EPs, & re-issues we have about 20 releases I’m hoping to get ready before the end of the year, but as I get older I keep moving slower, so we’ll see if I can get it all done.  Also trying to get QRD rolling out more regularly & of course more comics.  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

SEPTEMBER RELEASES ON SILBER
Rllrbll: Bathing Music
Rllrbll: Bathing Music
RIYL: Sun Ra, Swans, Jackie O Motherfucker, Sonny Sharrock
File Under: Experimental Rock, Post Jazz, Trip Hop
Info:
Rllrbll classic originally released by Road Cone in 2000.
More Info - www.silbermedia.com/rollerball/bathingmusic.shtml
Sample track "Wyoming" - www.silbermedia.com/rollerball/Rllrbll-Bathing_Music-05-Wyoming.mp3
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/207cu2gBvLEi6zawh0C383

Electric Bird Noise: Unleashing the Inner Robot
Electric Bird Noise: Unleashing the Inner Robot
RIYL: Lycia, Kraftwerk, the 1990s
File Under: Experimental, Post Rock, Darkwave, Industrial, Ambient
Info:
The first album of EBN’s cinematic soundscapes from 1999.
More Info – www.silbermedia.com/ebn/unleashing.shtml
Sample track "The Hum of the Moon" – www.silbermedia.com/ebn/Electric_Bird_Noise-Unleashing_The_Inner_Robot-04-The_Hum_Of_The_Moon.mp3
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/0VLgF7AEXvbN9Kg4yGs0Ph

If Thousands: Candice Recorder
If Thousands: Candice Recorder
RIYL: Stars of the Lid, Brian Eno, Coil, Goblin
File Under: Experimental, Drone, Aggressive Ambient, Black Jazz
Info:
If Thousands first album from 2001 of dark ambient slumbercore.
More Info – www.silbermedia.com/ifthousands/candice-recorder.shtml
Sample track "Paint the Night" – www.silbermedia.com/ifthousands/If_Thousands-Candice_Recorder-07-paint_the_night.mp3
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/6ZKyGI3IkcsjUsTSZniPqh


August 15, 2014

Hello,

I hope all is well.  This past month has flown by.  But we managed to get two new releases ready for you.

First off is Thorn1's The Light of Random Star.  Thorn1 of course is the Silber band from Siberia heavily influenced by the first generation of Silber bands like Aarktica, Remora, & Rivulets.  The record is a mixture of drone, ambient noise, & drone pop.  I really like it a lot & I'm hopeful you will too.
www.silbermedia.com/thorn1/lightofrandomstar.shtml

Second off is Across the Mountains - A Macedonian Ambient Music Compilation.  Earlier this year I reached out to some of the folks that have supported Silber since the beginning about doing curated compilations & this is the first fruition of that.  Put out as a joint release with Toni Dimitrov's Post Global Recordings, this compilation showcases music by artists that have been lost to a lot of listeners due to their geographic location & I'm really excited to let you all hear what people are up to in the mountains of Macedonia.
www.silbermedia.com/comps/acrossthemountains/

I have decided in the interest of making the upcoming Silber releases more accessible to the 21st century listener to start doing my best to get all the upcoming releases up on Bandcamp & Spotify so folks can hear the stuff before buying it.  I think on things like QRD - The Guitarists getting it listened to & talked about is really the whole goal anyway.  I read the story about the band that made $20,000 by asking fans to play their record on loop on Spotify, so I'm curious if Spotify really could be the thing that saves our little weird piece of the music industry.  Anyway here are the links to that one.
http://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/album/qrd-the-guitarists
https://play.spotify.com/album/1AbhLpYVPsPFOUnNiD85Vk

Speaking of QRD, we have a new issue out with in depth interviews with guitarists.  All new interviews not featured in the ebook.  The series may go on forever & I'm fine with that.
http://www.silbermedia.com/qrd/archives/68about.html

In other QRD news, I'm trying out Patreon to see if anyone is interested in financially supporting it to get content up more regularly.  I'm trying to gauge where my time is best spent these days - comics, music, interviews, working a day job - & I'm hoping you folks can help me figure out the answer.
http://www.patreon.com/qrd

Also in the financing the future department, I've made some digital subscriptions available for the upcoming Silber releases.  I'm really hopeful to get some pre-sales going for everything coming up so we can have money to give the artists on the label upfront so we can all get better equipment or record in better studios to make better records for you.
http://www.silbermedia.com/sale

Some of you Rivulets & Remora fans might be interested in checking out this new 10" from Jellyfant Records.  The b-side is Rivulets covering Remora's "I Told Jesus Christ How Much I Loved Her."
http://jellyfant.wordpress.com/2014/08/10/just-out-rivulets-10/

As far as what’s coming up, the debut from Space Sweeper, a live EP from Remora, a noise compilation inspired by cheerleading, re-releases of out of print material from Rllrbll & If Thousands, an album from Yellow6, an EP from Halcyon Chamber, an EP from an album from Chvad SB, the relaunch of our 5 in 5 EP series, more mini-comics, more issues of QRD, & who knows what else.  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

AUGUST RELEASES ON SILBER
Thorn1
Thorn1: The Light of Random Star
RIYL: Aarktica, Remora, Natural Snow Buildings
File Under: Experimental, Drone, Drone Pop, Siberia
Info:
Thorn1 returns to Silber with an incredible collection of ambient & drone pop.
More Info - www.silbermedia.com/thorn1/lightofrandomstar.shtml
Sample track "Clearly and Consciously" - www.silbermedia.com/mp3s/Thorn1-The_Light_of_Random_Star-02-Clearly_and_Consciously.mp3
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/5ZipUr6i0ybZRF4FI0uMjm

Across the Mountains
Various Artists: Across the Mountains
RIYL: If Thousands, Brian Eno, Post Global Trio, Harold Budd, Aphex Twin
File Under: Experimental, Ambient, Drone, Noise, Outer Jazz
Info:
For longer than I can remember Silber has had a segment of fans in Macedonia thanks to DJ, journalist, musician, & general good guy Toni Dimitrov.  To help build the links between Silber & Macedonia we teamed up with Toni & his label Post Global Recordings to bring you a sampling of ambient music from Macedonia that fits in with the Silber aesthetic.  Relax & drone out.
More Info - www.silbermedia.com/comps/acrossthemountains/
Listen on Spotify - https://play.spotify.com/album/7EnBypjgPQSu4uxzMlUaeH/2HQHa7imty5Oy5z2DnUutp


July 13, 2014

Hello,

I hope all is well.  This past month has gotten a lot of positive press about Chvad SB & Origami Arktika & really helped me to feel re-invigorated about Silber.  It's good to feel loved & appreciated & that the work we're doing here is worthwhile.  I also got a handful of people to help me get some of the intern work done at Silber this month that has been sitting waiting for me to have the time to do for over a year & people reaching out to help like that really feels like the community aspect of Silber that is the whole goal of our work is coming back alive.

We've finally got the guitarist compilation completed! 55 tracks, 241 minutes, 2388 page ebook of interviews, easily the most massive thing we've put together.  It has a lot of the usual Silber suspects appearing (members of Remora, Electric Bird Noise, Hotel Hotel, Northern Valentine, mwvm, Plumerai, etc.) as well as folks like Aidan Baker (Nadja), Alan Sparhawk (Low), Eric Quach (thisquietarmy), & I could go on forever.  You can go to the website to see the full track listing. http://www.silbermedia.com/comps/QRD-the-guitarists/

Speaking of QRD, we have QRD #67 with sixteen in depth interviews with cartoonists about comics & their craft.

On our comic front, we've got Marked #4, Star #4, & Seabase 17 #1 that debuted a couple weeks ago at Derby City.  You can order a subscription (digital or physical) at www.silbermedia.com/comics/subscribe.shtml We'll probably be needing to run a Kickstarter again soon to get some more subscribers as the ones we gained last year have now almost all been filled.  Let me know if you have any ideas for fun things to go for such a project.

As far as what’s coming up, the debut from Space Sweeper, a live EP from Remora, an album by Goddakk, a noise compilation inspired by cheerleading, a compilation of Macedonian drone music, a new issue of QRD (guitarist special) & the launch of two new QRD interview series (touring musicians & comic shop owners), re-releases of out of print material from Rllrbll & If Thousands, the relaunch of our 5 in 5 EP series, more mini-comics, & who knows what else.  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

JULY RELEASE ON SILBER
QRD - The Guitarists
Various Artists: QRD - The Guitarists
RIYL: Silber Records, Guitar Experiments
File Under: Experimental, Drone, Guitarscapes, Guiterrorism
Info:
Nearly 4 hours of music & a 2388 page ebook of interviews with guitarists about their instrument.
More Info - www.silbermedia.com/comps/QRD-the-guitarists/
Press Release - www.silbermedia.com/presstools/silber154.pdf


June 10, 2014

Hello,

I hope all is well.  As you may have noticed already 2014 is turning into a juggernaut year for us in Silberia.  I finally goat all the promo copies for Chvad SB & Electric Bird Noise & Feel No Other out & am happy to be seeing some positive reviews come in that are helping to make me feel the most upbeat about Silber I have in a while.  It's really nice & I want to thank you all for continuing to support Silber through the rollercoaster ride we've been on for nearly 20 years.

We've got a new release from out beloved Origami Arktika called Absolut Gehor.  Those of you who remember their past releases know what to expect - norwegian experimental drone folk.  For those of you not as familiar, think of a cross between Einstürzende Neubauten, Sigur Ros, Jandek, & Death in June & you are on the right track.  No reviews of it yet as we haven't gotten the promos out, but you can read up a little here - http://www.silbermedia.com/origamiarktika/absolutgehor.shtml

In the comic front, we've been doing our best to get on a schedule of three every month.  This months issues aren't out yet but they are Marked #4, Star #4, & Seabase 17 #1.  You can order a subscription (digital or physical) at www.silbermedia.com/comics/subscribe.shtml  Also at the end of June I'll be in Louisville for the Derby City Con if you want to swing on by.

As far as what’s coming up, the guitarist comp is sequence & dangerously close to finished.  A little further down the line are the debut from Space Sweeper, a live EP from Remora, a collection from The Infant Cycle, a new album from Thorn1, two new issues of QRD (guitarist & comics specials), re-releases of out of print material from Rllrbll & If Thousands, the relaunch of our 5 in 5 EP series, & who knows what else.  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

JUNE RELEASE ON SILBER
Origami Arktika
Origami Arktika: Absolut Gehor
RIYL: Small Life Form, Einstürzende Neubauten, Sigur Ros, Jandek, Pelt, Can, Current 93, Death in June
File Under: Experimental, Folk, Drone
Info:
Origami Arktika returns with their experimental drone take on traditional Norwegian folk music.
More Info - www.silbermedia.com/origamiarktika/absolutgehor.shtml
Sample track "Det Syng for Storegut" - www.silbermedia.com/origamiarktika/Origami_Arktika-Absolut_Gehor-06-Det_syng_for_Storegut.mp3

Press Release - www.silbermedia.com/presstools/silber156.pdf



May 18, 2014

Hello,

I hope all is well.  It's already been a super busy year for Silber.  The releases from If Thousands, Rllrball, Electric Bird Noise, slicnaton, & Feel No Other have all been getting some kind words & now we have a new release & official new Silber family member.

We've got the Silber debut from longtime friend Chvad SB of Things Outside the Skin & Controlled Bleeding.  It's an ambient drone lament on love & loss from a guy who's getting to be known for writing unsettling horror movie soundtracks.  You can read more about him & the new release as well as order it if you'd like at www.silbermedia.com/chvad-sb & if you can spread the word a bit, we'd surely appreciate it.

In the comic front, we've been doing our best to get on a schedule of three every month.  This month includes the second issue of our new hit book Walrus, a new issue of our Robert E Howard speculative biography REH, & our latest installment of Ultimate Lost Kisses.  You can read more about them & order a subscription (digital or physical) at www.silbermedia.com/comics/subscribe.shtml  Also this weekend I'll be at the Appleseed convention in Fort Wayne, Indiana & I'm pretty excted as it is a juried show & I'm sitting with both piers & collaborators (Kurt Dinse, Jason Young, Jason Strutz) & legends (Jim Steranko).

As far as what’s coming up, we have the 2300 page ebook of guitarist interviews & the compilation associated with it is almost complete, We have the interviews in for two new issues of our webzine QRD & I'm hoping to get those laid out & ready to go by the end of May.  We have in a new album from Origami Arktika that should be available as a digital release by the end of May.  A little further down the line are the debut from Space Sweeper, a live EP from Remora, & new material by From Oceans to Autumn, re-releases of out of print material from Rllrbll & If Thousands, the relaunch of our 5 in 5 EP series, & who knows what else.  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

MAY RELEASE ON SILBER
Chvad SB - Crickets Were The Compass
CHVAD SB: Crickets Were The Compass
RIYL: Controlled Bleeding, Lustmord, Coil, Things Outside the Skin, Nurse With Wound, Roll the Dice
File Under: Experimental, Dark Ambient, Drone, Noise
Info:
Chvad SB of Things Outside the Skin & Controlled Bleeding comes to Silber for an ambient drone lament on love & loss.
More Info - www.silbermedia.com/chvad-sb/crickets.shtml
Sample track "It Haunts Her" - www.silbermedia.com/chvad-sb/Chvad_SB-Crickets_Were_The_Compass-01-It_Haunts_Her.mp3
Video for "It Haunts Her" - http://youtu.be/arH0_txSZls
Press Release - www.silbermedia.com/presstools/silber153.pdf



March 3, 2014

Hello,

I hope all is going well for you. Going nuts here in Silber trying to get things ready for you. First off, I’m trying out this new format for the newsletter where some of you might see some pictures. If you see pictures but would prefer the plain text, then let me know & I’ll swap you over to plain text. If you want the pictures & don’t get them, I have no idea how things work!

First off, we have a digital only release of a new album from Slicnaton. It’s been years since the last release & we’re happy to be working with Nic for his new album. It’s musical drone influenced by jazz, noise, & classical composition. Listen to the whole thing streaming & feel free to pay a couple bucks for the download to show your support.
slicnaton - autoscopy slicnaton - autoscopy
MP3 Album 2014 | Silber 150
6 tracks, 37 minutes
$5 download
listen on Silber
slicnaton comes to Silber with meditative experimental drone influenced by classical & jazz composition backgrounds.

: Listen to the track maartechen
: Press Release
: Reviews

Second off, we have a new release from Feel No Other. It’s available as a download, a CD, or a free stream. It’s a collaboration between Brian Lea McKenzie of Electric Bird Noise & Claudia Gregory of Exhaust the Fox. Cinematic folk songs that you might here opening an anime or closing a David Lynch film.
Feel No Other - Feel No Other Feel No Other - Feel No Other
CD Album 2014 | Silber 152
12 tracks, 34 minutes
$12 ($18 international, $5 download)
listen on Silber
Feel No Other returns with their full length debut of cinematic americana storytelling.  

: Listen to the track Winter Is All Over You
: Press Release
: Reviews

There’s also a couple special sales involving the new releases if you are looking for a special deal while supporting us.

Third off we have a new QRD up. Part ten in our guitarist interview series!
QRD #66 QRD
Our webzine QRD continues with issue #66.
Part ten in our interview series with guitar players

about this issue
Guitarist Interviews:
Gavin MacArthur of Schlong
Gary Murray of Gary Murray & LN
Joe O'Sullivan of Bilge Pump & Polaris
Tony Whitlock of Matthew & The Arrogant Sea
Jason Williams of Animal Holograms
Lucio Menegon of Reverend Screaming Fingers
Dan Bridgewood-Hill of dbh & NASDAQ
Igliashon Jones
Denny Kopp of Above Us The Waves
Drew Jacobs of Drew Jacobs & the Sauce
Jason Hendrix
Speaking of QRD, there are just a couple days left on the Kickstarter ebook collecting all of the guitarist interviews from QRD for the past four years & the associated compilation. If you want to help get the word out about it or kick in a few bucks that would be awesome.

In the next couple of weeks we should also have ready new releases from Remora & Small Life Form & some new comics (just got the art in for Pow Wow #3) & some music videos for some of the new releases. Down the line will be the relaunch of our 5 in 5 series, a couple of compilations, & some re-issues of out of print releases from Silber artists.

Thanks for your interest & support & if you want to be taken off our mailing list or change your email, just let me know.

Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

February 10, 2014

Hello,

I hope all is going well.  As I think I mentioned last time, there’s a lot going on here at Silber right now.

First off, we have a digital only release of a new album from If Thousands.  It’s been years since their last release & we’re happy to be working with them on their new album.  Their slumbercore drone is as good as it’s ever been & for me this record has a real American roots feel, but I can’t really explain why.  Listen to the whole thing streaming & feel free to pay a couple bucks for the download to show the band your support.

Second off, we have a new release from Electric Bird Noise.  It’s available as a download, a CD, or a free stream.  Last year’s Desert Jelly was an homage to new wave, but this year’s Kind of Black is guitar driven with a lot of dissonant chords that become soothing & hypnotic as you keep listening.

I’m working on the ebook collecting all of the guitarist interviews from QRD over the past four years.  There’s also going to be a compilation with it from the guitarists I’ve interviewed.  Depending on demand I’ll make physical books & CDs.  We’ll just see what happens.  I’m going through Kickstarter if you want to help get the word out about it or kick in a few bucks.

We have a couple new comics out, Lost Kisses #26 & Come Home Safe #2.  I’m feeling pretty happy & generous right now, so here’s a link to the digital versions of them for free reading.

In the next couple of weeks we should also have ready new releases from Feel No Other & Slicnaton & a new issue of QRD & some more comics & then in a few months a new Remora full band EP & the relaunch of our 5 in 5 series & a couple compilations.  This year, everything’s coming up Silber.

Thanks for your interest & support & spread the word about us if you can.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

January 15, 2014

Hello,

I hope you’re doing well.  I’m really glad that it finally turned into 2014 as 2013 was a pretty rough one for me, but looking back it wasn’t too bad for Silber with 22 releases coming out plus quite a few comics & a couple QRDs & of course acquiring the button maker.  

To celebrate the new year we have two special download sales for $13 each through the end of January.  One is our 10 most popular releases of last year (including Jamie Barnes, Irata, Electric Bird Noise, & 7 others) & the other is all 22 releases of 2013 (including Rllrbll, Yellow6, Small Life Form, & a ton more).  They’re a pretty great deal to let you catch up with what we’ve been up to.  Spread the word if you can.
http://www.silbermedia.com/sale

If you are curious what were the popular things at Silber in 2013, follow these links:
Most Popular Silber Music Releases of 2013
Most Popular Silber Comics of 2013
Most Downloaded Silber Music Releases of 2013
Most Popular Silber Blog Entries of 2013
Most Popular QRD Articles of 2013

More stuff coming soon from If Thousands, Electric Bird Noise, Feel No Other, From Oceans to Autumn, Origami Arktika, Slicnaton, Chvad SB, Muscle Mass, QRD, Lost Kisses, Pow Wow, & the launch of our ebook series.  Let me know what you’re most interested in & I’ll try to get it moved to the front burner.

Thanks for your continued interest & support, it really means a lot to me.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

December 1, 2013

Hello,

I hope all is well.  I’ve been doing my best the last few weeks to get things geared up to turn Silber back into the gentle juggernaut it once was while maintaining my love & excitement for it.  So far things seem a little slower to get done than I’d hoped, but I do think I’m developing a rhythm that will help in getting things out to folks faster again when I’m still excited about them.

So the big news is we just did a digital release of Rllrbll’s new album 4 Corners.  It’s a pretty great record that delves into trip hop & free jazz blending into the ever genre dodging Rllrbll.  For a limited time you can even check it out as a free stream before slinging out a couple hard earned dollars to let the band know you are into what they are doing.

On the comic front, we have three new books.  Lost Kisses #25 continues the time travel story arc & goes into the future revealing the origin of our hero’s time traveling ability.  REH #5 continues our speculative biography of Robert E. Howard in a piece about fan mail. & we have the debut of a new series about a saxophone playing walrus after the apocalypse simply titled, Walrus.

We finally have up a new issue of our webzine QRD & it’s not a themed issue, but instead in depth interviews with some of our friends like Mike VanPortfleet (Lycia), Ben Vendetta (Elephant Stone Records), Jason Young (Veggie Dog Saturn), Nick Marino (Super Haters), Jamie Barnes, Scotty Irving (Clang Quartet), Shaun Sandor (Promute), Ben Link Collins (Silent Media), Joe Kendrick (WNCW), Carl Kruger (Static Fanatic), & myself.  Also included is the return of candy reviews with tons of pictures & video.

For Christmas this year, we are doing a series of buttons by some of our artist friends.  We’re doing the sales via Kickstarter because that seems like the best way to make sure people know about them these days.  Check them out & spread the word if you can.

Also in more Christmas news, I want to try to do a Christmas song cover each week of December.  If you have any ideas of what I should do, please let me know.

In the “woe is me” department we have two stories.  Story one – I lost my beloved flip phone… it fell out of my pocket while I was pogo-ing at an Irata show & broke in half leaving me with no phone numbers & 40 demo songs lost forever.  But that’s okay, if the songs are worth hearing, I’m sure they’ll come to me again.  Story two – my webhost has changed their spam filters around & I haven’t figured out how to work things yet, so some people’s emails aren’t coming through.  I’m trying to get that fixed up, but if you email me & I don’t reply to you, that is probably the reason why.

More stuff coming soon from If Thousands, Electric Bird Noise, Feel No Other, From Oceans to Autumn, Origami Arktika, Slicnaton, & who knows what else.  Thanks for all your interest & support, it really means a lot to me.  If you want to be taken off our mailing list, just let me know.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

October 24, 2013

Hello,

I hope all is going well for you.  Things are crazy at Silber headquarters as always, right now I'm running the label from a laptop while traveling around the country with a couple bands.  It slows the work down a bit, but it's my first time on this extensive a trip in 15 years (currently a month in with two weeks to go & then another two weeks with another band) & it is nice to see all of america again.  I forget how much I love both the wide open spaces & the uniqueness of individual cities.

Anyway,  we've got a couple more releases in the five minute EP series.  The latest are a noise EP built from field recordings by Carl Kruger & a shoegaze blissout EP from Yellow6.  More info on them all below.  I'm pretty excited about them as both Carl & Jon Yellow6 have been friends with Silber for ages.  All the releases in the 5 in 5 sereies are free to stream or $1 to download if you can help get the word out.

Going to be a bunch of new stuff & a new QRD hopefully fairly soon.

Thanks for your interest & support.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

OCTOBER RELEASES ON SILBER
Yellow6: 5
RIYL: Landing, Aarktica, Absent Without Leave, Remora
File Under: Shoegaze, Space Rock, Post Rock, Bliss Pop, Drone
Info:
The drone/shoegaze/spacerock guitar work of Yellow6 is joined by piano for the 5 in 5 challenge.
Sample track "5.2"
Press Release

Carl Kruger: Sexist Tranny
RIYL: Farmer's Manual, Danile Menche, John Weise
File Under: Field Recordings, Experimental, Noise
Info:
Carl Kruger brings noise (from caustic to soothing) built from layered & manipulated field recordings to meet the 5 in 5 challenge.
Sample track "Venalize the Bold"
Press Release

August 25, 2013

Hey Kidz,

So it’s been a couple of months of relative inactivity at Silber.  I’ve been sorting some things out & realizing how I can run Silber in a way that doesn’t drive me crazy & I think I’ve got it figured out.  So things are going to be starting up a bit again with me focusing on the fun elements of Silber & letting the tedious soul-sucking activities go.

In a few weeks we’ll have some new music from Yellow6, Carl Kruger, Rllrbll, If Thousands, slicnaton, From Oceans to Autumn, & Remora & then hopefully before the end of the year some stuff from Plumerai, Jamie Barnes, Small Life Form, PD Wilder, Sarah June, & Space Sweeper.

QRD will be coming back as well, starting with some issues in the 1990s style where it’s just me interviewing & catching up with people I’m friends with & a fan of.  Then launching into some special projects.

On the comic front, the big thing right now is that we are trying to get some more subscribers so we can more readily pay the artists so that the work becomes front burner instead of back burner projects.  We’re doing a little Kickstarter thing about it, as that still seems a favorite way for people to find out about the mini-comics.  My goal is to get out 20 new minis (or more) in the next 8 months.  While our financial goal has been met for printing, our goal to get to pay the artists a decent bit means gaining 200 subscribers, which may be a pipe dream.  Spread the word (or subscribe) if you can.
http://kck.st/16VJXsG

At the Silber Button Factory, I’m experimenting with Etsy as a means to sell things & as a discovery engine.  I have no idea how Etsy works, but if you are a user & can favorite an item or two in the Silber shop, I think it boosts the visibility.  Or, of course you could buy something if you want to.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/silberia/

I’m also starting to try to put some prints & such up over at Society6.  No sales over there as yet, but we’ll see what happens.
http://society6.com/Silberspy

We do have some special sales going on at deep discounts to try to clear out the basement a bit.  Hopefully you’ll find something you dig there.
http://www.silbermedia.com/sale/

There is a bit of a problem on the website because Yahoo cancelled the media player I used through out the site.  I have a new media player thing going, but if any of you are programming savvy & can suggest a more elegant player let me know.  Ideally I’d have something that put a little play button next to any MP3 or M3U link & would automatically play the next track appearing on the page when one finishes & is just one line of code in the header of a page.

I guess that’s about it for now.  Some mild plans to re-work the website & then I’m going to be hitting the road with The Independents for six weeks in about a month.  Thanks for your interest in all we’ve done over the years, it really means a lot to me.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

June 8, 2013

Hey Kidz,

I hope you are all doing well.  A lot has been going on here at Silber over the past month & a half since the last newsletter.  I think there are 4 new issues of QRD (see them all here) about guitarists, comic creators, label owners, & even a short interview with Alan Sparhawk of Low.  There are 12 new releases in the 5 songs in 5 minutes EP series (listen to them all streaming or buy any you like for a buck exclusively here) in every genre we deal with from drone to noise to ambient to indie pop.  There’s a couple new comics about to come out too.

But the reason things have been so productive is I was clearing the plate for Silber.  I’m tired & worn out.  I’ve been tired & worn out for a couple of years & trying to push through thinking something would change, trying to get excited about small things that might make a difference but it hasn’t really worked.  I am out of ideas to invigorate things (the 5 in 5 series was my last attempt, I thought it would get people besides me excited about Silber & I’d be able to feed on that) & I need to take a break from it all.  I’ll still be filling orders & if there’s a significant delay on that front it will be in the top banners throughout the website.  I’m pretty sure I’ll be back at some point as I’m 38 & I started at 19, literally half my life ago & I don’t know how to not do it.  Thanks for your interest & support over the years, it’s meant a lot to me.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

April 22, 2013

Hello,

I hope all is well.  I can’t remember the last time I had to send out a second newsletter in less than a month, but we’ve been creating a lot of content here at Silber & I’m excited to get to share it all with you.

We’ve got two more releases up in our five minute EP series. Nik Furious does a bizarre synth-funk video game influenced EP about unlocking the nature of reality.  The Wades EP is their first release in several years & is a melding of wyrd folk, blues, & experimental music.  The recent Rllrbll EP has been the most popular so far in the series; so make sure to check it out if you haven’t previously.  A bunch more will be going up fairly soon, so keep an eye out on our blog or Facebook or Twitter to know when they go up.  All the releases in the series are free to stream or $1 to download.

We have a new band on the Silber roster called Firetail.  Ambient guitar drone in the vein of mwvm, Aarktica, If Thousands, Thorn1 & essentially half of the Silber roster in the style we’ve been known for since the 1990s.  The first release is a free 16 minute, 2 track EP.  I hope you dig it.

Remora is getting ready to record a new album & as a bit of a warm-up that may indicate the vibe of the album, here’s a cover of a song from the TV show The Fugitive.

The new Electric Bird Noise has been pretty well received.  To help more people hear it, it’s our current featured release.  So you can listen to the whole thing for free or buy it at a discounted price for a limited time.

I still keep making up some new button designs.  We just added some from artwork by Edvard Munch & Leonardo Davinci.

It’s been a long time, but there’s a new issue of Lost Kisses.  It’s continuing the time travel story arc & this one is about elder care & existential dread.  It’s pretty bleak, but I’m pretty happy with it & offering it up as a free read.

At the end of June I’m going up to Louisville for the Derby City Comic Convention.  I’m looking to expand my trip a bit for hanging out & make some appearances various places if anyone is interested in a houseguest for a day.  I’m looking at a trip where I re-discover America by not just going into the same cities & bars I have been going in for the past 20 years & maybe just being more about hanging out than performances.

Clang Quartet is going to Japan on tour with Acid Mothers Temple in July.  I’m really excited to get to hear his tour stories & about the crowd reaction over there.  Congrats to Scotty Irving for the wonderful opportunity his music has given him to see the world.

mwvm has a new album almost ready to go.  We’ll probably be telling you all about it in our next newsletter.

QRD is unstoppable this year.  A new comic issue went up a couple weeks ago & we’ll have a new guitarist & comic issue up over the course of the next month or so.

We still have some special sales going on.  I’m trying to clear up the basement a bit & so you can for a super limited time get five discs for $30 or twelve discs for $50.  The majority of the catalog that I have physical copies of is included.  I just want to be able to have some breathing room.  On the same page I also have ten comics or buttons discounted down to five bucks.

So that's it for now.  More soon. As always spread the word about anything we're up to that you like.  Thanks for your interest & support & if you want off the mailing list or the email it's sent to changed, just let me know.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

April 4, 2013

Hello,

I hope all is going well.  I feel like I’m going pretty crazy, which I suppose is hardly news; when am I not going crazy?  Anyway, here’s what’s up with Silber lately.

First off I want to tell you about some special sales I got going on.  I’m trying to clear up the basement a bit & so you can for a super limited time get five discs for $30 or twelve discs for $50.  The majority of the catalog that I have physical copies of is included.  I just want to be able to have some breathing room.  On the same page I also have ten comics or buttons discounted down to five bucks.  So yeah, if you like stuff, buy stuff!

There was a bit of a hiccup with the five minute EPs, but now things are coming back on track.  We have two brand new EPs up from Fornever (darkwave) & Rllrbll (dark-experimental jazz groove? How can you describe Rllrbll?).  Feel No Other, Small Life Form, Baptizer, Nik Furious, & The Wades will have EPs coming out fairly soon as well & then there are some more down the pipe.  I'm pretty excited about them all & I hope you can tell folks about them.  All the releases will be free to stream or $1 to download.

I just found out about this pretty cool fan funding website called TeeSpring, so I’m trying it out with the Remora “I Came to Party” T.  The shirt is just ten bucks & they handle the shipping, but I need fifty pre-orders for them to print the shirt at all.  So hey, back it if you can.

I made a mini-comic for mini-comics day (makes sense right?).  It’s part Cthulhu & part standard sad bastard crap (so basically autobiographical for me).  You can check it out on the Silber Tumblr.

In other comic news I’m going to be up at SPACE in Columbus, Ohio again the year & I edited the anthology again & the digital version is available for free if you just follow the link.

As you may have heard, I bought a button maker & have been making buttons for folks.  I’ve also been doing some stuff designing my own buttons & making buttons from images in the public domain including a ton of hundred year old funny cat images as well as optical illusion images.

QRD is back with another installment in both the label owner & cartoonist interview series & I’ve got another set of cartoonist interviews going up next week.

So that's it for now.  More soon I hope. Thanks for your interest & support.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

February 14, 2013

Hello, I hope all is going well.  I guess I'm late to point it out, but the world didn't end with the Mayan calendar back in December.  But as luck would have it, according to "The Prophecy of the Popes", the next Pope is supposed to be the last one before the end of the world, so it should still be happening within our lifetime.

The big new release on Silber is Electric Bird Noise's Desert Jelly.  Instead of being the drone fest you might be used to, this is the closest thing to a new wave dance record we'll ever put out!  Well, that's really a misnomer, but you can hear the New Order influence a lot stronger than the Joy Division one & it's closer to Brian Eno than Swans.  Check it out & buy it if you dig it.

The five minute EPs are still going strong.  I can't write the press releases fast enough to keep up with the music coming in.  Electric Bird Noise, Drekka, From Oceans to Autumn, & Goddakk all have new installments in the series & there are new ones coming soon from Rllrbll, Feel No Other, Small Life Form, Fornever, Baptizer, Nik Furious, & The Wades just waiting for me to master & make press releases for.  I'm pretty excited about them all & I hope you can tell folks about them.  All the releases will be free to stream or $1 to download.

Remora is trying to get back in the studio for a new album called Droneuary.  A new heavy duty album planning thirty days of recording & cranking out an hour of music a day to be culled down into a bad ass album.  Guest musicians planned include in studio collabs with Michael Wood (Mister Science, SAVAS), Brian McKenzie (Electric Bird Noise), Peter Aldrich, Jason Ward (Irata), Karla Anne Lineback, Ted Johnson, Darin DePaolo (Unspeakable Forces), & Jesse Grey (The Pointless Forest); & long distance & sample based collaborations from Nik Furious, Shaun Sandor (Promute), Bryce Clayton Eiman, Martin Newman (Goddakk, Plumerai), & Evgeny Zheyda (Thorn1).  The album is being financed through Kickstarter with it being budget at $1000 for recording expenses & if it goes to $2000 we'll have physical product manufactured.  If you don't have the money to back the project, helping to spread the word is greatly appreciated.
   
I made an ebook about my cartoonist residency in Pittsburgh.  It's 284 pages & you can buy it for just a dollar if you are interested.

The new issue of Pow Wow is out now & we have a bunch of other new comics in the pipeline, I'll let you know more as they come out.

Irata has a bunch of shows coming up (including SXSW) so you'll have a chance to see these heavy hitters who's style of sludge is getting more powerful by the day.  Here are some dates if you or someone you love might be able to go.  Most of the dates are with Lord Fowl & Freedom Hawk.  Check local listings for details.
March 1 - The Milestone, Charlotte, NC
March 8 - Nightlight, Chapel Hill, NC
March 9 - Rockin' Hard Saloon, Murrells Inlet, SC
March 10 - New Brookland Tavern, Lexington, SC
March 11 - Caledonia Lounge, Athens, GA
March 12 - The Nick, Birmingham, AL
March 13 - Luna Live, Lake Charles, LA
March 16 - SXSW - Spiderhouse Cafe, Austin, TX
March 23 - Front Street Public House, Burlington, NC
April 5 - Casbah, Durham, NC

I bought a button maker.  So I'm making a bunch of buttons.  If you need buttons made, I can help you out as well.  Spread the word if you can as I think the button maker might be the thing that keeps Silber in the black this year!

QRD is back with another installment in the guitarist interview series & there are a couple of issues worth of interviews for the label owner & cartoonist series that I'll be working on & putting up in the coming weeks.  Still looking for more guitarists to be interviewed if you have any suggestions (Dave Mustaine & Justin Broadrick haven't written back yet).

Also, I hate to bring this up, but I feel I have to.  Last month the post office raised their international shipping rates for a CD by $6.  I raised my international rates by $4 which I hated to do, but I do have my rates cheaper than it costs me to import a CD from Europe, so I like to think the prices are still reasonable.

So that's it for now.  More soon I hope. Thanks for your interest & support.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

December 5, 2012

Hello, I hope all is going well.  I've had a pretty busy month with a bit of news for you all.

The big news for Silber is the string of five minute EPs is going strong.  We already have up releases from Remora, Electric Bird Noise, Mister Science, & Northern Valentine.  I've only been able to get up one every other week so far, but hope to pick up the pace to one a week soon.  I'm pretty excited about them.  All the releases will be free to stream or $1 to download.

There is some other Remora news.  For a while I have been thinking about doing some t-shirts.  So I decided to do a Kickstarter to see if there's an interest.  Basically if 15 people want shirts, I'll go ahead & get them printed up.  It's the silhouette with me holding a guitar, a gun, & a sword & then it says "I Came To Party."  Just follow the link if you are interested.
   
I completed my residency at the cartoonist house in Pittsburgh.  You can check out some of the paintings & sketches I did at the link below (& if you are in to them you can get an ebook collecting them).

Over the residency I also got a few comics done.  A Lovecraftian story called Messenger, a vignette about being a touring musician from my son Andrew called Come Home Safe, a story about the meaning of life called Storyteller, & I got in the artwork for the newest issue of our cowboy comic Just A Man #5.  All available for just a buck or two.

So that's it for now.  More soon I hope. Thanks for your interest & support.

 Hrt
Brian John Mitchell

October 29, 2012

Hello, I hope all is going well. Turning into fall here & winter before you know it & then I guess we all get to see if the world really comes to an end on December 21, 2012.

So a while ago I started making puzzle boxes as you may know. Anyway, there's four new designs up on the website. They take me a while to make, so if you want some to give out for Christmas time, please order them within the next week or so. I figured out a better method for staining them than what I was initially using & I think the results on the newest boxes are a bit better than the original batches. So I'm pretty happy with them these days. Check them out if you get a chance.

I think I had the best Small Life Form show I've had in years the other day. Here it is on YouTube if you are interested in checking it out. Small Life Form - October 919 Noise Showcase

There's a new album out now by Plumerai called Mondegreen. It reminds me of some of the bands that went on to be called goth &/or shoegaze, but were really just doing their own things in the 1980s. You can stream the whole thing at the link above.

We also have the new EP Vultures by Irata available. They're back to sludge it out & this time they've replaced the horns with vocals. Irata will be touring up & down the east coast in November, you can check out their tour schedule here.

A few weeks ago I did a Remora album recorded in 24 hours for the Greek label Somehow Ecstatic. I might eventually do a little remixing of it, but I'm really excited & exhilarated by what I could accomplish in hust one day. You can listen to a stream or buy it at this link.

The big news for Silber coming up is a string of EPs we're going to be releasing over the next couple of months. It's a challenge series of five songs completed in five minutes. We're planning on putting up a new one each week, so check back often. It's starting out with Remora's I Came To Party for the first week of November (though it's already live now). All the releases will be free to stream or $1 to download.

The big news for me personally is I got a residency in Pittsburgh to work on my comics for the month of November. It's a pretty great opportunity to try to get better at my craft. Of course it doesn't pay all the expenses for travel & food & art supplies, so I'm running a Kickstarter to pre-sell some of the work I'll be doing when I'm up there. Spread the word on it if you can.

I don't know if you're a fan of Silber on Facebook or not, but lately we have a contest each month to guess the most popular download & if you guess it right, you get a free download of any album in our catalog. So just keep an eye out at the beginning of each month for your opportunity to win.

So that's it for the month of October, but hopefully it's enough. There should be more news come November (new QRD, new comics, & more music). It's 18 years now since everything started with the first issue of QRD & I never could have made it through without your interest & support.

 hrt
Brian John Mitchell

July 27, 2012

Well, we seem to be back on track.  Here it is a month since out last newsletter & we have a ton of news.  Lots of new music & some other stuff as well.

First off is Brian John Mitchell’s Four And a Half.  It’s a 4.5 hour long drone that he’s been working on for 4.5 years.  It’s a big slab of droning tones made with guitars & synths.  Not for everyone of course, but for you droners it might be what you’ve been waiting for. Free to stream & just $1 to download for a limited time.

Small Life Form has a new album called Voice in the Sky.  It’s a 45 minute slab of electroacoustic drone built from voice, feedback, copper pipe, & simple synthesizers.  Free to stream & just $1 to download for a limited time.

In other Small Life Form news, there was a bit of buzz about a couple of cover songs posted on YouTube.
Small Life Form – “Children of God” (Swans)
Small Life Form – “Slavestate” (Godflesh)

Panthan was a collaborative project between Remora & slicnaton back in 2008.  We’re finally releasing a free EP of some of the recordings that vary from shoegazing indie rock to soundscapes.

Unspeakable Forces is a side project of Remora going into a realm of doom drone & industrial shoegaze.  Here’s the debut free EP Butterfly Corpse.

The Kickstarter about putting comics in bottles & casting them into the ocean is going well in that it’s met the necessary funding to make the project happen, but I’d kind of hoped to get 100 backers to help on the project & that goal is still far away.  Check it out before it closes next week & spread the word if you can.

The Kickstarter for some custom puzzle boxes is closing out next week as well.

The Finally Checking It Out & Nostalgia Equals Distortion blogs have been pretty active reviewing stuff the past few months.  Reviewing Gattaca, Alf, & Otherworld on N=D & Johnny Mnemonic, Superman IV, Teen Wolf Too, The Tribe, McTeague, & The Changes on FCIO. Check them out if you get a chance.

QRD has two new issues up this month, one about indie cartoonists (including Zak Sally & John Porcellino) & a new guitarist issue (including Mason Jones & Chris Wade).

So that’s it for the month of July, but hopefully it’s enough.  Thanks for your interest & support.

June 25, 2012

Hmmm… Not sure how I ended up going three months without sending out a newsletter.  All the internet gurus say you should send out a newsletter every week & normally I shoot for every month, but I kept putting it off because there were so many things that seemed “about to happen” that I kept putting off sending out a message until they were all ready to go.  So a lot of news this time around about various things.

There are a ton of reviews up for Northern Valentine’s Fin de Siecle all posted up to read for those of you who have been thinking about whether you want to buy it or not.

In our free release series we have an ambient drone release created with guitar & bass feeding back in large spaces by Promute called Drone of the Norns.  Please spread the word about it.

In the Silber related category, we have Small Life Form: Satsop released by Blondena.  Satsop is the recordings Small Life Form made in a nuclear cooling tower in the pacific northwest that has been waiting to be released for four years while ownership rights of the recordings have been negotiated, so we’re super happy that it can finally be heard.

In related news, Blondena had a CD release party that included collaborations between a ton of folks including a Small Life Form/Powercloud/Bryce Clayton Eiman jam.  It’s live & free.

Remora has a new album called The Heart That Kills out on Fluttery Records.  It’s a real drone fest.  Nearly an hour of wavering tones broken up by a few minute long songs.  It’s a response piece about the death of my grandmother.

I also have an hour long set of super raw emotional videos about grief.  I can’t really suggest anyone watch it unless they recently lost a loved one & want to feel less uniquely alone.  It is what it is.  I’ll just leave it at that.

A lot of news for our comics.  
A new issue of Worms about a Kafka-esque Lovecraftian quest.
A new issue of REH about Robert E. Howard taking care of his mother.
The debut issue of Pow Wow about Pennsylvania Dutch folk magic.
We started a project collaborating with children on comics, you can find out about it & maybe if you have kids you can make one.
& we have a Kickstarter about putting some comics in bottles & casting them into the ocean to be discovered by people in the distant future (or you can buy some comics in a bottle to put on your mantle)

I just made my puzzle boxes available for order through the website or a Kickstarter for some custom ones.

In other Kickstarter news, Sequential Underground Podcast did a special with me about running a successful Kickstarter campaign.

The Finally Checking It Out & Nostalgia Equals Distortion blogs have been pretty active reviewing stuff the past few months.  Check them out if you get a chance.

QRD has a new issue up about musician dads & there should be a new guitarist issue in a week or two & then a cartoonist issue a couple weeks after that.

We have some new t-shirts available & finally have made our buttons & balloons for sale.

So that’s it for these past few months, but hopefully it’s enough.  Thanks for your interest & support.

March 14, 2012

It’s been a while since I’ve sent out a newsletter.  The last one went out in December.  At least we aren’t in that set of blokes that send you out an email every week to make sure you know nothing is going on (I have a blog for that!).  So you know when we bother to contact you there’s some interesting stuff going on.  In this case a ton of things.

We have a new CD of indie ambient from Northern Valentine called Fin de Siecle that will be in stores in about a month, but you can already order it directly from the Silber website.

We have the long-awaited sophomore album from mwvm.  It’s pretty mighty & the shocker is it’s available for free download or streaming.  To me it sounds like a glacier cascading onto a desert plain.  Ambient guitar, slide guitar, & underlying angst.

Plumerai has a brand new EP debuting their new line-up with a new drummer & singer.  Quite a different take on shoegazing pop than the last three releases, but I think you’ll dig it all the same.  Oh, & it’s free to stream or download.

A couple of years ago Electric Bird Noise did a series of live performances with ensembles of up to 40 people.  We finally convinced McKenzie to release it as part of our free series to get you ready for the upcoming “Desert Jelly” album.  This is a very different take on Electric Bird Noise & even the acoustic guitar driven track sounds like it is floating in from some trans-dimensional illegal trading post.  Live at The Basement

In Remora news, there is a new album called “The Heart that Kills” which will be coming out soon on our friends Fluttery Records.  There’s also some pretty serious talk of simultaneous work on three albums to be recorded over the summer.  In other Remora news, there was a bit of buzz from covering a car insurance jingle.

In If Thousands news, the band has started recording again & we (like you) eagerly await to hear the final results.

In comic book news, there’s been a lot of new stuff.  So much new stuff I haven’t had a chance to get it up on the website.  We’ve been cranking out about a new comic a week for 2012.  & so what have we done?  We’ve started a Kickstarter campaign to help pay for keeping everything available & in print.  So send us $5 or however much you’d like, or just spread the word if you can.

For those of you who are media junkies, we added a couple features to our site.  Twitter streams of news about music, comics, the world, & fun stuff.  So you can use them as quick destinations to find out what’s going on.  I did attempt to keep the world news balanced with sites from the far left & far right so you can hopefully decipher the truth in between them.
comic & music news
world & fun news

We are also trying to get back in the business of making some video streams to work (we tried a year ago, but the technology was a little behind our goals).  So you can check out this site & there may or may not be anything happening.

I think that’s it for now.  But there is more coming sooner rather than later, hopefully we’ll have more to tell you in a month.

December 4, 2011

I hope all is going well with you. Here we are & it's already December.  I've had a pretty rough year, but they are all what I refer to as "first world" problems; you know, there's food around even if I'm eating less of it & there's clean water to drink & I have both eyes & all my fingers & toes.  So who am I to complain if some dude wrecks my car or a loved one dies or my computer blows up?  It makes me sound like an American or something.

It's December, so we have a new Christmas compilation.  It's called Six Feet Below the Snow & I'm pretty stoked about it.  Goes all over the map genre wise & some stuff is serious with other stuff being dumb fun.  Go to www.silbermedia.com/comps/sixfeet to listen or download it for free.  The artist roster is Charles DeMar, Jon DeRosa, Thorn1, Landerim, Miss Massive Snowflake, Goddakk, Origami Boe, Moodring, Remora, Pacific 231, Sibyll Kalff, Yellow6, Lullabier, Feel No Other, Tony Whitlock, Les Marquises, Lřzninger, Electric Bird Noise, Parties, & Drekka with Michael Demery Toran.  Also, if you need some of our older Christmas comps (which now somehow is 8.5 hours of music) go to www.silbermedia.com/christmas

Remora got the remix treatment for the single "My Brother's Guns & Knives" off of Scars Bring Hope.  13 covers all fairly different from the original & you can listen or get a free download at www.silbermedia.com/remora/guns.shtml  There's also a video for the album version of the song that was recently featured on Foxy Digitalis that you can check out here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o67dr8oR-Ek - it's stop motion of a paper doll fighting bugs & it took me a few weeks to get it done (though a big part was learning the process) so I hope you get a kick out of it.

Rllrbll (formerly Rollerball) has a free EP called Murwa Mbwa that is a preview of what they are working on for their album in 2012.  I'm never sure how to explain what Rllrbll sounds like, but lately I've been calling them "doom jazz rock" which seems as sensible as anything.  The big news is that the producer is Spit Stix of Fear who has previously been a producer for the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers & Nina Hagen.  Anyway, listen or download it - www.silbermedia.com/rollerball/murwambwa.shtml

& then the last in our free releases for this time out is the debut of doomgazers Magi.  One guitarist & one drummer making music somewhere between Tribes of Neurot & Neil Young's Dead Man Soundtrack.  It's a new project from Brandon Helms of From Oceans to Autumn.  Here it is - www.silbermedia.com/magi/december.shtml

Since the last newsletter I put up a couple new issues of QRD, one interviewing mini-comic creators & another continuing our guitarist interview series.  Hopefully I'll get worked up my exhaustive drummer survey soon & I'll be getting some new content to keep QRD going as I'm running low on guitarists to interview that will actually answer 70 questions! - www.silbermedia.com/qrd

This month’s feature release is mwvm's "Rotations" from back in 2007 as we're going to have a new album from mwvm pretty soon.  Listen to it on the free stream & of course buy it for $2 off while it’s the feature. www.silbermedia.com/feature

New music coming soon from mwvm, Remora, Electric Bird Noise, & more.  New comics soon too!  We'll let you know more next month.

October 4, 2011

I hope all is going well with you. Here we are in early October & it’s starting to get cool outside.  Before you know it, we’ll be hitting 2012 & then the world will end.

In August the power supply in my music computer went bad & I had to get it fixed & then in September I had a hard drive crash on my internet computer (which was a seven year old machine) so I opted to buy a new one & it’s taken some time trying to get all my software back on & getting the files moved over & all that stuff.  So it’s kept a few things from happening on the Silber front & hopefully I’ll be catching back up with QRD & some of the other stuff soon.

We have a new free release from Thorn1 called Oblivion.  Songs & drones of emotion, isolation, & hope from the frozen lands of Siberia. www.silbermedia.com/thorn1/oblivion.shtml

This month’s feature release is The Alcohol EPs from Remora, Pale Horse and Rider, & Rivulets back in 2002.  Listen to it on the free stream & of course buy it for $2 off while it’s the feature. www.silbermedia.com/feature

On the Silber website in our game section I added some flash music software, most notably a drum machine.  Waste time at work!

Reviews are starting to come in on the Remora, Jon DeRosa, Azalia Snail, & Electric Bird Noise albums.  Check them out if you haven’t had a chance yet.

New music coming soon from mwvm, Remora, From Oceans to Autumn, Electric Bird Noise, & more.  We'll let you know more next month.

August 16, 2011

I hope all is going well with you. Here we are in mid-August.  The year is flying by.  We've been busy with some new music & comics.

Lost Kisses #22 is done & available as a PDF or CBZ download or for $1 purchase over at www.silbermedia.com/lostkisses   We also have a brand new autobio comic called REH about Robert E Howard (author of Conan) that you might dig drawn by Andrew White (Just A Man), free download or buy it for a dollar at www.silbermedia.com/reh

We just put up a new section of the site with a featured release streaming & available at a discounted price each month.  The first feature is Remora's Enamored from 2005 - www.silbermedia.com/feature

We have a new download only album from Goddakk - www.silbermedia.com/goddakk - of post rock or industrial shoegaze or whatever you want to call it.

We have a new release from Plumerai - www.silbermedia.com/plumerai - that's available in a limited number of physicals or of course for our $5 downloads.

We'll be getting in the new solo EP from Jon DeRosa of Aarktica this week & it'll start shipping.  Four tracks & just six bucks or three bucks for the digital.  Check it out at www.silbermedia.com/jonderosa

In other Jon DeRosa news, we just re-issued digital versions of the two Dead Leaves Rising discs.  Shadow Complex that Jon recorded as a senior in high school & Waking Up on the Wrong Side of No One that came out back in 2001.  These have been fairly hard to find for a while, so we're glad to bring them to you.  www.silbermedia.com/deadleavesrising

New music coming soon from mwvm, Remora, From Oceans to Autumn, & more.  We'll let you know more next month.

Our webzine QRD - www.silbermedia.com/qrd - had an issue go up last month continuing our series of interviews with mini-comic creators.  We'll be getting a couple more issues up about indie record labels & playing guitar fairly soon.

June 16, 2011

I hope all is going well with you. Here we are in mid-June.  We've been busy trying to get everything running smoothly for the new releases coming out by Electric Bird Noise, Azalia Snail, & Remora as well as continuing to get some work behind the scenes on other music & our comics.

Our webzine QRD - www.silbermedia.com/qrd - has a special this month interviewing artistic dads about balancing their families & their art.  Umm, Father's Day is Sunday if you didn't know.

The new Remora album is available for download or pre-order of physicals.  We have a limited time special where you can pre-order a CD for just $5.  Another special is four Remora CDs for $15.  Our last special is you can order Azalia Snail & Electric Bird Noise together for $20.  You can get these special deals at www.silbermedia.com/sale

New music coming soon from mwvm, Goddakk, Plumerai, Remora, From Oceans to Autumn, Jon DeRosa (Aarktica), & more.  We'll let you know more next month.

May 3, 2011

I hope all is going well with you. Here we are in May & no where near halfway done with our work for the year, we have some catching up to do.  There'll be a bunch more new content from us in a month or so.

With our comics, we put up free PDF & CBZ versions of about a dozen new books on www.silbermedia.com/comics at the bottom of the page. I guess there’s about forty-five up there in total now.

Our webzine QRD - www.silbermedia.com/qrd - has a special this month interviewing Christian artists about balancing their faith & their art.

A lot of music stuff is going on for us right now. If you go to our frontpage you'll find five new things to check out.
We just got in a few copies to sell of the debut albums from Sarah June (gothicana) & Carta (slowcore) (we put out both of their sophmore albums in 2010).
We have a new album from Electric Bird Noise (post rock party music) called The Silber Sessions. The street date will be in a couple of months, but it's available right now through us.
We have a new album from Azalia Snail (space pop) called Celestial Respect. The street date will be in a couple of months, but it's available right now through us.
In our free EP series we have a slab of instumental shoegazing metal by From Oceans to Autumn, here's the direct link to listen or download that - http://www.silbermedia.com/fromoceanstoautumn/tftf.shtml

March 3, 2011

I hope all is going well with you.  Here we are already in March, 2011 is slipping away fast.
 
Our webzine QRD - www.silbermedia.com/qrd - actually had two issues out this past month.  A label owner series with the owners of Projekt, IT3, Hikikomori, Turned Word, Denovali Records, Dark Holler, Unread Records & Tapes, Artizan Music, Auricular Records, Fake Four Inc., Gizeh Records, n5MD, Reverb Worship, Transubstans, Cohort Records, Full Spectrum, Fedora Corpse Recordings, Basses Frequences, Velvet Blue Music, Three One G, Bad Elk, Compost & Height, Dreamland Recordings, Fan Death, Public Guilt, Josh Vanek of Wantage USA, Al Mabon of At War With False Noise, & Powertool Records.  Then an indie & mini comic creator interviews with Jeremy Johnson, PB Kain, Joe Badon, Andrew White, r. j. paré, Shawn Harbin, Colin Upton, Kevin LaPorte, Sara Lindo, Joseph Morris, Stephen Hines, Steve Seck, Derek R Croston, M. L. Walker, Daniel Gracey, Matthew D. Smith, Brian John Mitchell, Brandon Graham, Gordon McAlpin, Ross Campbell, Alex Robinson, Mason Johnson, Jason Young, Dave Sim, Nik Havert, Kurt Dinse, Nick Marino, Bob Corby, Eric Shonborne, & Melissa Spence Gardner.  More issues coming of course with more guitarists, comic creators, & label owners if you have any suggestions.  

A lot of stuff is going on in the backstage as far as new music coming out.  Hopefully we’ll tell you more about that in about a month.

Still working on things for the Silber 15 Year Anniversary Show (April 2) - www.silbermedia.com/15 - & we’re hoping to be able to issue a live stream for those unable to attend.  Also we’re planning on doing some projections between sets of fans talking for ten seconds to a minute about why they dig Silber.  Just let me know if you are interested in taking part in that.

In another "fan participation" project, I’m in need of some headshot photos of people wearing hooded sweat jackets for the video version of the Vigilant comic.  The plan is to have all the photos appear for 1/8 of a second as an interlude between issues 1 & 2.  Just send me a jpeg if you want to take part.

Speaking of our comics, I put up free PDF & CBZ versions of most of the books up on www.silbermedia.com/comics at the bottom of the page.  I guess there’s about thirty up there.

In the last bit of comics news for this installment, I'll be appearing at the SPACE comic convention in Columbus, Ohio on March 19 weekend.

January 28, 2011

I hope all is going well with you in 2011.  Things seem to be going pretty well in a lot of ways for us.
 
Our webzine QRD - www.silbermedia.com/qrd - is still plowing on with a bunch of interviews with guitar players this month (a label owner set next month followed by a set with mini-comic people) like Azalia Snail, Alan Sparhawk of Low, Jesse Grey of The Pointless Forest, Michael Shiny of Shiny Around The Edges, Robert Brown of Northern Valentine, John Booker of I Was Totally Destroying It, Steven Mitchell of The Heligoats, Ian McPhedran of Ostrich Tuning, Josef Echter of Apokrypha, Jordan Barger of Arte Povera, Zachary Corsa of Lost Trail, Ed Ricart of Matta Gawa, Yair Yona, & Jeff Schneider of Arab on Radar.

We have two new releases in our free EP series from Sarah June & Clang Quartet (more info below) & new releases coming soon from Azalia Snail, Goddakk, Remora, & Electric Bird Noise.

This year marks Silber’s 15th anniversary & so we’re having a big show about it.  Here’s the Facebook event - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=117612114977852  Live performances from Aarktica, Clang Quartet, Northern Valentine, slicnaton, Hotel Hotel, Weather Machine, Remora, Electric Bird Noise, Irata, & more.  Should be fun.

We’ve had  a lot going on in the video front recently.  Here are some links to watch them on YouTube:
Azalia Snail - Space Heater - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FvfQ-GlOmA
Sarah June - Judgment Day - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PemwMp4kEMY
Small Life Form - Live Electro-acoustic - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzRn07jYi9Q
Small Life Form - Horns - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntZs-D-Ocdk
Goddakk - In the Open - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2vhnHALGXc

December 11, 2010

Our webzine QRD - www.silbermedia.com/qrd - is still plowing on with a bunch of interviews with labels this month like Exotic Fever, Badman, Silber, Bluesanct, Kranky, & Trace.  Don't forget to mention QRD in your Facebook & Twitter if you dig it.

Also of course there's the Silber Blog ( www.silbermedia.com/blog ) which we like to think of as "the best personal daily blog from an independent record label owner" (of course we don't know of another one).  I have been trying to have some of the posts be a little more in-depth lately.

I put all of our free Christmas comps from the past ten years up in one spot for you to check out if you're interested - www.silbermedia.com/christmas

Thanks for your interest & support throughout 2010 & we look forward to working with you in 2011.

November 11, 2010

I hope all is going well with you.  Feeling pretty up about things at Silber for the moment.

Our webzine QRD - http://www.silbermedia.com/qrd - is still plowing on with a bunch of interviews with bass players this month like CJ Boyd, Nic Slaton (slicnaton), & Monte Allen (Rollerball & Moodring).  Next month will be interviews with label owners.

We just started a couple new "just for fun" review blogs called Nostalgia Equals Distortion ( nostalgiaequalsdistortion.blogspot.com ) & Finally Checking It Out ( finallychecking.blogspot.com ).  N=D is about revisiting things you love & FCIO is about finally getting around to things you’ve missed (sometimes intentionally).

In related blogging news, I just moved the Silber Blog off of MySpace & onto the Silber website ( www.silbermedia.com/blog ).

We’ve got a brand new mini-comic called Built ( www.silbermedia.com/built ) that is about a robot trying to find his humanity.  As always, just a dollar.

We have two new releases just out in November.   A compilation from our free releases series called 30 Seconds of Time & a debut album from Thorn1.  More info on them below.  I hope you dig them & can help spread the word.

September 19, 2010

I hope all is going well with you.  We’re still fighting on at Silber.

We relaunched our webzine QRD - http://www.silbermedia.com/qrd -  a little while ago with a series of guitarist interviews.  Over 60 interviews in the past couple months with folks like Colin Newman (Wire), Jon DeRosa (Aarktica), Aidan Baker (Nadja), & Agata (Melt-Banana).  We’re planning on starting a series with indie label owners soon if you have suggestions for questions or folks to interview for that set.

I don’t know if you’ve seen the five new releases we had over the summer.  Info on them below.  I hope you dig at least some of them (they go all over the musical map) & can help spread the word.  Some of them are digital only & some of them have physical discs available if you need them.  

All of our releases are now available as $5 digital downloads with snazzy PDF booklets.

If things go as planned (which of course they rarely do) the next newsletter will have info about a new collection in our free download compilation series & a couple new mini-comics for sale & some other goodies too.

January 25, 2009

The new Kwoktalk talks about the new issues of Lost Kisses, XO, & Worms.  Which reminds me, there are new issues of Worms & XO available that I haven't made videos for yet.

Meanwhile I'm working on some new comics.  Lost Kisses issues #7-#10 are all being worked on simultaneously.  XO #5 is currently being drawn by Melissa Spence Gardner.  Worms #3 is being drawn by Kimberlee Traub.  Remora - Mecha is being drawn by Jason Davis.  & then there's a brand new comic I'll tell you more about later.

I will be appearing at SPACE this April in Columbus.


December 7, 2008
I've been writing in the MySpace blog everyday instead of updating stuff much here.  But there are five releases you can get for free download right now.  So yeah, check us out, we're doing stuff.  Also you should buy things so we can keep doing stuff.
Remora: ensoulment Remora
ensoulment
MP3 Album 2008 | Ping Things
1 tracks, 70 minutes
free download from Ping Things

A 70 minute aggressive ambient guitar excursion from Remora.

slicnaton/remora/northern valentine - clear field slicnaton / remora / northern valentine
clear field
MP3 Album 2008 | Silber 072
3 tracks, 44 minutes
free download from Archive.org

The clear field recordings are a unique combination of elements of all three projects. You hear the loops & aggression of Remora’s guitar work, Northern Valentine’s ambient shimmering glacial guitars, & slicnaton’s orchestrated glitch & deep bass tones. While hearing all three individual musicians, it still is clearly a collaboration of the three rather than one of the projects with two special guests; it is a unique sound of its own.

: Press Release

small life form: alive small life form
alive
MP3 EP 2008 | Silber 071
3 tracks, 21 minutes
free download from Archive.org

2007 marked Small Life Form’s live debut & over the next year the style refined, abandoning real horns for a piece of copper pipe, replacing organs with melodica, & vocals with feedback manipulation. Alive is collected from two live recordings in 2008.  They are massive structures built from scratch using a loop pedal,
distortion pedals, & reverb units.

: Press Release

Northern Valentine: stars whisper northern valentine
stars whisper
MP3 EP 2008 | Silber 070
3 tracks, 21 minutes
free download from Archive.org

Stars Whisper is a collection of three live songs from Northern Valentine, recorded in their hometown of Philadelphia with a line-up of Robert Brown, Amy Brown, Jeffrey Bumiller, & Marc Carazo. The individual tracks were recorded at The Fire & The Rotunda (as part of “Gate”, an experimental music series).

: Press Release

winterizing Various Artists
Winterizing
MP3 compilation 2008 | Silber 069
26 tracks, 118 minutes
free download page

The 2008 installment of our Christmas compilation series.  Strangely enough there seem to be somewhere around zero covers of traditional Christmas tunes this time out.
Complete artist roster:
Varde, Hotel Hotel, Clang Quartet, Charles De Mar, Electric Bird Noise, Glissade, Sailor Winters, Miss Massive Snowflake, Goddakk, Gorgons, Small Life Form, Lauri des Marais, Ligo, Moodring, slicnaton, Remora, Moral Crayfish, The Carnage Visors, South West Airline, Northern Valentine, Spotlight Kid, The Left Channel, Recorded Home, The Child of A Creek, Subscape Annex

: Press Release
: Press Release


October 4, 2008
I guess I haven't updated this in a while, oops!

The Northern Valentine disc The Distance Brings Us Closer is here.  They'll be in stores in about a month & promos will be going out shortly.

The Hotel, Hotel disc The Sad Sea is out for manufacturing & should be here in a couple of weeks.

The new Vlor, six-winged, is going through the mixing & mastering process.

Remora is currently recording a new album entitled Hurtless.

There's a video for mwvm's "context. where?" on YouTube.


August 20, 2008
We have a new Silber exclusive community on Ning, check it out & join up.

There's some remix materials for the upcoming Remora - Mecha release on Centre of Wood.  Check it out here.

I just put up a little Lost Kisses documentary on YouTube.

As some of you are already aware, I have been doing some work on mastering records & helping with promotion of CDs.  If you or anyone you know might be interested in these services, please let me know.

Also I'm going looking for some folks interested in helping out as unpaid interns helping with highly specified projects in a timely manner (for example a month to do a 20 hour project).  Get to learn what's really going on or improve your personal network if you are already running a label of your own.  Contact me if you're interested.


June 24, 2008
I hope everyone is doing well.  Feeling like life is on an up-swing myself.  Working on new stuff from all my personal projects as well as having a new signing we'll be announcing soon.

Meanwhile here's the new stuff going on....

QRD #38
webzine

An Indie Record Store Special interviewing owners some of our favorite record shops.

Lost Kisses #6 - Reasons to Run & Hide/Stay by Her Side
mini comic

Pro's & con's of an abusive relationship.

My favorite recent review of LK: "...a bizarre narcissistic hate-fest..." ~ Nick Marino, Nasty Musings

Some recent reviews:
Lycia - Cold
CD Album 2007 | Silber 061
9 tracks, 58 minutes

Lycia is the definitive artist of the 90's for dark shoegaze and mournful ethereal electronica, and as you may know, Silber Media has been working effortlessly since releasing their last album “Empty Space” to re-release the band's back catalogue, starting with Estella, on to The Burning Circle and then Dust, and now they have momentarily halted their work in 2007 with the re-release of one of the most appreciated and influential albums of the mid-90's for dark souls all around the underground, Cold.
Lycia have been at the throne respectively as king and queen (as Mike Vanportfleet and Tara Vanflower) of the underground electronica, darkwave, and even metal scenes for almost two decades now.  Even one of the most common faces in the depressive black metal underground, Xasthur, admits that Lycia is one of the most influential artists to him as he came to know himself as a musician.  With “Cold”, originally released on America's Projekt label in 1996, Lycia defined themselves as being at the forefront of the scene and as such solidified an already monstrous fanbase that has followed the band even into their quiet era here  in the new millenium.  Today it seems the band is still together, but being very quiet in their location in Arizona.  Band bassist David Galas has remained in Ohio and has recently released his first successful solo album on Vendlus Records entitled “The Cataclysm.”  His primary role on Cold was writing the tracks Colder and December, which turned out to be the most representative of his work today as a solo artist.
Of course, with a new label comes new artwork as well, and Silber Records have paid homage to the band and their bleak, minimal sound through the usage of the same techniques on this visual medium.  Using blurred dull pink and purple tones, the artwork is spacious and reflects nearly nothing inside its booklet other than the distorted imagery of tree branches in late Autumn.  The back of the booklet of course shows the production notes in as minimal a way as possible, as the back cover portrays the track listing and the label logo to the left of yet more distorted Autumn scenery. 
All in all, this is a most worthy re-release for a band that has come to mean so much to all of us in the past two decades.  Silber Media has gone above and beyond in their search to re-release Lycia's discography and one can only imagine the price they've paid to get the rights from Project.  In all, if Cold wasn't already a perfect release, then Silber has gone above and beyond to give it the spotlight that it has deserved for so many years in the underground.  Here's hoping for a few more re-releases before the label ends its quest.
~ Sage, Heathen Harvest

: Listen to the track bare
: Press Release
: Reviews

Plumerai: Without Number Plumerai - Without Number
CD Album 2007 | Silber 059
9 tracks, 45 minutes

Without Number is Plumerai's first full length, after various compilation appearances, a MP3 release on Get Nice Records and their first hrad release; the Res Cogitans EP from 2006. Plumerai seems to be the usual band; guitar, bass, drums and vocals. However, there are a few touches that certainly make this band stand out from the crowd. First and foremost; Elizabeth Ezell's vocals. They have been described as sultry; characterized by arousing passion. Her vocals are certainly warm and passionate, with a hint of rawness to give it jus that personal touch. Other points that make this band stand out is the incorporation of various other instruments (accordion, guzheng, and more) and the mix up and influences of all kinds of genres. I depicted this as being 'alternative rock'. While this genrefication (sic) is correct, it's also an oversimplifiaction. Plumerai's music ranges from ethereal rock to postrock to indierock with postpunk elements. It's easy accessible, but also with great depth and alternation for such easy going music.
When I tuned this up for the very first time, I nearly headdesked during the very first seconds. My initial thought, and fear, was that this was some indie crap. Luckily I was disproven really quick. Plumerai's music is by no means your basic run of the mill, premade and underproduced indie stuff. Instead they take it to a whole new level, leaving the mediocre slew of bands far behind. Also when it comes to the lyrics, it's not your basic boyfriend/girlfriend/lost love and similar kind of songs, which always sound the same and lack inspiration. Instead, a track like Lavinia is inspired by a play from one of the greatest writers of all time; Shakespeare. Or the song Iris, which is about a lost friend, but instead of being whiney about the loss, it's a tribute to the friend.
But it's not all nice and cute songwriting on this album. Oh no, on a few occasions it's downright heavy and instrumental rock, such as the highly entertaining Sin El Lagarto. Occasionally with the accordeon, which reminded me a bit of the unknown Dutch Forest Of The Tiny People. Martin Newman's guitarplay fit perfectly alongside Elisabeth's vocals, and on the other side are the deep and dark sounds of the bass played by James Newman. Lastly there's Todd Richards on drums, who doesn't want to show off his skills as much as possible, but just contributes in the best way to the music, providing the rythms over which the songs on constructed and find their way into your ears.
In conclusion I must say that this was a nice experience and introduction to the band. Everyone who is interested in the alternative side of rock, such as, to throw in some names from the promotional paper; Portishead, The Cure, Radiohead, should definitely check this quartet out. Go to the Plumerai myspace, and have a listen. You won't be disappointed.
~ Chawech, Heathen Harvest

: Listen to the track Home Again
: Press Release
: Reviews

Origami Arktika: Trollebotn Origami Arktika - Trollebotn
CD Album 2007 | Silber 062
8 tracks, 49 minutes

For a fair decade and a half, Origami Arktika has been an ensemble, Norwegian musicians whose live performances throughout their country in recordings outstrip their official studio ones, shows of self-described “folk collage and stage presence”. Trollebotn, their latest studio recording affords a more live feel, with the recording intimate stripped back otherworldly folk drawn from traditional music and instrumentation. 
Inspired by the mythical and geographically located region of Trollebotn in Norway, a region perched on the rim of the world literally and figuratively, where trolls and giants are said to dwell – though in our world it is more the bourne of closeted tradition that was little marred by modern contrivances and it is these traditions that Origami Arktika have reaped in order of some preservation of dying old ways. Recorded on an island overlooking Trollebotn the ensemble has immersed their selves in a unique mindset for the album. 
Water and wood echo, crackle and peel in the background, the musicians engaged in casual hubbub as the first track opens like a tuning session that layers sonorous strings like an impending acoustic SWANS number, replete with looming crescendo as the ensemble sequester agitated shadows in the empty places ‘tween the sounds: sparse spaces speaking volumes. The vocals of Rune Flaten are unexpected and silken, purling Norwegian lyrics with a dreamy elegance. It’s not all mysticism and magic as the second track proffers a more folky pop presence with earthen traditional folk overtones while the third track breaks into a light drum and bass beat electronic.
The underlying ambient and acoustic experimentation is perhaps at its best when not flitting about in the occasional aforementioned bursts of light with the uncertainty and occluded tracks of Trollebotn bespeaking more interest, especially with such a thematical premise in mind. Songs that creep with the rustle of beads and clop with wooden blocks, while not menacing or dark, edge you nearer that mythical realm than its real-world counterpart. 
‘Trollebotn’ is a simple jewel case with a full colour one-sided tray and silk-screened disc with a twelve page stapled booklet that provides not only the Norwegian lyrics, but also proffers a handy interpretative text with each song for the English-only impaired. A two page spread details the mythical realms of ‘Trollebotn’.
~ Symbolique, Heathen Harvest

: Listen to the track anne sit heim
: Press Release
: Reviews

mwvm - rotations
CD Album 2007 | Silber 063
10 tracks, 61 minutes

MWVM consists of Michael Walton, a one-man sonic machine hailing from Ireland’s County Durham. Beginning around 1996, Michael started honing his craft, writing music and exploring his musical boundaries and expanding his creativity. In 2005 Walton evolved into MWVM. After recording a couple demo EPs and piquing the interest of some labels who knew good music when they heard it, Walton settled with an independent label in Raleigh, North Carolina: Silber Records, the label that has just released his debut full-length CD, entitled Rotations.
When listening to this CD one gets a sense of some of his influences such as Brian Eno’s ambient works (i.e., Music for Airports), Moebius, Can and Henry Cow: pioneering prog-rock/ambient bands and artists. More contemporary influences could be Tortoise, Remora and Aphex Twin, but without the freneticism of the latter. But make no mistake, MWVM has a unique sound, it is all-Michael Walton; it’s neither derivative nor a “been-there-done-that” disc. MWVM’s work comes off as a man who is a loner, an introverted guy; one who spends his free-time coming up with drifting, lilting, beautiful soundscapes that are apparent on Rotations.
This CD is defined by its swirling, deeply-textured harmonies that use guitar synthesizers and keyboards and which is devoid of percussion; some examples of this includes “Celestial Motion”, “Oratory Clout” and the opening cut, “Context, Where?”, a song whose title blithely sizes up the mood of the rest of the CD. Rotations is the type of disc that one puts on and listens to straight through – no “singles” here, just the perfect type of atmospheric music, an environmental backdrop that is hypnotic, mesmerizing and the perfect lullaby for an overworked, stressed out life.
Don’t expect any dance music or pop stuff on this CD. Rotations is the quintessential ambient classic-to-be; helpful for peaceful entrancement or meditation. It will help you clear your mind of all the racing thoughts and noise in your head.
~ Blond Adonis, Heathen Harvest

The field of guitar atmospherics, of treated tones and delay-drizzled drones, has become increasingly populous. There’s a lineage here traceable from Fripp&Eno's early 70s proto-ambience through Durutti's echoplex-doodlings to MBV's shoegaze-haze at either end of the 80s. But it's the Kranky clan whose legacy has most fuelled the current crop, among whom find mwvm. Rotations, the debut full-length from mwvm, County Durham-based guitar manipulator Michael Walton, adds itself to the recent build-up of releases from relative tyros like Chris Herbert, Apalusa, and Gareth Hardwick. Artists like these evidence a thriving UK drone-ambient scene to rival that of our transatlantic brethren - the Stars of the Lids, the Windy & Carls, and other Kranky types. 
“Context. Where?” opens in downbeat post-rock progressions laced with blithe, almost pastoral backwoods slide/pedal steel, before withdrawing to a pensive “Fireside” – a series of upswells from and fall-aways into tremulous space. “It’s Easy to be Miserable” shifts sonic paradigm to more ominous drone territory, touching the void evoked by deeper ambient-spacers like Robert Rich, or the post-industrialisms of Malignant and Cyclic Law, summoning up a mighty racket before it’s sucked into a vacuum. "Negative Pole" crawls out from inky depths, arcing towards light in the same kind of languorous balletics as SotL (hello, again). The soundfield fizzes with the fuzz’n’buzz of electrified steel vibrations, layers of shimmering metallics and tremeloed organ-like sustain cycling across tracks like "Celestial Motions". Evidently mwvm, like his keynote influence, is made happy by tape hiss, or rather its simulacra - electronic static and tuned air, which pervades these tableaux. The title track hoves into view with the clearest of nods to early Kranky, further embellished by some keening Polmo Polpo-esque lap steel. The epic "Oratory Clout" spools out a stately theme that betrays its origins as the love child of early Pan•American and GYBE!, Walton summoning mounting waves of glacial breakers to wash over chilly hibernal tundras, while “Sleepy Crayfish” – with nice use of discreet field recordings – gazes beatifically once more at those Stars. “Windows” is an effective contrast to the preceding more elaborated arrangements, exploring the timbral aspects of decay and delay vapour trails, accentuating the zinging resonance of a single tone’s aperture and closure through effects and exponential reverberation. There's a certain unself-conscious compositional craft at work here that allows pieces to breathe as if in meditative mode (though not precluding the triumphal swell or the odd grandiose upsurge), whilst insisting they not sprawl into dronal endlessnessism. Case in point the gorgeous lyrical ebb and flow of “Never Constant” - barely 3 minutes of such sad-happy winsomeness you forget its thralldom to forebears - just folding you in to float with its lulling layers of lilt. A perfect near-happy ending without being inauthentic to the affective parameters of the set's moody-eerie wistful-melancholic clines. 
In terms of experimentalism, mwvm is a less Out-There operator than other celebrated guitar-toting drone-basers like Fennesz, Oren Ambarchi, and Machinefabriek. These wilder frontiersmen tend to allow the listener the sugar-rush of romanticist dynamics (ebb-flow, surge-relent) only as coating to a pill of post-digital detritus and aleatory abrasivity, making it a spiky sweet to swallow. In contrast, Rotations, for all its alterations of sonorous state, has an appealing fidelity, cleaving to the sounding essence of electric guitar qua guitar, while still remaining open to the accidental harmonics and timbre-blurring arising from the felicitous encounter between fret-and-fingerboard, effect-mediated amplification, and post-performance recording archaeology.
~ Alan Lockett, furthernoise.org

: Listen to the track context. where?
: Press Release
: Reviews


May 24, 2008
In a couple days we should have up the new Lost Kisses & in a couple weeks the new XO will be ready as well.  In other comic news we were in the Strangers with Comics podcast (the one that mentions Grandtheft Auto in the blurb).
 
Hotel, Hotel - under sea, over storm Hotel, Hotel - under sea, over storm
MP3 EP 2008 | Silber 067
6 tracks, 37 minutes
free download page

While we’re anticipating the release of their new album The Sad Sea on Silber shortly, I figured we’d introduce them to the rest of you with this live performance.   Recorded on October 20, 2005 at J&J’s in Denton, Texas with a line-up of P.D. Wilder (guitar), Justin Lemons (guitar), Patrick Patterson (violin), Francesca Riedle (violin), & Evan Caverninha (drums); Under Sea, Over Storm captures the band early on showing the atmospheric post rock they’ve been perfecting over the years.  One flowing piece divided into several song ideas, themes, & improvisations; this gives you an idea not only of their live show, but what to look forward to on their upcoming studio recordings as well.

: Press Release


May 1, 2008
I finally got the series of interviews with indie radio music directors done for QRD.  The next issue will be a theme issue again & it will be record store owner interviews if you have any suggestions.

Our good friend Tara Vanflower has an interview she just did up at Cyber Angels.

Rollerball is on tour in Italy & Hotel, Hotel & Remora have some live shows coming up in the states if you check the calendar.


April 16, 2008
Kwok Talk had a little review of some of our mini-comics.

Our Facebook page was recently taken down because it was for a business, so I needed to make a new one here.

Plumerai has a new video for "Kill My Way Outta Here."

Akashic books is set to release "Las Vegas Noir" next month. There is a posthumous short story in it by John O'Brien (Leaving Las Vegas, The Assault on Tony's). Erin O'Brien also wrote a feature for the Cleveland Free Times about John's entire posthumous body of work, which gives it a unique perspective.


February 28, 2008
Well, we got some free music for you this time out, plus we wanted to tell you about this cool comic called Garfield without Garfield recommended by Martin of Plumerai.
mwvm - rotations remixed mwvm - rotations remixed
MP3 Remix EP 2008 | Silber 066
6 tracks, 36 minutes
free download page

We released mwvm’s debut album rotations in the fall of 2007 & now we are pleased to give you a collection of remixes & reworkings from some close friends. The remixes include a shimmering mass of complex jarring textures by the mighty Astral Social Club, pulsing layers of precision amplitude modulation from Sonicslice, & Zac Keiller doing an alt-country cover version of “context. where?”
Track Listing:
1. rotations remix by Astral Social Club
2. celestial motion remix by Sonicslice
3. negative pole remix by Scott Solter
4. windows remix by Moral Crayfish
5. context. where? cover by Zac Keiller
6. celestial motion horizontal remix by Echosonic

Remora - Ambient Ping Things Remora - ambient ping things almost live series

Remora's radio session from last year is now available online.


February 12, 2008
QRD #36
webzine

A Valentine's Special interviewing couples in bands together like:
Abiku, The Backsliders, Book of Shadows, California Oranges, Dramady, All in the Golden Afternoon, Grappling Hook, List of Likes, Low, Lycia, My Glass Beside Yours, Myotis, Northern Valentine, Paris Luna, Rolla, Rollerball, Something About Vampires And Sluts, Shiny Around the Edges, Silk Stocking, The Wades, Windy & Carl, & The Winter Sounds.



January 18, 2008
Working hard on getting the new QRD together.  It looks like the interviews will be with Jessica Bailiff, Plumerai, Aarktica, mwvm, Origami Arktika, Wire, & Colin Newman.  Hopefully it’ll be up in a week or so.  I’m kind of looking for a little slogan for a QRD sticker if anyone has any ideas.  Something about music interviews should probably be in it.

Been talking to Kimberlee Traub who did Worms about another comic collaboration.  Some time in 2008 it’ll probably happen.  Maybe the series that didn't make it in Small Press Idol last year called (r)evolution.


January 9, 2008
Hope everyone’s 2008 is starting out well.  I’m running a little behind my goals as always, too much to do in too little time.

The mwvm Ambient Ping Things Almost Live Radio Session is now permanently up & of course it’s free to listen to.

Origami Arktika just did an interview with Chris Dahlberg for Cosmos Gaming.


December 11, 2007
Always running slow on the updates lately, sorry about that....

The mwvm remix EP is essentially complete.  We should have it available to you all for free download by the end of December.

Vlor's new album (six-winged) is under construction.

Remora's new disc Mecha is scheduled to come out on the Italian label Centre of Wood in February.

New issues of xo & Lost Kisses are available.  Watch xo #3 here or on YouTube & Lost Kisses #5 here or on YouTube.


November 8, 2007
Remora is going to be in Pittsburgh, Bloomington (Indiana), & Cleveland next week.  Check out the calendar.

Plumerai has a video up you can watch on YouTube.  There's also an article about Plumerai in Performer.

There's a new QRD with interviews with Low, Electric Bird Noise, & Attrition.

Working on new issues of Lost Kisses, xo, & QRD.  More on those soon.


October 23, 2007
Thought I'd updated this before.  New releases by Plumerai & Origami Arktika are out now.  Also....
Silber Sounds of Halloween various artists - Silber Sounds of Halloween
MP3 compilation 2006 | Silber 065
30 tracks, 130 minutes
free download from Archive.org
So it has been a little while since something in our free comp series has gotten out of our control. We were like, “Hey, let’s do a Halloween comp & do an open call for entries!” So we ended up with thirty tracks & over two hours of music. Also just a little too short in time to manufacture compact discs. So that’s why this time there are no physical copies at all. Just available on this thing called the internet.

Complete artist roster:
Lycia, Peter Aldrich, Bryce Eiman, Glissade, The Undermasks, Planet Cock, Rachel Goldstar, Miss Massive Snowflake, The Wades, Robin Crutchfield, Attrition, Sorry Welcome, Arbus, Tara Vanflower, Remora, Paolo Messere/Kiddycar, The Elysium Facade, Promute, Lauri des Marais, The Zanzibar Snails, Ocean City Defender, Cam Butler, Not Them, Gorgons, Small Life Form, Drats!!!, Mars Field, Thisquietarmy, Port City Music, Electric Bird Noise

: Press Release
: Press Release


September 25, 2007
Out in stores today are Lycia's Cold & mwvm's rotations.  Out in about a month are new releases by Origami Arktika & Plumerai.  You can buy all the stuff on our front page.

In the new issue of Aural Innovations there's an interview with me about Remora & Silber.  Read it here.

Our friend Patricia Russo has one of her stories read on Drabblecast, check it out.

I've been thinking lately about offering Silber Releases for digital download directly from us at a significantly higher bit-rate than iTunes & at a slightly lower price.  What do you think?  Is it worth the hassle?

Collective Voice did a Silber broadcast a while back & it's now available to listen to the archive of it here.

Remora & Electric Bird Noise are touring again in South Carolina, Georgia, & Alabama.  Check out the calendar to see your favorite southern post rock party bands.

Plumerai is on tour from Boston to Chicago to North Carolina.  Check out the calendar.

Remora's long discussed (& feared) electro EP is almost done.  It will indeed be released by an Italian label.  More info as it gets closer to coming out.

The Halloween comp is going to be a free thing again & will have tracks by some pretty heavy hitters like Lycia & Attrition.


August 17, 2007
There is an article about Clang Quartet from the Winston Salem Journal here.

On the recent KwokTalk podcast they talk about Lost Kisses & xo & Worms starting around 40 minutes & 20 seconds.


August 10, 2007
I know it is a little late, but we finally have the Father's Day interview with Colin Newman (Wire).

There have been a number of requests for some of our services lately (mastering, promotional services). Contact us if you are interested.  We do things relatively inexpensively, but we only do them at all if we think we have something to bring to your table.


July 22, 2007
Remora just did an interview for Gearwire about a few pieces of his equipment.  Check it out.
July 10, 2007
I just realized I hadn't posted up here that Remora has some upcoming shows again in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, & Columbus.  There will be another early Saturday morning radio session on WCSB.

We have the re-mastered version of Lycia's Cold just back from manufacturing.

Lycia - Cold 
CD Album 2007 | Silber 061
9 tracks, 58 minutes

Despite being one of Lycia’s more atmospheric works, Cold became a big hit amongst the black metal & space rock crowds expanding their fan base greatly.  On the Cold tour, one would typically see as many fans in Hawkwind & Motorhead t-shirts as Sisters of Mercy t-shirts; forty-year-old rockers standing next to teenaged Goths.

: Listen to the track bare
: Press Release
: Reviews

In the studio right now are both Remora & Vlor.  Possible new albums from both early next year.

Also those of you wondering what all is going to be coming out on Silber this fall, we have slated releases from Plumerai, Origami Arktika, mwvm, & Hotel,Hotel.  Also a Halloween Compilation.  & maybe a Remora EP.


June 23, 2007
A few weeks ago while on tour, Remora & Electric Bird Noise did a 40 minute collaborative piece on WCSB.  Our good friend Ryan Kuehn was managing the mixing board & he has a recording of it you can listen to here & you can check out his blogwhile you're at it.
 

June 6, 2007
Maybe some of you already heard about it, but QRD#33 (The Father’s Day issue) is now online for your reading pleasure.  The interviews are with various artistic dads about the balance between career & family.  The interviewees are:
Benjy Johnson (Benjomatic), Chris Olley (Six by Seven), Josh Howard (Dead at 17), Patrick Ogl (Thanatos), Martin Bowes (Attrition), Sam Rosenthal (Black Tape for a Blue Girl), William Amundson (Change in Tymes (Nathan of Rivulets’ father)), Aaron Molina (If Thousands), D.A. Sebasstian (Kill Switch Klick), Alan Sparhawk (Low), Shane Sauers (Miss Massive Snowflake), Rune Flaten (Origami Arktika), Tore Boe (Origami Republika), Timothy Renner (Stone Breath), Mats Gustafsson (The Broken Face), Chris Wade (The Wades), Nevada Hill (The Zanzibar Snails), Wayne Barnes (Tom Dooley & the Lovelights (Jamie Barnes’s father)), Dan Sostrom (Tonevendor), Joe Kendrick (WNCW), Jason Wallach (The Unquiet Void)

May 27, 2007
We have in stock the new release from Remora!
Remora - songs i sing Remora - songs i sing
CD EP 2007 | North Pole 005
13 tracks, 16 minutes, plus 1 video

Well, here is a release you thought would never exist. For those of you who have not seen Remora live in the past two years (or gotten personal phone messages), this side of Remora is completely unknown.  On this release Remora goes a cappella in the songs from the live show done while tuning guitar.  Sometimes comedic, sometimes spiritual, & occasionally poignant.  This was predominantly recorded by Jessica Bailiff during Remora’s 2006 spring tour & includes covers of “We Will Fall” (The Stooges), “Heartworms” (Coil), “Sores” (Rollerball), & a passage from Job.  Beautiful hand letter-pressed artwork by Shane Sauers & a video for “Sores” also by Mister Sauers.  If Devo 2.0 was the weirdest thing in your collection, this is for you!

: Listen to the track Job 39
: Press Release


May 4, 2007
Silber Hearts Mom Been busy lately on working on the Mother’s Day comp, but we got it up for you for free in plenty of time here.  The artists appearing are: Wrong Brothers, Remora, Glissade, Blessed Child Opera, Plumerai, Moral Crayfish, Lauri des Marais, Century of Aeroplanes, Electric Bird Noise, Miss Massive Snowflake, & Origami Galaktika.

April 17, 2007
Clang Quartet has a new vinyl LP called Revival of the Wretch available from RRRecords.

Twelve has a new disc out on Saturday Night Sunday Morning Records.

We have a new page you can use for your start page.  Lots of links & a Google search box....

I've been realizing lately I'm getting close to 800 hours behind on some internet research work for the label.  So if anyone is interested in donating any amount of time to helping, email me.

Plumerai are mixing & mastering their new album.

June 9 there will be a Silber oriented show in Whitesburg, KY including Remora, Clang Quartet, Jamie Barnes, Electric Bird Noise, & Arbus.

Tara Vanflower will be onstage singing with Type O Negative on their upcoming Phoenix, AZ show.


March 22, 2007
A new Lost Kisses (#4) is up & you can watch it on our site or on YouTube. It's a comic/slow-cartoon about watching the news & finding out an ex-girlfriend is dead.
Our newest in our free compilation series is up. It is called Silber on Silber & features 29 artists covering songs by artists on the Silber roster.  Did we mention it is free?

March 10, 2007
The new QRD is online. We have a lot going on this issue.  As some of you may know, I was in a car crash a few months ago & I have been talking to a lot of people about it & so I have a ton of car crash stories from semi-famous folks like Alan Sparhawk, James Newman, Nathan Amundson, Will Dodson,  & myself.  Nathan Amundson contributes a few more times for a Rivulets interview & an appearance in I Heart FX & a piece he co-wrote with me on Gifts for Touring Musicians.  We have two short stories from long time contributor Paticia Russo called Bound and Loose & See and Say.  A nice little short short from Tara Vanflower called She Was a Doll.  I guess the big surprise interview this issue is David Galas, who last appeared in QRD #1 as a member of Lycia.  We have an interview with our buddy Jamie Barnes who will hopefully interview his dad for us in June.  There is an interview with Max Soren of The Goslings.  Finally finishing up we have two more installments of I Heart FX from Martin Newman (Plumerai) & Shane DeLeon Sauers (Rollerball).  So a big issue.  & hopefully there will be more soon.  I'm shooting for another one in two months.

In other Remora news go vote for Remora so they can play on a big huge stage in an event sponsored by Nissan.


January 26, 2007
xo #2 is available for ordering physical copies or you can just watch it online on our site or spread the word with it on IFC Medialab & YouTube.
January 16, 2007
Remora will be on the AMBiENT PiNG RADiO ALMOST LiVE SERiES on January 22 & it will include debuts of some new songs & reworkings of some classics with an edge towards Remora's ambient side.

Initial recordings for the next Vlor album have started.  It might take a year to finish to make it as good as we want it.


January 7, 2007
Rollerball is now on MySpace.  Go be their friends.

We finally got in the new Jamie Barnes album The Recalibrated Heart for sale.

Remora is kinda busy lately - the acapella EP songs i sing is wrapping up in the artwork, recording a radio session for PiNG THiNGS is under way, & work on demos for the next album (maybe this fall?) is going on as well.

As some of you may know, our long time intern Ethel Bohning went into the hospital last month with cancer.  While the cancer is seeming to have been surgically removed in time before it had a chance to spread, the effects of being trapped in a hospital bed for a few weeks seems to have some long term detrimental effects both mentally & physically.  So if you are the praying type, please put her in your list.


January 3, 2007
Happy New Year!  The last six weeks have been kind of rough around here, so we're hoping a new year will turn things around.

We're putting together a compilation of people covering songs by Silber artists, the deadline is January 31 if you'd like to contribute.


November 19, 2006
The new Christmas disc, Silber Sounds of Christmas is available now for free download & physical copies will ship out December 1.  It's 104 minutes & 28 tracks.

The Remora "Beams" video is now up on YouTube.

As some of you may have heard, Brian John Mitchell was in a car accident this week.  He's fine, but his car was destroyed.


November 9, 2006
Been busy working on getting this year's Christmas disc ready.  It's a two disc set, it'll be available for free download in a couple weeks.

Our good friends Attrition have been chosen by the editor at UBL.COM to be entered into a competition for the UBL.COM ultimate band.  Go to the bottom of the list on the editors choice.

Kobi is finally on Myspace with Kai's Looop project.

Plumerai will be on HDNET a few times in the next couple weeks.
Mon., Nov. 13th 7:30 PM ET NEMO Festival - Rachael Sage, Arrica Rose, Plumerai
Sat., Nov. 18th 6:30 PM ET NEMO Festival - Rachael Sage, Arrica Rose, Plumerai
Sun., Nov. 19th 2:00 PM ET NEMO Festival - Rachael Sage, Arrica Rose, Plumerai


October 15, 2006
Been busy the past few weeks getting the new label sampler out to some stores & radio stations, so hopefully some of you will be a little more likely to hear our stuff on the radio & in your local indie record shop.  If you run an indie record store & want a copy, let us know.

The other thing going on is working on this year's Christmas compilation, but it's coming together now & I'll let you know when the free download of it is available in a few weeks.

There's a recent interview with Black Happy Day up at Ptolemaic Terrascope.

Clang Quartet is doing a tour up the east coast, check out the dates on our calendar.

I've been realizing lately that I'm over-working myself a bit, so if anyone is interested in doing some intern work for Silber over the phone & internet, let me know.

This week Jon DeRosa (Aarktica) had the privilege of being the special guest on Uncle LD's High Bias radio show...This week's episode: Oh My Goth!: The Second Coming. We pretty much goof around and hear some of LD's favorite, obscure (and anything but obvious) dark tunes, as well as some tracks from my teen-angst goth band Dead Leaves Rising and current project Aarktica....

Plumerai will be on HDNET in November performing 4 songs & with some interview footage.


September 27, 2006
Updating this page keeps slipping my mind, but here's what's going on.

There will be a little feature on the Black Happy Day CD on KFJC, Tuesday October 3rd. It will be around 20 minutes long with music & conversation, & will occur somewhere between 6:00 - 7:00 pm west coast time. it's part of a bigger show that takes up the whole hour.

The Collective Voice Podcast has a full length feature on Silber complete with tons of interviews to be posted on Saturday, September 30, 2006.

We have a new mini-comic written by Brian John Mitchell & drawn by Kimberlee Traub called Worms.  It's a bit surreal/claustrophobic, go figure.

We have a new label sampler finally after about 7 years.  22 tracks covering 22 of the last 40 releases from the past several years.  You can buy it on our front page.

From the vaults come Vlor's “sacred places in the city” EP which was recorded back in 1999, but only now released.  The original Vlor of Russell Halasz & Brian John Mitchell doing their best to develop a shoegaze & repetition style.  It's an MP3 release & you can download it for free.

The new Rivulets album is about to come out on Important Records.

Thank you all for your support, it means a lot to us.


August 29, 2006
I guess I haven't updated this page in a while.  Back on August 1 the Vlor & Alan Sparhawk discs hit the streets & today is the street date for Heller Mason & Black Happy Day.

On September 23 both Remora & Plumerai will be playing at the Walls of Sound Festival in Fredericksburg, VA.

We have a lot in the works right now, a new label sampler (finally after five years), some new mini-zine comics, & a couple free MP3 EPs coming soon.  More news on those in the next couple weeks.


July 12, 2006
Shane Sauers of Rollerball has an interview & session recording of his project Miss Massive Snowflake you can check out here.
July 7, 2006
Dan Cohoon did an interview with Alastair Galbraith for Amplitude Equals One Over Frequency Squared.

Black Happy Day's In the Garden of Ghostflowers & Heller Mason's Minimalist & Anchored just got in from the plant.  They'll be in stores August 29th, but we're shipping direct orders now.

There's a new Twelve track available for free download on their MySpace page.

Vlor now has a MySpace page.


June 21, 2006
I guess a lot of you know composer György Ligeti died on June 12, 2006.  I found a webzine that had a bunch of vintage interviews with him.

Brian John Mitchell just did an interview mainly about xo & Lost Kisses at Jazma Online.


June 8, 2006
Clang Quartet is on the cover of the Greensboro weekly Go-Triad.

Plumerai is fighting for a spot in NME, you can vote for them (& check out their music) here.

The first interview ever about Vlor is up on Setting Sun.

We’ve finally got things set up right at IFC’s Media Lab & now you can watch all our cartoons there & vote to get them played on IFC.
Lost Kisses #1
Lost Kisses #2
Lost Kisses #3
Mobil Zombie
Pants Comic #1
Pants Comic #2
Shimmer
xo #1


May 20, 2006
Lunar Hypnosis have become big fans of ours lately.  Check out these interviews with Goddakk & Lycia.
May 18, 2006
The newest issue of QRD is up & includes interviews with Chris Olley (six by seven/twelve), Arnold Pander (Pander Brothers), Josh Howard (Dead@17), & Jamie Barnes as well as several articles & the return of i heart fx & job reviews.

There's a new album by Chris Olley's project Twelve.  You can order it on our catalog page.  It's a combination of krautrock, minimalism, & Kraftwerkian beats.

Our new comic xo is now up online.  It's the first installment about a sociopath trying to find his heart.  We're hoping to keep it nearly monthly installments.

Rollerball has a new album that should be out soon on Wallace Records.

Remora has been working on an acapella EP that will come out this fall on North Pole Records.

Vlor's A Fire Is Meant For Burning & Alan Sparhawk's Solo Guitar are being shipped in from manufacturing & we're taking orders now.  The art for Alan Sparhawk's disc is handmade by Shane DeLeon of StarbageHands.


April 15, 2006
All right, so the newest news of the week is our new mini-comic "xo #1" is just about done.  Working on the final layout right now.  The artwork is by Melissa Spence Gardner & the story is by Brian John Mitchell.  The series is the story of an ex-hitman trying not to kill people.  If you want to get into what it's actually "about", I'd say it's about feeling powerless & alone in the world.

The webzine Setting Sun has recently done an interview with Tara Vanflower & Remora.

Some reviews of Goddakk's Monument to a Ruined Age & Lycia's The Burning Circle And Then Dust have been coming in, check them out.


April 13, 2006
We have some new artists on our roster whose releases will be coming out in the next few months.  They are:
Heller Mason - a singer-songwriter recommended to us by Rivulets.  He's got kind of a Neil Young ala Harvest vibe.
Black Happy Day - a collaboration between Tara VanFlower & Timothy Renner (Stone Breath).  If you know both of these artists already, it sounds exactly like you might think.  It's a bit hard to describe, maybe ambient roots music?
Alan Sparhawk - solo-guitarscapes from Alan of Low.  Minimalist guitar drone in the style of Aarktica & Remora.
Plumerai - bliss-pop from Boston.  We've been friends with these guys since they formed.  So it was just a matter of time before it happened.  They're musical influences are pretty shoegazery, but they have a style all of their own.

There's a recent interview with Brian John Mitchell at Lallabbau about Silber Records, Remora, & Lost Kisses.

We have two new releases shipping out on pre-orders.  You can order both discs as a bundled discount for a limited time at our sale page.  Below are the press releases:
GODDAKK: MONUMENT TO A RUINED AGE
Goddakk was started while Martin Newman was struggling to piece together the band Plumerai. It started as a project he had intended to form into a band that would take on dark, oppressive songs ala The Cure's Pornography.  Seeing theremin player Pamelia Kurstin and the guitar works done by Silber head Brian John Mitchell as Remora impressed Newman with both of these artists ability to create huge soundscapes without other musicians.  The appeal of not having to rely on anyone else as he’d been forced to do with his "normal" bands (burMonter, December Sundays) made him decide to keep Goddakk a solo project.  The looping "theremin orchestra" of Pamelia was a big influence on how he worked the songs together with the reverse delay and later elements of his more traditional songwriting creeped in with more songlike structures.  That fused with his desire for rhythm and structure (as opposed to noise for the sake of noise) led to the adding of Tricky inspired flow vocals run through a tremelo pedal giving tracks like "One Hundreds," "Unfortunates," & "Crucify You" more song-like qualities.
On Goddakk’s debut album Monument to a Ruined Age, the dominant instrument is a Fender VI bass run through loops & effects sounding like anything from a normal bass to breaking glass to a freight train.  The final results end up sounding like a cross between Colin Newman, Coil, & The Legendary Pink Dots.  An aggressive ambient music that could as easily fit the soundtrack to a David Lynch film as a car ride smuggling a dead body to Florida.
LYCIA: THE BURNING CIRCLE AND THEN DUST
Here at Silber we’ve been fans of Lycia since around 1992. In fact, we started Silber always hoping to put out Lycia records & now we’re re-releasing the five Lycia studio albums re-mastered by Lycia frontman Mike VanPortfleet.  The darkwave classic The Burning Circle And Then Dust is our second installment.
The Burning Circle And Then Dust was a groundbreaking point in Lycia’s career.  It marked a shift from more atmospheric music towards song-oriented music with tracks like "Pray" & "Slip Away."  It marked the first collaborations between Mike VanPortfleet & Lycia members David Galas & Tara Vanflower.  It marked the transformation of Lycia into a honed out live touring machine.
Originally released as a double disc, VanPortfleet himself explained the truncation for the re-mastered The Burning Circle And Then Dust to a single disc.  "Shortly after recording what would become disc one of the album David Galas & I were doing so well in the studio that we went on to record another ten songs with the intent of them possibly being used for compilation appearances.  Though I thought most of the songs were stylistically different from the initial songs, when offered the possibility of releasing a double disc including the more recently recorded material I decided to go ahead & release the whole lot.  Hindsight being 20/20 I have opted to hone the disc back down to my original vision."


March 16, 2006
I’m back from the Remora tour, thanks to everyone who came out.  In a related story, my car is in need of some repairs; so if you’ve been putting off an order I’d love to get it now.

There’s a new Rivulets track called “Anymore” that features guitar loops by Remora.  You can get the track free on the download free sampler link at www.sunseasky.com


February 25, 2006
Check out the Exposed Radio Podcast #10 has an indepth interview with Jamie Barnes, covering everything from his studio equipment to his influences to the terror that is frogs.  Plus, his new song, "Patient Lover Be."

If Thousands have a new interview up at Grave Concerns.

Remora is on tour March 1-10.  Updated info is available on our calendar page.  Come out & hear new songs & old hits & say hello.

Please rate Lost Kisses for IFC's Medialab so we can get it on TV.


February 8, 2006
The Goddakk debut Monument to a Ruined Age has been sent for manufacturing, we’ll be taking pre-orders soon.

There are a number of live shows upcoming for some Silber artists including Remora & Rivulets who will both be on tour in March.  Updated info is always available on our calendar page.


January 31, 2006
A lot of our releases have been getting some airplay on the podcasts at Exposed Radio so you might be interested in some of the other music they play as well.

Our good friends Plumerai are looking for a few remixes for an upcoming EP.  You can check out the stuff & they want the tracks by March 15.

If you hadn't already heard, we are putting together a compilation of covers of songs by Silber artists.  Please send audio CD submissions to PO box 883 / sanford, nc 27331 / USA.  We're hoping to get it out in time for our tenth anniversary in late March.


January 28, 2006
There’s a new interview with Kobi up at Grave Concerns.

The re-mastered LyciaThe Burning Circle And Then Dust has been sent out for manufacturing.  We’ll be taking pre-orders soon.

As some of you may have already noticed, we re-designed our catalog to make it easier to buy our releases that are available through digital distributors (like iTunes & Napster).  If you use another digital music provider that you think we should get in touch with, let us know.


January 14, 2006
Jamie Barnes has a new free EP available through Sundays in Spring.  It takes a little navigating to find it, but it's there & it's free.

There have been those of you interested in the ability to get more Silber clothing, so we have put up a bunch of stuff via Café Press (or your own printer with an iron-on transfer).  Just go here to check all the stuff out.


January 4, 2006
I guess we’ve been out of touch for the past couple of weeks.  I hope everyone’s holiday season went off without too many complications.  Quite a few things are going on.

Jamie Barnes is currently in the studio working on a new album.

Remora is prepping for a string of live shows throughout this spring (check the calendar) as well as recording a number of tracks for compilation appearances.

The re-mastering of Lycia’s The Burning Circle And Then Dust has been completed & it’ll be shipped off for manufacturing soon.  Many have asked what’s up with it being a single disc instead of a double disc & I asked Mike VanPortfleet himself about the story of that, so here’s the story.  Shortly after recording what would become disc one of the album Mike VanPortfleet & David Galas were doing so well in the studio that they went on to record another ten songs with the intent of them possibly being used for compilation appearances.  Though Mike thought most of the songs were stylistically different from the initial songs, when he was offered the possibility of releasing a double disc including the more recently recorded material he decided to go ahead & release the whole lot.  Hindsight being 20-20 VanPortfleet has opted to hone the disc back down to his original vision.

We have a new member of the label roster, Goddakk .  Some of you may recall Goddakk appearing on Silber X-mas 2000 five years ago.  We’ll have out the debut in just a couple months.  Goddakk is the more ambient & noisy side-project of Martin Newman of bliss-poppers Plumerai.  Speaking of Plumerai, they’re doing another mini-tour up & down the east coast in February.  Remora will be joining them on a few dates.  We’ll let you know the dates in a couple weeks.

After about two years with things up in the air, Vlor’s new disc is finally getting a little closer to completion with the initial mixing & mastering of quite a few of the songs.  Vlor is a bit of a super group this time out with members Brian John Mitchell, Jon DeRosa, Mike VanPortfleet, Jesse Edwards, Jessica Bailiff, Nathan Amundson, & Paolo Messere.  It’s mellow guitar based music at times & nearly rock & roll at others.


December 18, 2005
The new QRD is out & includes interviews with Kobi, If Thousands, Timothy Renner (Stone Breath), Nadav Carmel (Phoning It In), The Torch Marauder, Bill Horist, Plumerai, & novelist Erin O'Brien.  It also has some short stories by Marlene Hyer & Particia Russo, essays on the death of John Lennon & Piggy (Voivod), & Plumerai's tour diary.
December 6, 2005
Kobi did an interview for Lunar Hypnosis, you can check it out.

If Thousands did an interview for Amplitude Equals One Over Frequency Squared, you can check it out.

As some of you may know, March marks the tenth anniversary of Silber.  To celebrate we’re putting together a tribute record collecting covers of songs from any of the Silber releases from the past ten years.  We hope to hear your take on some of our music.  Deadline is February 17, 2006.  Mail submissions to Silber Tribute / PO box 883 / sanford, nc 27331 / USA


November 26, 2005
A free release by Kobi entitled outwards from a core are in the north consisting of three unreleased tracks (two from the Dronesyndrome sessions & one from the Projecto sessions) is available now, check it out on our download page.

Our good friend Tara VanFlower's first novel Violent Violet is available for purchase from Publish America & Amazon.com


November 2, 2005
Rollerball's third & final installment in their Companion EP series entitled The Thief on the Right (this one’s a mix of free jazz funk & songs, I highly recommend the track “Remodel”) is now available for free on our download page.
October 28, 2005
Well, just under the wire for Halloween we finished Lost Kisses 3 & it’s a Halloween issue.  You can check it out at here.

Our good friends at KFJC are having a fundraiser compilation that includes tracks by Remora & Rollerball from their radio sessions there.  The purchase is tax deductible as a donation.  Check them out at www.kfjc.org


October 18, 2005
A free release by Kobi entitled dronesyndrome medley ep constructed from some of the source sounds from Dronesyndrome, check it out on our download page.
October 7, 2005
The Kobi & If Thousands discs will be in stores October 25, the promotional copies are out, so keep your eyes open for reviews & your ears open for radio play.

The official Silber fast food restaurant is the Arby's at exit 66 on I-95 in Virginia.


September 22, 2005
A lot of things are going a bit slower than we'd anticipated.  We've over extended ourselves & set unrealistic goals.  However, things are happening.  The Kobi & If Thousands discs are about to go out for promotion, pre-orders are being filled, they'll be in stores before too long.  Thanks to everyone for your concern & support, we love you all.
August 26, 2005
Remora & Rollerball safely survived their tour.  We'll probably make some recordings from the shows available including Remora collaborating with guitar improvisor Bill Horist & Rollerball's Monte Allen & Shane DeLeon Sauers.

Rollerball is working on part three of their three part Companion EP series that will be listed on our download page when it's ready.

The Remora track "the assault on tony's" (from reversion) got positive feedback from Erin O'Brien (co-author of The Assault on Tony's) as emotionally accurate to the story.  You can get the whole EP free from our download page.

The If Thousands disc i have nothing has been sent off for manufacturing.  There will be a free promotional EP released in association with it shortly.

The Kobi disc Dronesyndrome is back from manufacturing.  There will be a free promotional EP released in association with it shortly.

The mixing on the Vlor record has started.


July 30, 2005
Remora has a free MP3 EP available on our download page. It's called reversion & it's four tracks & 30 minutes of the ambient guitar stuff all the critics want more of.

Remora & Rollerball will be touring in the northwestern US in August.  Go to our calendar for exact dates.  This means orders received from August 3 - August 16 will ship a few days late.  I hope to meet some of you on the road.

Lost Kisses #2 (think Charles Schultz meets Chuck Pahlaniuk) exists now online & in physical form, whichever you prefer.


July 15, 2005
The new Kobi disc is in stock.  The street date is in October, but we can fill your order now.

The new If Thousands should go out for manufacturing next week & also have a release date in October.

We've received a new disc from Origami Arktika.  Very soothing.  Modern Norwegian Art Music.  Probably there will be a release in early 2006.

Remora & Rollerball will be touring in the northwestern US in August.  Jamie Barnes is doing a number of shows in the Louisville area. Go to our calendar for exact dates.

Rollerball has 2 free MP3 EPs available on our download page.

Clang Quartet will be going to the studio to record in September.

Silber artists currently in the studio: Vlor, Lycia, Small Life Form, Remora, & as always Rollerball.


April 12, 2005
The new Kobi disc has gone in for manufacturing.

We have a new portion of the site we're working on of downloadable goodies like ring tones & some out of print albums.  Check it out at downloads.


March 31, 2005
We have five new releases now available for ordering by Rollerball, Jamie Barnes, Remora, Lycia, & Tara VanFlower.  These will all be available in indie stores in a couple weeks.  Coming soon are new releases by Kobi & If Thousands.
March 29, 2005
In association with Rollerball's new album Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause, Rollerball has an EP titled Companion 1 (The Good Samaritan) available for free download (including artwork) here.
March 28, 2005
A large amount of our out of print back catalog is becoming available for free download at Archive.Org.  This includes several compilations as well as releases by Remora & Vlor.
March 27, 2005
Over the past several months we've had a huge amount of demos coming in.  We've been having trouble listening to all the material & would like to make a public apology to anyone we haven't contacted back.

Silber is distributed:
In the US by Darla, Cop International, ToneVendor, & Carrot Top
In Sweden by DOT
In Israel by Third Ear