Category: Mail

Musical Postcards are Now Available Digitally!

A Slight Change For The New Year.

2023 marks the 30th Anniversary of the first zine I published, the 25th Anniversary of my first radio broadcast, and as if that weren’t enough, we have decided to relaunch our Digital Lemonade Stand. It’s a great way to start the year, and we hope that you will not only be able to take advantage of these changes, but tell your friends about it, too. Something like this is worth sharing, and we can’t wait to see where the next year takes us.

In the past, I’ve produced a Musical Postcard every month, now for over two years solid. 25 Different Cards to choose from, featuring 30 minutes of experimental music, or a new single by one of my rock and roll projects. Not only did these cards deliver music that you could only access via the codes on the cards, but Digital Lemonade Stand supporters would get access to bonus tracks and other media related to producing the cards. In the past, you had to go to the website, and stream the songs from the Digital Lemonade Stand itself. Now, you can subscribe to a supporter-only Podcast, that features ALL of the songs on each Postcard, AND all of the bonus material. Plus, if you visit the Digital Lemonade Stand itself, you can download mp3s and other media associated with the postcard, to add another dimension to appreciating the card.

These Musical Postcards have become one of the most written about and well-recognized project that I’ve produced recently, and through working on material for the cards, I’ve come to develop a working method that is not only satisfying, but very rewarding.

Making these cards isn’t precisely free. I do use as much cheap and recycled paper as possible, and I’m STILL using the same printer that I’ve used to produce my ‘zines for several years now, using thrift store and eBay printer ink to add a few more years to it’s lifespan. But there are costs associated with making these cards, most notably postage. Help me offset these costs, AND keep this dream alive, by visiting the Digital Lemonade Stand, and supporting me, today!

Rich Treasures Pop-Up: Musical Postcards!

The Lava Lamp Lounge Print-Shop has been working overtime lately, sorting out everything in time for the Rich Treasures DIY Pop-Up at The Art Department here in Salem, OR. If you haven’t heard, you should mark your calendar: June 26th, 2 – 5 PM. (Only three hours! Don’t be late!)

I will be selling an array of items that I’ve made over the years, and it will probably be one of the primary ways to see me in person, in a sort of “public” manner, this summer. I would love to see you there, even if you just want to stop in and say hello.

For sale to the public for the first time: Musical Postcards! Probably the highest profile art project I’ve done, these postcards have not been for sale before, and were instead only available to Lemonade Stand Supporters (and a select group of folks who are on the old-school mailing list). In fact, if you sign up for the Lemonade Stand right now, you will get a June Postcard popped into the mail for you, today, as a thank you for signing up.

However, if you would like to purchase these cards (for use at home, or to send to a friend), they will be available at The Art Department during this event, individually, or as a set, where you can get all of them at a discount. The music on the cards is only accessible through the QR Code; these aren’t available to download elsewhere, and you can’t get this music on other releases. These cards contain music by four different musical projects, totaling almost three hours of new music. Included in this are two singles by actual rock-and-roll combos, a long spoken word piece, and four different studio sessions by Mini-Mutations, unavailable in any other form. These postcards have all been designed by Austin Rich, and come on colorful cardstock, so you can see them coming as your postal carrier walks down the street.

These postcards have been mailed all over the country, all over the world, and has been referred to as a new musical format, something that is very exciting for people who want to make music that can be distributed easily, and cheaply, in a way that could be affordable to anyone with a stamp.

There aren’t that many of these, so make sure to show up promptly if you are interested in these rare items. These are expected to sell out, to make sure to stop by early!

See you soon!

New Mini-Mutations! A New Podcast! And A New Postcard!

It must be March. 

This month, Mini-Mutations has a new 30 minute EP that you can only hear via the new postcard that is being mailed out to mailing list subscribers AT THIS VERY MOMENT. This EP, “Five Hundred Thousand,” is a three part exploration of new material, new ideas, and new experiments that is at the heart of all that Mini-Mutations does. I’m excited to have the EP out, and would love to share it with you. 

Which brings me to these postcards. Every month, original content that is not available any other way is available for you to enjoy, directly sent to your mailbox. It’s a musical postcard that combines old-fashioned Postcard technology with new-fangled QR-code technology, to offer you new music in the privacy of your own mailbox. Join the mailing list, and receive each new postcard when they are made! These were recently written up by the Eugene Weekly, and are now an international sensation! (Cards have landed in Canada, Germany and Taiwan.) We’ve hit almost 30 states, too, so help me make it all 50, and join the mailing list, today! 

As an incentive: this month’s postcard comes with some bonus material, in addition to the new Mini-Mutations EP. On March 21st, a new podcast is launching. 20 Minutes Into The Future: A Max Headroom Podcast is a show where we watch Max Headroom, and talk about it. With this postcard, we offer a chance to hear the first episode before the show officially launches. You can find out more information about the show at 20minutesintothefuture.org. We officially launch on March 21st. Our second episode, where we discuss the UK Telefilm, will coincide with the 36th Anniversary of the original broadcast. Keep your eyes on the website, as we will be hosting a watch party on Zoom, the details of which will be on our site. In the meantime, you can enjoy our first episode via the postcard, before anyone else can hear it. 

March is going to be a great month, and. It all starts with this new postcard. Get yours, now!

February Postcards Are Ready!

The February Postcards are ready, and will go out in the mail tomorrow. Anyone currently on the mailing list will receive one. If you would like to get on the mailing list, then just send an e-mail to austinrich@gmail.com. Make sure to mention you want to join the postcard mailing list, as the bots are only so good at all of this.  And, if you are feeling so inclined, please make a donation, to keep the postage flowing.

This month’s postcard includes a pair of demos from the new batch of songs that the Master Control Unit has been outputting, for the second album by Shot Reverse Shot. These demos will not be available anywhere else, any will only be heard in this format on this postcard. (They might not make the final cut for the album; you never know.) If you want to hear these, you should get on the mailing list, NOW.

And, if you want to get the album or the 7″ by Shot Reverse Shot, why not check out the Bandcamp page, for all your merch needs.

It’s a little musical concert… sent straight to your mailbox!

Enjoy!

New From WTBC In 2021

WTBC decided to hit the ground running this year, and that means that we have four new releases, all within the first month of 2021! And with these releases, we are debuting a brand new project that we have the pleasure of working with: Shot Reverse Shot. THIS IS NOT EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC. Shot Reverse Shot offer Space Grunge Metaphors that offer a charming glimpse into the musical world of deep space travel. This band isn’t like anyone we’ve worked with before, and we are very excited to bring you this band. 

WTBC now offers professionally duplicated CDs, limited edition lathe cut records, and hand-made ’zines and paper ephemera, all delivered from our house, to yours! These are just some of the things we have to offer for the music and written-word enthusiast in your life. And all of them are available, NOW!

Our musical postcards contain new music by WTBC artists, designed in-house, and mailed directly to your home.  The music on those postcards are unique to those cards, and are currently unavailable any other way. Think of them as socially distanced audio performances, that you can enjoy from the comfort of your mailbox. 

We also have 8” records, split tapes and CDs, and a selection of ’zines that are not available elsewhere. If you want to enjoy these unique items, visit our store, and find releases by Mini-Mutations, The Olsen Twins Ghostlight Ensemble, Shot Reverse Shot, Half Eye, Formaldehydra, DEATH MUTATIONS and more, all of this – and more – are all waiting for your enjoyment at wtbc.bandcamp.com.

Order Today! And: Be Seeing You!

 

The Postman always Promotes Twice

Improbable As It May Seem

Sometimes, word of mouth does you right.

A friend told a friend, who requested a postcard, and told another friend, and I was suddenly on the phone with William Kennedy of the Eugene Weekly, talking about postcards.

I assumed it would be a small blurb about something different happening with the mail. Instead, it is much longer.

You can read the article here.

Now: can someone from Eugene please save and send me a copy? I’m still sort of blown away…

January Postcards Are Here!

Dropping into the mail today are the January 2021 Musical Postcards, the first of this year! We test-drove this idea last month, to great success, and we are going to do this again, every month this year.

If you are are on the mailing list: you will get one. If you would like to join the mailing list, here’s the page for doing that.

Over 30 minutes of new, original music by Mini-Mutations, only available on this postcard. It looks pretty snappy, so I would love to send one to you.

And now that I’m not really on FB these days, this might be a good way to keep in touch.

Let’s send some mail!

Join The Mailing List, and Get A Postcard

For a while now I’ve been experimenting with mail art. I used to do this a little bit in the 90’s, but never very often, or with much consistency. That didn’t really change for most of my life, but in the last few years I’ve been getting much more into it, and have been trying – when time allows – to stay on top of it as much as possible.

To that end, this year I’m engaging in seasonal, musical postcards. 12, in fact; one each month. To get a sense of how to do it, and what the process would be, I have a postcard made and ready for December of 2020, too. The first batch of cards, for mailing list members, go out today.

If you would like to get on the mailing list, and receive a musical postcard with 30 minutes of new audio material, all via the mail, then contact me via e-mail and mention this in your message. There’s only so many of these, so if you want one, you should say so, soon.

Curious about the Postcards Project? This link should help answer your questions.

Really, this is just a good way to get more engaged with the mail. And for that reason alone, this will be a lot of fun.