Skunk Blog

MSI9W - Week 3: Optimize Your Website

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:30:00 GMT

On to week 3! This week is all about optimizing my website. I'm pretty familiar with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) from my internet marketing experience, and I've optimized many sites selling everything from web hosting to baby strollers, but I never really applied my SEO knowledge to my music website. Ariel covers 5 golden rules for band/artist website optimization. I'll go through each one and make sure I'm covered. 1. Add Your Pitch to Your Homepage This is a great idea. I've added my pitch, both as my home page "title" and also above the fold, right below my social media buttons. 2. Your Site Must Load in LESS than 3.5 Seconds On my Mac at home, it loads in about 4.5 seconds, but I have a Reverbnation Flash based Press Widget, that adds another second or so to loading time. Still, I think it's important to include. So it's a bit of a trade off. Almost everyone is using some type of broadband connection these days, so I think the difference is negligible. It still feels fast loading enough to me, and I've had others confirm that it loads quickly, so I'm sticking with it! 3. NO Flash Intros Again, I do have the flash based Reverbnation widget, but I think Ariel is referring to Intro pages comprised entirely of Flash. These may look cool and high tech, but they take forever to load and the search engines can't read them. I try to avoid Flash whenever possible, but again I make exception for the Reverbnation Press Widget as part of an already optimized page. 4. Have a Consistent Look and Feel and Name All Over the Net This is another great suggestion. I've tried to create a consistent look and feel across my website, as well as through all off my social media sites. Check it out: Atomic Skunk Website Bandcamp Formspring Facebook Twitter YouTube Reverbnation 5. Give Away an Exclusive, Free MP3 / Video to Satisfy the WIIFM – What’s In It For Me? (your fan’s little voice) I used to give away a free track in exchange for an email address. then I upped the ante a bit and created a little "Atomic Skunk Sampler EP." This has been a very successful promotion for me and is my primary method of driving fans to sign up for my mailing list. It's also very clearly and prominently displayed on my home page. I think there some more advanced SEO techniques that could probably be used to drive targeted traffic to my music website, including some more in-depth, niche based keyword research and building of backlinks, but this is a good start!

MSI9W - Week 2: Creating The Perfect Pitch

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:47:13 GMT

OK, WEEK 2, "Creating the Perfect Pitch" here we go....... I feel like I'm back where I started, because this is how I first discovered Ariel in February of 2009. She was running an "elevator pitch" contest in which she was asking artists to create a 15 second pitch that offers a unique selling point to potential fans and provides them with some kind of compelling context to pique their interest. A great example of an effective elevator pitch is Leftover Salmon's "Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass." 3 words and bumper sticker simple, but that's enough to make me want to find out more and hear what that sounds like. I played around with a few ideas and got nowhere for a while. I'm in an interesting niche, which for lack of a better term, I will call "contemplative music." It occupies a nexus somewhere between ambient music, space music, chillout/downtempo, electronica and (as much as I hate the term), new age music. People have told me my music reminds them of Pink Floyd, Kitaro, The Orb, Future Sound of London, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Steve Roach and Shpongle. But I'm also very influenced by psychedelic music like The Grateful Dead and more traditional bands and artists of the sixties and seventies, like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell, as well as "progressive rock" bands like Yes and Genesis. And just to make the stew even more interesting, I have a passion for world music, particularly Indian music and Indonesian Gamelan music. Throw it all in a pot and stir it up and you have Atomic Skunk. Ariel suggests using these artists that people say I sound like and artists that have influenced me in creating my pitch. She also recommends thinking about the feelings and vibes I want to convey. One of the important things for me as an electronic musician,that I discovered early on was that I could squeeze beauty out of all these bits and bytes. People tend to think of electronic music as beeps and boops and blips and robots and I was able to evoke a much more organic feel to my music, both through the use of sampled real-world instruments and field recordings, as well as an organic approach to the actual compositional workflow I adopted. In addition to all of that, I found over time that the people that were likely to be attracted to my music fell into various "tribes." In other words, I knew that people who liked The Orb and Future Sound of London and Steve Roach and Kitaro would most likely enjoy my music, but I also began to notice non-musical groups that were drawn to my music, people that were into meditation and buddhism and yoga for example. Luckily for me, these are all interests I share as well, so it's either consciously or sub-consciously reflected in my music. Having digested all this info, I set out to create my pitch. Initially I thought about including band influences in the pitch, like "Future Sound of London meets Steve Roach" or even "If Pink Floyd took a Yoga class, this is what they'd listen to", but after some thoughtful consideration , I settled on "Organic Electronic Ambient Space Music for the Heart, Mind and Soul." I felt like it encompassed my sound and what I was going for artistically and aesthetically while at the same time aiming to appeal to the "tribes" I defined earlier as potential fans. Ariel mentions that the pitch may change over time and not to get too hung up on it, but I've had mine now since February 2009 and it still feels pretty good to me.

MSI9W - Week1: Goals

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:05:00 GMT

Goals. I have a hard time with this one. Musically, I tend to let things evolve organically, try to stay out of my own way and really allow my compositions to progress the way they want to. I may gently nudge and push things in a certain direction, but like my grandfather always used to say (insert thick Yiddish accent here): "Don't force it, you'll break it." So I don't and it's worked out well for me - musically that is. In terms of marketing and PR, I find that I have to put on a different hat and steer myself out of musician mode if I want to make any progress.

I released my first CD, Binary Scenes in March, 2009 and since then I've made quite a bit of progress in terms of building up my fan base via social networking and mailing list signups. I released a 2nd album, Portal in March 2010 and my annual album sales as of July 14, 2010 are already more than double my sales in all of 2009, so I'm definitely making progress and headed in the right direction. Still, while I find myself making gains, I know I am far from where I'd ultimately like to be and that's where Chapter 1 of Ariel's "Music Success in Nine Weeks" comes in.

Ariel suggests writing down a set of goals in a variety of focus areas, because according to various studies, keeping your eye on the long-term perspective has a greater bearing on future success than education, family background, race and intelligence. Who knew? She also suggested getting some type of journal and writing down these goals in actual marker or pen, as opposed to just typing them on the computer, because the act of physically writing something down on paper somehow makes it more real and makes us feel more committed to following through. God knows I've got hundreds of undone to-do's and tasks and wish lists scattered throughout various reminder apps and what-not on my computer and cell phone, so this rang true to me. So I went out and bought a little Atomic Skunk journal/book type thing and some colored markers, sat down and started to brainstorm some "areas of focus." I broke them down into the following 3 major categories: Musical Goals, Financial Goals and Marketing/Fanbase Goals.

MUSICAL GOALS

So far, I've released 2 albums on my own, one in March 2009 and one in March 2010. Despite the fact that I underwent a 2nd brain surgery this year, I've recovered well and I feel like I can keep up this pace for now and even start to ramp it up in the years to come. So I've set a goal of releasing my 3rd album by the end of March 2011, as well as releasing 2 more albums in 2012 and finally accelerating to a pace of 3 albums per year by 2013. I feel like I can do this, if I can carve out the necessary time. I have endless ideas and feel like a bottomless pit of creativity when it comes to music composition and production. If anything prevents me from reaching those goals, it will be related to financial and work obligations, which brings me to the 2nd area of focus:

FINANCIAL GOALS

Without getting into specific numbers, as I stated earlier, my album sales for 2010 are already more than double what they were for all of 2009, yet I am miles away from where I need to be financially to devote the kind of time to my music that I'd like to. Nevertheless, I've set goals to triple my 2009 gross sales in 2010, 5X my 2009 gross sales in 2011, all the way up to 10X my 2009 Gross Sales in 5 years, by 2015. I believe this is within reach, especially if I can meet my new album release goals.

MARKETING/FANBASE GOALS

Starting from scratch in March of 2009 through July 14, 2010 (15 1/2 months), I have built from scratch, a Twitter following of 28,000 +, A Facebook following of almost 1300 and a mailing list of 1850 subscribers. While this is tremendous progress, I know I can continue to grow in these areas and have set myself the following goals:

35,000 Twitter followers by 12/31/10
50,000 Twitter followers by 12/31/11
2,000 Facebook Fans by 3/1/2011
2,000 Mailing list subscribers by 10/1/2010

All of this goal setting within these main areas of focus was a great exercise for me, but it also got me thinking about what my ultimate goal is as a musician. I quickly realized that It isn't to become some kind of platinum album selling/multi-millionaire rock star, I'd just like to be able to earn a decent living and support my wife and family through my music. Now even THAT may seem like a lofty goal in this day and age, especially in the niche music market of ambient/space electronic music, but hey that's really what it's all about for me if I'm honest with myself and at least it's something I can start to work towards.

Since about the age of 13, when I first saw "The Who" at Anaheim Stadium, I realized I wanted to be a musician. It wasn't until a few years later when I actually got my first guitar, that I really started moving in that direction, but basically from age 13 onwards, all I wanted to do was make music. Period.

As life evolved and the realities of having to actually make a living set in, the possibilities of music as a profession for me seemed to slip further and further away. Sure I was playing guitar in local bands and making some money here and there, but I couldn't support myself on my music alone, much less a wife and family. Fast forward to 2008, I'm married with 2 kids and my own small internet business, my music having been relegated to a mere hobby for the last 20 years or so, when I start my electronic music project, Atomic Skunk. By March of 2009, I had produced enough tracks on my own to release an album and to my astonishment, people liked it and bought it! Not in earth shattering numbers, but for a non-performing musician with a self-produced, released and marketed debut CD, I was very pleasantly surprised :) My Twitter and Facebook following started to grow by leaps and bounds every day, people started signing up for my mailing list on Reverbnation and all of a sudden I had a music career again! (sorta)

I may be a long, log way from achieving my ultimate goal, but I AM headed in the right direction and following along with Ariel's goal setting suggestions, I can now break it up into smaller and more manageable chunks by defining certain areas of focus and breaking goals down into short-term, annual, 3 year, 5 year and lifetime goals. This way I'll have a roadmap laid out in front of me and I can periodically check in to see how I'm doing in various areas and make adjustments as necessary. Onward and Upward!

Ready for a new challenge :)

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 23:05:00 GMT

Within mere minutes of arriving home from the hospital last week, my trusty and now indispensable Droid started humming and buzzing, heralding the arrival of an all caps email entitled: "THE BLOG CHALLENGE 2.0 IS HERE!". Not one to back down from a challenge these days, I decided to explore further. The email was from one Ms. Ariel Hyatt, who runs a music PR firm known as CyberPR. Ariel first appeared on my Twitter radar back in February 2009, just as I was getting ready to release my debut CD, Binary Scenes. Back then she was running a contest where she was asking indie musicians to craft an "elevator pitch" - a description of what you're all about as an artist/musician distilled into a 10-15 second sound bite that defines your unique selling point. You see, when asked who or what we sound like, we musician types have a tendency to say things like "I have a unique sound" or "I play music unlike anything you've ever heard", which may or may not be true, but the point is that if you don't provide your potential fans with some unique and compelling context, you'll fail to pique their interest and will have squandered a golden opportunity. A fine example of an effective elevator pitch is Leftover Salmon's "Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass." Bumper sticker simple. 3 words and I'm itching to find out more and actually hear what that sounds like. I gave it some thought with regards to my own music and came up with "Organic Electronic Ambient Space Music for the Heart, Mind and Soul." Needless to say, I didn't win the contest, but it got my wheels turning and made me think about marketing my music in ways that had not occurred to me before. After exchanging a few tweets with Ariel, it turns out we had crossed paths before back in a previous lifetime, when I was the lead guitarist for a band called "The Vicious Hippies" and she was doing PR for various indie bands back in Boulder, CO. I spent some time poking around Ariel's blog and it soon became obvious to me that she "gets it." The music business had undergone sweeping transformational changes in the last few years - it was time to throw out the old rule book and business models and start embracing the power of the internet and social media. As someone who had just stumbled into the brave new world of home digital recording just a few years earlier, Ariel's "roll your own" approach to indie music promotion and marketing looked like the perfect complement to my own music making. It was also through Ariel's blog that I discovered the legendary "1000 True Fans" blog post and music marketing model - a mindset and approach that continues to form the backbone of my own music marketing efforts. I picked up a PDF copy of Ariel's book, "Music Success in Nine Weeks" a few weeks later and although I promised myself I'd sit down and read it cover to cover, life managed to get in the way and it has been sitting on my hard drive gathering cyber-dust ever since. Now, it appears the universe is telling me, is the time to read through it all and actually put these ideas to the test. The rules for Ariel's Blog Challenge are simple: Read through the book and write a blog post for each week - 9 posts in total - chronicling my experience with the book and its methods. Ariel and her staff will review all the posts and will award a free 3 month Cyber PR campaign to the artist who has come the furthest using the techniques outlined in her book. With my surgery behind me now and the dog days of summer ahead, the time seems ripe to embark on both a new musical AND marketing adventure. It would be an incredible opportunity to gain free access to Ariel's wealth of music marketing knowledge and expertise through a complimentary PR campaign, but even if I were to fall short, at the very least, I will have read through and completed the course under her expert guidance, so it's a win-win as far as I can see it. I know many of you who listen to my music are musicians yourselves, so I invite you to follow along with me and see if you don't manage to gain some insights that will help you along your own musical career paths. Let's do this thing! Challenge - consider yourself accepted :)

Atomic Skunk Echoes Interview - June 28, 2010

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:05:00 GMT

Here's a an interview I did with John Diliberto of Billboard Magazine and producer/host of Echoes Radio. Enjoy :)

Mr. Skunk's Wild Ride

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:05:00 GMT

Wow. What a week I had. I apologize for the length of this post, but I want to get these thoughts down before they slip away forever down the memory hole. FIrst of all, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to all my wonderful friends and family for the prayers and healing vibes and good wishes you sent my way, it was wonderful to have that kind of support and love from the people I know and love surrounding me during a challenging time. In addition to that, my mind was absolutely blown away by the hundreds upon hundreds of emails, tweets and comments I received from people I've never met, who know me only through my music.

I read through message after message - heartfelt offers of prayer and healing, people offering to write music for me, cleanse the operating room prior to surgery, sending me love and reiki energy and sharing their own personal stories of challenges they've faced. But they all came from the heart and poured in from around the world - Australia, UK, Germany, Poland, Latvia, France, Japan and on and on....in fact they're still coming in as I write this. I read through these messages while waiting for various pre-surgery appointments over the last week and I can not even begin to express in words what it did for my spirit and state of consciousness heading into surgery on wednesday morning.

I arrived at UCSF on 6:30 am on wednesday morning, accompanied by my beautiful, wonderful wife, Juliette and her beautiful, wonderful father, Bob. Instead of wallowing in feelings of dread and fear, I found myself enveloped in a state of calm and stillness.

They called me up to the surgery prep area at 7:30am, where I was to get changed and meet with the anesthesiologist and doctor's assistants in prep for surgery. My surgeon, Dr. Berger came in briefly to speak with me.

- Dr. Berger has pioneered a technique called motor-mapping, which required that I come in a week earlier so they could attach sensors to my fingers and toes and take pictures of my brain while they were being stimulated. Then they could mark the specific areas of my own personal brain that controlled those specific functions. They also had me speak and identify a series of images to map out the speech areas and areas that control processing of information. Apparently although all of this stuff is generally in the same place across brains, when you're dealing with such tiny spaces and little room for error, this gives Dr. Berger the freedom he needs to be aggressive in getting out tumor cells while sparing good brain cells. The technicians can then overlay the motor mapping images on top of my regular MRI scans and Dr. Berger can use this during surgery to give him the ultimate guidance and precision in resecting tumor cells and sparing good brain tissue -

So Dr. Berger came in to the prep area just before surgery having looked at the motor mapped images and MRIs together and informs me that the tumor is right up against my motor strip, specifically the area of the brain that controls my left leg and foot. He said he just wanted me to be aware that he had to go into that area and he would do all he could, but that there was a real possibility that I could lose the use of my left foot and leg permanently. I told him I understood and thanked him and gave him a thumbs up as they pumped some Versed into my IV and wheeled me into the OR. Still I managed to remain calm and at peace (by now the Versed was helping a bit as well). They put a mask over my face and asked me to take a few deep breaths........

I woke up to the sound of my wife's voice in the Intensive Care Unit. I was nauseous and still quite out of it, but I could hear her and my father-in-law trying to get through to me that they had spoken with Dr. Berger and he was very enthusiastically pleased with how everything went. The ICU attendants ran some basic neuro tests on me - what's my name, what year is it, where am I etc. and I slowly started to come around. Then they had me wiggle fingers and toes first on my right and then on my left and I quickly realized that I was fully intact. I could lift both legs easily and wiggle all toes and fingers. They had me push each foot against their hands and I could feel that I had strength - good strength in each leg and foot. They asked me to tap my thumb and index fingers together on both hands in rapid succession and again I could do it easily and quickly and with dexterity. This was the opposite of my experience from my first surgery almost 10 years ago when I couldn't move the left side of my body at all for several days and took weeks if not months to regain dexterity in my fingers. Aside from the post-anesthesia queasiness, I was suddenly feeling very good :)

They kept me in the ICU overnight, which is the protocol for all brain surgeries at UCSF. It was now around 7pm. My surgery lasted about 3-4 hours and I had spent the last 3-4 hours just coming around, getting lucid and getting through all the post-anesthesia yuckiness. I hadn't eaten anything in over 24 hours and I was starving. I asked one of the nurses if I could possibly get some fruit or something and she went and got me an apple. It was the most wonderful apple I had ever eaten.I devoured the entire thing, core and all, in about 30 seconds. She could see how hungry I was and offered to get me a sandwich - a turkey sandwich. Yes please :) I'm talking dry turkey with a piece of lettuce on soggy wheat bread wrapped in saran wrap along with one of those little packets of Heinz mustard. She also brought some apple juice and graham crackers. That may have been one of the greatest meals I have ever eaten. Sitting propped up in my bed in the ICU, with IVs in each arm and all kinds of monitors and catheters attached to various parts of my body, I scarfed down this turkey sandwich in record time. The nurse came over and noticed how well I was doing and showed me the remote control in case I wanted to watch a little TV before trying to get some sleep. I turned it on and flipped through the channels, watching a bit of news and sports highlights and finally landed on some movie channel that was playing one of my favorite movies of all time, "Blazing Saddles." I was wiggling my toes, eating graham crackers in bed, feeling very good and watching Blazing Saddles on TV! This was just hours after brain surgery now - and all of a sudden I was overtaken by this enormous emotional surge, it was as if my heart just opened up and filled with gratitude.

Gratitude for Dr. Berger and his staff, for my wonderful wife and father-in-law, for the turkey that gave his life for my sandwich, for Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder, for the ability to wiggle my fingers and toes, and for all my family, friends and fans who sent me love and healing from around the world. But it didn't stop there. I began to feel a sense of gratitude and thanks for my tumor and the staples in my head and the tubes sticking in and out of my body and the suffering and setbacks and all the icky/yucky shit that I try to avoid and not think about. Because I realized...IT'S ALL MADE OF THE SAME STUFF... all the sorrow and pain and suffering and defeats and all the joy and bliss and triumphs and happiness are all woven from the same fabric. And we're not ENTITLED to any of it. It's all a gift. Every bit of it. And with all the suffering and loss and pain comes insight and wisdom and compassion.

The next morning I was able to walk on my own to the MRI scanner for my post-surgery MRI and was then transferred to a "regular hospital room." Shortly after moving into my new digs, I saw Dr. Berger bounding down the hall eager to come in and check me out and tell me how things went. I can only imagine how gratifying it must be to be able to do the kind of work he does and then to be able to follow up with his patients. I could see he was trying to hold back from smiling, but he spoke to me about the surgery in a way that a fellow guitar player might talk to me about getting his '56 strat re-fretted or something. He may have even called me "Dude." He said he was backing in to the tumor area getting closer and closer to my motor strip and was able to remove all tumor cells that he could see while continuing to stimulate brain tissue to make sure he was still in a safe area. When he had removed all visible tumor, he stimulated the surrounding tissue and my foot twitched within only 1 millimeter of where he had been working! So the motor mapping had worked as planned and he could see that I was in good shape and told me I should spend the day walking around the hospital, spend the night there and then go home. He also told me he examined the frozen tumor cells under the microscope in the OR and his preliminary analysis was that it was still a low grade tumor, which would be tremendously good news, although that still needs to be confirmed by pathology that comes in some time next week. He was obviously very pleased, as was I.

My wife and kids came to pick me up the next day and within 48 hours of my surgery, I was headed back home! I feel really good and I'm trying to force myself (as is my wife) to just take it easy and not push myself too hard, but I did grab a guitar almost immediately after walking in the door and kicked out a few blues jams with my son, just to make sure everything was still cool in that realm and it felt really good :)

I still have a long road ahead of me and I'll know more in the next few weeks, once the pathology and post-surgery MRI's and Doc appointments roll around, but I do feel like it is a long road and one that will be filled with ups and downs, triumphs and setbacks, suffering and bliss, but I eagerly anticipate all of it. No one gets out of this life alive, everything is impermanent, so you might as well develop a healthy and friendly relationship with all aspects of it, not just the warm and fuzzy, blissful stuff, but with the icky-yucky painful stuff as well. In the meantime I highly recommend that you go hug your kids and french kiss your dog or whatever floats your boat :)

P.S. If you ever find yourself at UCSF, I strongly advise against the chicken curry, although I can't recommend the Morphine-Vicodin-Dilaudid cocktail for dessert highly enough.

Peace and love to you all,

Rich Brodsky
Atomic Skunk

Atomic Skunk Interview on Echoes Radio - June 28 and 4th of July weekend

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 21:15:00 GMT

Happy Sunday :) My interview with John Diliberto, producer and host of of Echoes Radio airs tomorrow on Monday, June 28, as well as the upcoming 4th of July weekend. This was done pre-surgery, so no icky brain talk here, it's just about me and my music. You can find out when and where to tune in throughout the U. S. here: http://www.echoes.org/stattime.html It's also available worldwide through their streaming subscription service: http://www.echoes.org/online.html

Brain Surgery

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:35:00 GMT

Dear Friends,

This week I'll be undergoing brain surgery at UCSF in San Francisco. Some of you know this, although most of you don't......

Almost 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with a low grade (slow growing) brain tumor in my right frontal lobe, known as an Oligoastrocytoma. I had surgery in January, 2001. In 2004-2005 I did about 14 months of chemotherapy after my docs had noticed a slight change on my MRI. This past March I went in for my annual MRI and the docs again noticed a change when compared against my MRI from 2005. The change was enough that they felt it should be treated in some way at this time. The doctors at UCSF feel that surgery is always the best first option if it can be performed safely and since they feel this is the case, we decided to go ahead with it.

I'm incredibly fortunate to be under the care of Dr. Mitch Berger at UCSF, who is one of the world's most respected and accomplished brain surgeons (he was also signed by the Chicago Bears in 1974 as a free agent rookie - talk about a career change! - but I digress....)

Dr. Berger performed my surgery back in 2001 and I have complete and total faith in his skill and abilities. He is very upbeat and positive about the surgery and prognosis (then again he's not the one having his head sliced open and his brains scooped out). Based on my most recent MRI, Dr. Berger believes whatever tumor remains is still low grade (slow growing), although we can't be certain until the pathology report comes back after surgery.

If it's anything like it was 10 years ago, I should be in the hospital for 3 or 4 days and then back home and recovering. It will be several weeks before I'll be able to walk unassisted and maybe a month or two before I can drive again, but as soon as I'm able to, I'll crawl over to the computer (or more likely the new droid I got for Father's day) and update you all on my status.

My surgery is scheduled for the morning of Wednesday, June 23rd at UCSF in San Francisco. Please keep me in your thoughts, say a prayer, send some healing vibes my way - I'll take whatever I can get :) I've known about this since March, so it's not like a sudden shock to me, although it's not exactly how I was hoping to spend my summer vacation....but as Joseph Campbell once said:

"We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us."

I'm looking forward to getting this behind me and getting back to my family and friends and making music again :)

Love to you all,

Rich Brodsky
Atomic Skunk

Atomic Skunk 4/20 Update

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:25:00 GMT

Dear Friends,

I just wanted to give you a quick update on what's going on in Atomic Skunk Land. I'm extremely grateful for and humbled by the response to my latest release, Portal. Thank you to everyone who purchased a CD or download. Less than 10 of the limited edition Digipaks remain, so grab one now if you want one!
I started working on some new tracks for my next project....stay tuned for details on that front. If you like my music, tell your friends. There is a link at the bottom of this blog post to some widgets that you can paste into your blog or website to help spread the word about Atomic Skunk. You can listen to and share my tracks from Soundcloud and Bandcamp. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Facebook too. Once again, thank you all for your kind words, good vibes and continued support. It really means the world to me :)

Rich Brodsky
Atomic Skunk

Free Atomic Skunk Sampler EP

If you're a member of the Atomic Skunk mailing list, you're entitled to a free download of my 2 track "Sampler EP" You can grab it here

Portal is the featured album on Musical Starstreams and radioioambient.com

Tune in to musicalstarstreams and radioioambient.com to hear tracks from this month's featured album, Atomic Skunk's Portal beginning April 18:

"Apr 18 - Pgm #1016. We head back 'home' to Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco for the music of Rich Brodsky, who records here as Atomic Skunk, with his mind expanding, "Portal." An Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole journey on his Organic Robot label. Remember what the doorman said. Feed your head!"

Less than 10 Limited Edition Portal Digipak CDs left!

If you were thinking of purchasing the Portal Limited Edition Digipak CD or Atomic Skunk Superbundle (Portal + Binary Scenes CDs), this may be your last opportunity. Less than 10 of the limited edition 6-panel Portal Digipak CDs remain. Grab one while you still can!

Click Here to buy the Portal Limited Edition Digipak CD

Binary Scenes Now Available on CD

Now available on CD directly from Atomic Skunk, the debut Skunk album, Binary Scenes featuring all original artwork by Rich Brodsky. Also includes immediate download of 8-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

Click Here to Order Binary Scenes CD

Atomic Skunk Music on the Radio

You can now hear tracks from Portal and Binary Scenes on terrestrial and internet radio worldwide. Here are just some of the radio stations and programs that regularly feature the music of Atomic Skunk:

If you know of a radio station that should be playing Atomic Skunk music, but is not, bug them about it! Point them to the Atomic Skunk Website and/or email me with the details and I'll bug them about it :)

If you have any questions or comments, email me!

"Quite a Journey"
- John Shanahan, Hypnagogue Reviews (Feb 22, 2010)

"Portal is a work of art for the ears that should be treasured and a must for your music library."

- Darrenkeith Wyatt, My Love for Music (Mar 15, 2010)

"Lush soundscapes of beats, rhythms and voices that are woven together in such a way as to envelop the listener allowing them to leave behind their day to day existence for awhile and enter completely into this world."
- Michael Foster, Ambient Visions (Mar 14, 2010)

"Brodsky's "Portal" LP has fingertip care, with a liberal sprinkling of indeterminate entry and exit gates, typified by sounds of people, birds, flowing water, thunder, with glistening textures and beats that recall Eraldo Bernocchi's collaborations with Harold Budd. "
- Muttley, SubVersion (Feb 28, 2010)

"Wow. WOW. Amazing work, Rich. You are an inspiration. Thanks for Portal! I love it."

- Rob Cosh, Twitter (Mar 02, 2010)

"Haven't heard anything like this for years. Absolutely amazing!! a complete trip. Can't wait to get it in my hands. Nice one mate"
- Paul Carter, Twitter (Mar 02, 2010)

"Note perfect ambient, full of mood, unusual dreamstate shifts and psychedelic edges. "
- John Diliberto - Billboard Magazine/Echoes Radio Producer/Host, Echoes Radio Blog (Apr 10, 2009)

PRESS RELEASE: Atomic Skunk's new album drops March 20 (Vernal Equinox)

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:00:00 GMT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

San Francisco Bay Area based electronic musician Rich Brodsky, aka Atomic Skunk, will release a new album entitled Portal on the Vernal Equinox, March 20, 2010. Following on the heels of his critically acclaimed debut release, Binary Scenes, Atomic Skunk's Portal features 7 fresh, new original tracks as well as a stunning rendition of the Grateful Dead classic, "China Doll."

Atomic Skunk made a splash on the ambient electronic scene in 2009 with the release of Binary Scenes, garnering high praise from electronic music fans, bloggers and ambient music stalwarts such as Billboard magazine writer and Echoes Radio producer, John Dilberto, who described the music as "note perfect ambient, full of mood, unusual dreamstate shifts and psychedelic edges." Echoes Radio listeners voted Binary Scenes one of the "Top 200 CDs of the last 20 Years."

"After the first album, I wanted to explore some new territory." says Rich Brodsky. "I took some cues from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld and set out to make my own gapless Atomic Skunk album. I wanted to take take the listener on a flowing, cinematic, uninterrupted journey, returning them safely back home in the end. Portal is a musical odyssey, a kind of strange and wondrous journey that reflects the essence of my musical, creative and spiritual influences. My hope is that listeners will become immersed in this world and find something unique and magical that resonates with them. "

Portal also hearkens back to the Bay Area's psychedelic past with a unique interpretation of the Grateful Dead's "China Doll" "As a long time Deadhead, I couldn't resist giving The Dead a bit of the Skunk treatment and it turned out really beautifully. I'm very pleased with it" said Brodsky.

Portal will be released as a limited edition 6-Panel Digipak CD on March 20, 2010 (The Vernal Equinox) at atomicskunk.com. Pre-orders with immediate digital download are available now at http://atomicskunk.bandcamp.com. It will also be available as a digital download at iTunes and Amazon on March 20, 2010.

TRACK LISTING

Portal
Dhalang
Nautilus
The Waltz of the Frog Prince
China Doll
Osiris
Once More Around Ganymede
Forest for the Trees

http://www.atomicskunk.com
http://atomicskunk.bandcamp.com
http://www.portalthealbum.com
http://www.twitter.com/atomicskunk
http://www.facebook.com/atomicskunk

For more information, please contact Rich Brodsky at Organic Robot Records:
415-897-1950
rbro@organicrobotrecords.com

Atomic Skunk - Portal - Pre-Order CD - Available now with immediate download!

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:35:00 GMT

Portal Limited Edition Digipak CD Pre-Order Available Now - Immediate Album Download

Very Limited Edition 6 Panel Digipak CD. Pre-orders signed by Atomic Skunk
All Original Full Color Artwork by Michal Karcz
Immediate album download in your choice of High Quality 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.
Exclusive 25 min. "Live" Bonus Track Download "Ambartsumian's Knot"
Pre-orders ship before official album release date (March 20, 2010)

Click Here to Pre-Order Portal

http://www.atomicskunk.com

atomic@atomicskunk.com

:)

New Atomic Skunk Album Drops on March 20 (Vernal Equinox) :)

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:15:00 GMT

PORTAL
by Atomic Skunk

Coming March 20, 2010 (Vernal Equinox)

From the creator of the critically acclaimed Binary Scenes, comes an all new journey into the realm of the timeless…

an uninterrupted, seamless, musical odyssey from beyond the mind of….

Atomic Skunk...

Portal

Coming on the Vernal Equinox, March 20, 2010 to iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp and directly from http://www.atomicskunk.com

Limited edition 6 panel Digi-Pak CD with stunning all original artwork by Polish artist and photographer, Michal Karcz. Original bonus download material included with CD. Pre-orders begin soon. Join the Atomic Skunk Mailing List for news and more details :)

http://www.facebook.com/atomicskunk
http://www.twitter.com/atomicskunk
http://www.atomicskunk.com
atomic@atomicskunk.com

:)

New Atomic Skunk Album Coming Soon :)

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:25:00 GMT

I'm thrilled to announce that I've completed all tracks for my follow-up album to "Binary Scenes." The album will be entitled "Portal" and will include 8 tracks, including 7 unreleased, original compositions, as well as a cover version of The Grateful Dead's "China Doll." It's over 63 minutes of music and has been produced as an uninterrupted, "gapless" album. Think of it as a seamless hour long musical odyssey from beyond the mind of Atomic Skunk :) There will be a limited edition Digipak CD release, including original bonus material and full color original artwork and design, by the amazing Polish photographer and artist, Michal Karcz. Stay tuned for details :)

Happy Thanksgiving from Atomic Skunk :)

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:55:00 GMT

Happy Thanksgiving from Atomic Skunk :)

Binary Scenes makes the Echoes Radio Top 200 CDs of All Time

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:25:00 GMT

Thanks to Atomic Skunk fans everywhere who voted in "Binary Scenes" as one of the Top 200 CDs of all time in the Echoes Radio 20th Anniversary Poll:

Echoes 20th Anniversary Top 200 CDs

Atomic Skunk now on Pandora

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 10:45:00 GMT

Atomic Skunk is now available on Pandora Internet Radio. Check it out, make an Atomic Skunk station and tell your friends!

Atomic Skunk on Hearts of Space

Sun, 03 May 2009 07:10:00 GMT

Flying Spiders of Babylon and Suspended Ascent are the bookend tracks for this week's Hearts of Space broadcast. You can listen to the weekly show for free, but you really should subscribe :)

New Review on Audiostylites

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:50:00 GMT

Audiostylites:

"It’s subtle, complex, and cerebral ambient music which thrills because it is able to exude such humanity. Download it and keep it!"

Worthwhile to click on the link and read the whole thing:)

Binary Scenes now available on CD Baby

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:50:00 GMT

Binary Scenes is now available at the CD Baby website. 20% discount if you buy more than one copy. Makes a great gift!

Even if you don't buy one, stop in and check it out and leave a review if you can :)

CDs arrived at CDBaby today

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:50:00 GMT

CDs have arrived , but it takes 5-7 days for them to process, so they should be available to purchase some time next week.