Tag: indie music

New Music Tuesday I: “Herald”

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Now that it’s 2026, it’s time to make a few changes to the blog.  One of those overdue changes comes to the long-running weekly feature Open Mic Adventures.

According to a hasty review of my records, I ceased playing open mics—and, indeed, most live gigs outside of private bookings—in 2025.  I simply lacked the time and energy—and interest.  I much prefer rehearsing my students so they can play live.

That’s been one of the big changes in my life in recent years.  I enjoy playing live, but as I get older, going to open mic nights and playing songs I wrote a decade (or more) ago lost its luster.  It’s also amazing how once I got engaged (and now married), my desire to show off in coffee shops plummeted.  If I’m going to play to impress anyone—always a dubious proposition—it’s going to be for Dr. Wife.

That’s all to say that I’m not ending Open Mic Adventures, per se—there’s always that chance I’ll get that itch to play and get some good video in the process—but that I’m shifting it into something more accurate:  New Music Tuesday.  The “Open Mic” appellation ceased to be accurate for most of 2025, as I featured more and more of my original electronic compositions.

Of course, good ol’ WordPress.com makes it easy to put together these weekly, multimedia posts.  One thing I’ve come to love about WordPress.com is how intuitive it is to upload all sorts of media.

For example, here is today’s featured track, “Herald,” uploaded as a beautifully lossless WAV file using the “Audio” block:

I found this brief piece scribbled on a red tardy slip I had in my desk. I apparently wrote it down on 8 August 2023, and finally put it into my music composition software this morning.  It’s a very simple, quick piece, indicative of the kinds of etudes I was composing at that time.  As such, “Herald” is a brief piano fanfare, suitable for players at most levels.

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Open Mic Adventures CLXI: “Clean-Shaven at Christmas”

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Christmastime is pretty busy for yours portly, which means my shaving routine tends to get disrupted.  I usually find myself nearing beard capacity by the time Christmas approaches, so I always take the time to do a thorough shave before the big day.

That being the case, I made up a little song, “Clean-Shaven at Christmas,” some years ago.  My nephews in particular love it, and will sing it—unprompted!—as Christmas approaches (I also taught them to wake up on Christmas morning shouting, “It’s Christmas!  It’s Christmas!”).

So it was that I decided to piece together a YouTube Short of the phases of my shaving with my voice accompanying.  There’s even a gross closeup of where I cut myself while shaving—gasp!

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Open Mic Adventures CLX: Church Attempts “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains”

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Way back in January I featured the missionary hymn “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains” as part of “Open Mic Adventures CXV: ‘From Greenland’s Icy Mountains’” as a jingoistic tribute to the then-recent inauguration of President Trump, who had designs on annexing Greenland.  Instead of singing the piece—a very old missionary tune by composer Lowell Mason, with words by Reginald Heber—I played it a few times as a bit of instrumental prelude music.

There this obscure piece of music sat until my September, when my pastor had the idea to pull out some lesser-known hymns for our church to sing during our fall revival services.  My pastor shares something of my absurdist sense of humor, so when he stumbled upon “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,” he half-jokingly proposed we sing it one night as our congregational piece.  I enthusiastically agreed to play it, and so it became reality.

I took the opportunity to record a little bit of it and upload it to YouTube.  Below is the church’s valiant attempt at singing a song that virtually no one in the congregation knew:

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Open Mic Adventures CLIX: “Dido’s Lament”

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Want to play the sax like yours portly?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

Years ago, my dear mom found a copy of The Usborne Book of Piano Classics (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link, at no additional cost to you) at a book sale and picked it up for me.  I have used that book countless times over the years for gigs, piano lessons, practice, arranging, etc.  My High School and Middle School Music Ensembles have performed arrangements based on those in the book many times at the annual South Carolina Independent School Association Music Festival.

While it consists of piano arrangements of famous pieces from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, I often play the pieces on saxophone.  I found myself pulling the book out in preparation for a gig this past Sunday (a wedding proposal—the client’s girlfriend said yes!), and came upon a melancholy piece from the Baroque composer Henry Purcell, “When I am laid in earth,” perhaps better known as “Dido’s Lament.”  It’s from Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas.

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October 2025 Bandcamp Friday!

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Pickup my newest releases, Säx and Electrock III: Euroclydon, and Triple Deluxe!  Spooky Season IV is coming soon, too!

Want to play the sax?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

Wanna be utterly perplexed while laughing uproariously?  Grab a copy of my first book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link, so I’ll receive a portion of any purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you—plus I’ll get the book royalties).

Today is Bandcamp Friday, when Bandcamp doesn’t take it’s usual 15% cut of proceeds from sales.  It’s a great time to purchase tunes from yours portly.

My latest EP, Säx, released last month, as did two full-length albums, Electrock III: Euroclydon and Triple Deluxe.

My full discography typically goes for $87.64.  Considering it’s twenty-nine (29) releases, some of which are not available on streaming platforms, that’s pretty good—and just $3.02 per release!

Thanks for your support!  And if you haven’t already, check out my YouTube series 31 Days of Halloween.

Happy Friday!

—TPP

September 2025 Bandcamp Friday!

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Pickup my newest releases, Säx and Electrock III: Euroclydon!  Get 50% off with promo code storm.  That’s 50% off ANYTHING and EVERYTHING on my Bandcamp page, including the album, full discography purchases, merch, etc.!

Want to play the sax?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

Wanna be utterly perplexed while laughing uproariously?  Grab a copy of my first book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link, so I’ll receive a portion of any purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you—plus I’ll get the book royalties).

My latest EP, Säx, released earlier this week, as did a full-length album, Electrock III: Euroclydon.  They’re normally $9 and $12, respectively with promo code storm they’re only $4.50 and $6, respectively.

My full discography typically goes for $82.64, but with promo code storm it’s $41.32, or roughly $1.48 per release.  Twenty-eight albums, constituting of over nine hours of music, for $1.48 per release is ludicrous.

But it’s even better—if you purchase anything from Bandcamp today (Friday, 5 September 2025), Bandcamp does not take their 15% cut.  I get more money, and you get insane amounts of music for pennies on the dollar.  That’s the beauty of Bandcamp Friday!

As I detailed some weeks ago, yours portly needs your financial support.  Purchasing my music is one way you can help—and enjoy some enigmatic tunes in the process!

Happy Friday!

—TPP

Memorable Monday: Happy Labor Day [2025]!; New Releases!

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Pick up my newest releases, Electrock III: Euroclydon and Säx, for 50% with promo code storm (promo code is good for any release and works through 1 October 2025).

Another glorious Labor Day has dawned here in the United States.  I hate the Communists, but God Bless those red diaper babies for getting us a random day off in September.

This Labor Day is particularly auspicious:  I’m releasing two albums today, Electrock III: Euroclydon and Säx.  I was hoping to release a third, Ringtone Circus, but my distributor, CD Baby, took issue with the use of the word “Ringtone” in the title.  Apparently, that set off some kind of filter against what they call “pre-cut ringtones,” which they do not and will not distribute.

I pointed out that I was using the name euphemistically, and that the pieces are not ringtones, but, alas, I had to change the title of the album and its related track.  So now I’ll be releasing the album as Triple Deluxe on Monday, 15 September 2025.

I’m also working on Spooky Season IV, which still has a long way to go before it’s ready for distribution and release.  It will likely be my last full-length release for the year, with Leftovers V landing the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Otherwise, I’m not sure what today has in store for yours portly.  I do know that the first couple of weeks of school have already kicked my butt (but they’ve been awesome), so I’m hoping to catch up on some rest today.  Dr. Fiancée has to work, sadly, but such is residency.

With that, here is 2 September 2024’s “Memorable Monday: Happy Labor Day [2024]!“:

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