November 2023 Bandcamp Friday

Here we are again—another Bandcamp Friday.  There’s never been a better time to buy my music.

I have a new release coming out on Black Friday (24 October 2023), Leftovers.  It’s a short EP of four tracks leftover from my recent composing projects, as well as an epic-length, eight-minute-plus track from the never-completed Electrock III called “Futura (Magnum Opus III).”  Here’s the album cover to tide you over:

Leftovers

Delicious!  Mark your calendars now!

Last Bandcamp Friday I had a brand new release:  Spooky Season II: Rise of the Cryptids!  It’s ten tracks and nearly fifteen minutes of music, so it’s 3.5 times longer than Spooky Season.

Like Spooky SeasonSpooky Season II: Rise of the Cryptids features full scores for every part, as well as around 130 MBs of bonus content—videos, pictures, and even some live performance footage.  It’s my most feature-packed release ever, and it’s only $5!

Also, look at this sweet album cover:

Bigfoot - Album Cover

It’s the finest quality MS Paint can provide!

Speaking of my last release, Spooky Season, a collection of seven new compositions with a spooky, autumnal vibe, hit streaming platforms on Sunday, 1 October, but is also available for purchase via Bandcamp!

Spooky Season is just $5, and includes full scores and individual parts for every track—a $28 value!—plus a bonus track.  It’s also crammed with videos, handwritten manuscripts, and other goodies.

The first Friday of a bunch of months in 2023—February, March, April, May, August, September, October, November, and December—will feature this pro-indie music observance, a day on which Bandcamp waives its usual 15% commission on sales.

In other words, when you buy my music, almost 100% of it goes to me, instead of almost 85%.

Currently, my entire discography of eleven releases is $20.89a savings of 50%, which is not bad for eleven releases.  That’s $1.74 per release—not too shabby!  To purchase the full discography, click on any release, and you’ll see the option to purchase all of them.

You can also listen to a ton of my tunes on YouTube (and it’s free to subscribe!).

I’m also selling all of my paintings for $10, with free shipping in the United States, regardless of how many you purchase.  They’re one of kind, so once a painting is purchased, it’s gone.

Then there’s Society6, a website that lets artists upload their designs, which can they be printed onto all manner of products (like this throw pillow, or this duvet cover).  Why not get a bookbag with a mouthy droid on it?

I only get 10% of the sales made there, but some of the stuff looks really good—I really want these notebooks with my “Desert View” painting on it (now SOLD!).  Some of them are straight-up goofy, like this church doodle I made celebrating the presidential pardon of Roger Stone (the description for the piece is “Anger your friends with this doodle commemorating the presidential pardon of America’s most dapper political operative“).

I have a few new paintings in the works, and hope to be attending the South Carolina Bigfoot Festival to try to hawk some of my works.  We’ll see how that goes!

My first book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot, is $10 in paperback, and just $5 on Kindle.

My second and newest book, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures, is $20 in paperback and $10 on Kindle.

Finally, after I finish Offensive Poems: With Pictures, my planned third book, I’ll be uploading those doodles to Society6 as well.  I have high hopes (perhaps naïvely) for this book, but we shall see.  The doodles are some of my best work—and in glorious color—and without notebook paper lines!

Thanks again for your support!

Happy Friday!

—TPP

Open Mic Adventures LII: “Minuet for a New Moon”

Now that school is back in session, yours portly isn’t making it out to open mic night much, so I’m doing what I do best:  mining the rich veins of my old, neglected works.

This week I’d like to share “Minuet for a New Moon,” which I composed on 9 February 2022 as part of Péch​é​s d​’​â​ge moyen, the highly unpopular collection of lo-fi solo piano pieces I released largely as part of an inside Internet joke.

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Lazy Sunday CXXIV: Two Cryptid Tunes

My latest album, Spooky Season II: Rise of the Cryptids has now hit all streaming services.  That includes the following:

…and many more.  That being the case, I thought I’d look back at two recent Open Mic Adventures posts:

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Sleep!

Ever since I was a small child, I get very grumpy when I am sleep-deprived.  My brothers would tease me about how angry I would get after about 8 PM, which usually just made me angrier.

As an adult, sleep deprivation tends to make me grumpy and nihilistic.  It’s not a good combination, and I struggle at times with despair (a terrible sin, because it fundamentally fails to place faith in God and His Provision) as it is.  Combine extreme exhaustion with a bad, or even just particularly stressful, day, and I can be downright insufferable.

Such was the case last Friday, 6 October 2023.  It was perfect storm of a day:  I released a new album to Bandcamp, which saw me awake at 3 AM to publish for Bandcamp Friday; I had to build out an entire pep band setup for a school pep rally in about forty-five minutes; and I had myriad Homecoming day responsibilities, including sound checking the choir (they sang the National Anthem Friday evening) and calling the game.  It all meant a long, exhausting day, one that left me drained mentally, physically, and spiritually.

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Open Mic Adventures LI: “Bigfoot Boogie”

I released Spooky Season II: Rise of the Cryptids last Friday, 6 October 2023.  Sales were… disappointing, but actually exceeded my normal sales, so I suppose I am happy about that.

Regardless, I am proud of the album.  Most composers are not appreciated in their times, and my instrumental music is definitely “niche.”  I enjoy the process of composing, editing, and publishing music, so that’s something.

But I digress.  This week, I thought I’d feature the opening track from the album, “Bigfoot Boogie.”

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October 2023 Bandcamp Friday: Spooky Season II Out TODAY!

Special Note:  I will be donating 10% of all gross sales for TODAY, Friday, 6 October 2023 from my Bandcamp page to the Music program at my little private school.  That includes my new album, Spooky Season II: Rise of the Cryptids, which released today.  It also includes purchases of my full discography (just $20.89) and merchandise.  If I make 50 sales of any kind today, I’ll double the donation.  If I make 100 sales, I’ll triple the donation.

To celebrate another Bandcamp Friday, I have a brand new release:  Spooky Season II: Rise of the Cryptids!  It’s ten tracks and nearly fifteen minutes of music, so it’s 3.5 times longer than Spooky Season.

Like Spooky Season, Spooky Season II: Rise of the Cryptids features full scores for every part, as well as around 130 MBs of bonus content—videos, pictures, and even some live performance footage.  It’s my most feature-packed release ever, and it’s only $5!

Also, look at this sweet album cover:

Bigfoot - Album Cover

It’s the finest quality MS Paint can provide!

Speaking of my last release, Spooky Season, a collection of seven new compositions with a spooky, autumnal vibe, hit streaming platforms on Sunday, 1 October, but is also available for purchase via Bandcamp!

Spooky Season is just $5, and includes full scores and individual parts for every track—a $28 value!—plus a bonus track.  It’s also crammed with videos, handwritten manuscripts, and other goodies.

The first Friday of a bunch of months in 2023—February, March, April, May, August, September, October, November, and December—will feature this pro-indie music observance, a day on which Bandcamp waives its usual 15% commission on sales.

In other words, when you buy my music, almost 100% of it goes to me, instead of almost 85%.

Currently, my entire discography of eleven releases is $20.89a savings of 50%, which is not bad for eleven releases.  That’s $1.74 per release—not too shabby!  To purchase the full discography, click on any release, and you’ll see the option to purchase all of them.

You can also listen to a ton of my tunes on YouTube (and it’s free to subscribe!).

I’m also selling all of my paintings for $10, with free shipping in the United States, regardless of how many you purchase.  They’re one of kind, so once a painting is purchased, it’s gone.

I’ve also joined Society6, a website that lets artists upload their designs, which can they be printed onto all manner of products (like this throw pillow, or this duvet cover).  Why not get a bookbag with a mouthy droid on it?

I only get 10% of the sales made there, but some of the stuff looks really good—I really want these notebooks with my “Desert View” painting on it (now SOLD!).  Some of them are straight-up goofy, like this church doodle I made celebrating the presidential pardon of Roger Stone (the description for the piece is “Anger your friends with this doodle commemorating the presidential pardon of America’s most dapper political operative“).

I have a few new paintings in the works, and hope to be attending the South Carolina Bigfoot Festival to try to hawk some of my works.  We’ll see how that goes!

My first book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot, is $10 in paperback, and just $5 on Kindle.

My second and newest book, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures, is $20 in paperback and $10 on Kindle.

Finally, after I finish Offensive Poems: With Pictures, my planned third book, I’ll be uploading those doodles to Society6 as well.  I have high hopes (perhaps naïvely) for this book, but we shall see.  The doodles are some of my best work—and in glorious color—and without notebook paper lines!

Thanks again for your support!

Happy Friday!

—TPP

Open Mic Adventures L: “Lament of the Lizardman”

The Roman numeral “L” means “fifty,” which means I’ve been writing these Open Mic Adventures posts for nearly a year now.  It also means I couldn’t pass up the alliterative opportunity to have the Lth edition feature “Lament of the Lizardman,” which will appear on my next album, Spooky Season II: Rise of the Cryptids, due out on Bandcamp this Friday, 6 October 2023, and on all streaming services one week later, Friday the 13th (mwahahahaha!).

For those that don’t know, the Lizardman of Lee County is a local cryptid here in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.  He is most strongly associated with Bishopville, South Carolina, which is a mere twenty-minute drive from my place.

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Live Music Public Service Announcement: Don’t Ask for a Recording

Yesterday I shared video of a live performance of my song “Hipster Girl Next Door” with an extended, absurd, frequently sloppy medley of songs tossed on at the end(s).  It was great fun, even though I mixed up the lyrics to my own song!

Before the gig, regular reader and contributor Ponty asked if I’d be recording the performance.  Ponty lives in Merry Olde England, so obviously could not make it to the performance here in these United States.  I was happy to oblige my Anglo-Saxon friend, but I must explain a somewhat unfortunate, visceral reaction I had initially upon reading the request (disclaimer:  Ponty, I am not upset at you.  —TPP).

hate it when people ask me “will the performance be recorded?” (with the exception of Ponty, who, again, lives in England, or Audre, neither of whom I would ever expect to travel to hear me play sloppy cover songs in a coffee shop).  I imagine if you ask most small-time indie musicians, they’ll confess to the same sentiment.  For me, it boils down to two things:

1.) You’re clearly indicating that you have no intention of even attempting to make it out to hear me play live.

2.) You’re asking me to perform extra work to record a video of a performance you have no interest in attending, and you’re probably not going to watch the video anyway.

Again, there are exceptions:  people who live abroad/far away (Ponty, Audre, readers of this blog more than thirty minutes away), parents of school children for school performances (parents want recordings for grandparents and family members who live far away, or because work won’t allow them to attend a performance), and the like.

But it kills me when locals ask for a recording.

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