Bounte – Two is now available on Amazon and iTunes. It’s still cheapest on Bandcamp (and artist direct), but as I refine the  Zen Dozer label, I’m adding these more “traditional” outlets.

“…as long as you believe in what you do, you need to keep at it whether we ‘get it’ or not.”
— astralwerks demo submission page

It’s been a while since I’ve seen that kind of encouragement. Even though that was probably written in 1998, it was nice to read. Lately it seems like I’ve gotten a lot of “if you haven’t reached milestone ‘X’ you might as well quit” type of advice. Frustrating, yes.

Frustrated? Yes. I admit that I overflow with negativity at times. I don’t do the art I do because I’m hunky-dory with the world. I also don’t do the art I do because I like or am any good at self-promotion (quite the opposite). But while art is about self-expression, success is about self-promotion. Frustration for me arises when the promotion bogs down the expression and suddenly there’s no expression left to promote.

I know musicians in bands here and around the country, and I’m very proud of them and the music they make. I thought I’d take a moment to list and promote some bands, past and present, with folk I personally know. These artists should, and often do, all help each other out whenever they can:

• The Atomica Project
• The Back Chords
• Birds Per Hour
• Blackbody
• Christ Analogue
• City Doves
• Corporate X
• Cylab
• The Dark Clan
• The Dymaxion Quartet
• The Elvi
• Emulsion
• The Fell Follow
• Good Luck and Godspeed
• The Gothsicles
• Greenlight
• The Innocent Bystanders
• Iris
• i:scintilla
• Jersey Mike
• Kid A
• Liz Revision
• Micronaut
• Moritat
• Mucca Pazza
• Number Nine
• Alexander Omega
• P155
• Quantazelle
• RE:inforced
• Royb0t
• Sensuous Enemy
• Short to Ground
• Sideproject
• Sister Machine Gun
• Silver Atlas
• The Slingerland Ride
• SMP
• Stromkern
• Terminal Bliss
• THAC0
• Thrill Kill Kult
• TMM
• Vibrance

If you’re thinking “Hey, he forgot my band!”, shoot me a note. It’s hard to remember all of the bands all of the time, but I’d like to. Like I said, synergy.

I’ve released Two as a digital download on Bandcamp. Stream it for free, and I’ve set up a name-your-price deal for downloads (with a mininum price of $2 for the album, $.40 per song, so I can at least cover the cost of transactions). It’s artist direct.

I’ll have more comments the album later, but I wanted to get it out there for you. Enjoy!

Thingawowzer.

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Bounte: Two will be a slow album release. The tracks are out for mastering right now. Once mastered, I’ll finalize the artwork and officially release the digital album on Bandcamp. We’ve all waited long enough for the music, and I see no need to wait on any record labels for it. At that point, the product is all yours! Then starts the next phases of release, with hopes of wider distribution and promotion.

I’ll send the tracks to all the licensing outlets I know, and continue to talk to record labels to see if there is any interest from them. And I’ll be writing to anyone I know to check out the music. Alan has also convinced me to work on videos for the tracks, so hopefully I can get some youtube buzz going.