Laurence Bond Miller

L. B. M.
LAURENCE  BOND  MILLER
Unplugged Solo to Multi-Track Full Band Simulation


"...veteran local post punk singer song-writer who writes angular, sometimes bitingly beautiful introspective songs that have been described as Robyn Hitchcock meets Sylvia Plath..."
ANN ARBOR OBSERVER 1996

L.B.M. is his own bad self going out alone, typically playing solo on acoustic guitar and singing primarily his own songs.  Writing and recording original material began during his teen years,
then inspired greatly by the late Syd Barrett and Marc Bolan (before Bolan went metal).
Laurence has dabbled in the unplugged arena off and on throughout his scattered career.
Far more interesting than his "live" performances are Miller's solo recordings over
the decades.  These are packed with painstaking multitrack recordings,
acting as a full band with many of the songs he's performed.

Contact: Laurence Miller 

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"... a violet by any other name ..."
c) 2009 FarFetched Records
$12.00
Multitrack Solo Recordings
(USA orders include postage & handling)

FRONT COVER

                

                        WE WEAVE
                        WATERFALL OF STARS
                        IN FEMININE
                        OK
                        SO LONG
                        BULL'S EYE
                        DREAM GIRL
                        BLUE SKY
                        GOOD EVENING TO YOU
                        BURNING SUN OF CONTRADICTION
                        THERE'S A POEM IN MY HEAD
                        I CAN SEE INSIDE YOU
                        GILLIGAN'S RERUN
                        FRIDAY'S MUSEUM

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In 2003 Miller decided to play out solo again, shortly thereafter teaming up with Katsumi Nagae
as MILLER & KATSUMI. Though still playing a vast majority of oldies, he did begin
to write again.  By 2006 Miller had a full Cd's worth of new material as
well as new versions of older numbers.

  
HAPPY THOSE IN VALENTINE
(c) 2006 FarFetched Records
$12.00
Multitrack Solo Recordings

FRONT                                                                      BACK

                 PHOTOGRAPHS YOU NEVER SEE
               NATURAL CAUSES
               VALENTINE SONG
               HE'S THE WILD UTILITARIAN
               STILL IT MIGHT BE WHY...
               BLUE ICE
               PROFILES IN CAMEO
               AS THE WORLD CRUMBLES
               HOW CAN IT BE THAT EASY?
               ONE HOPELESS ROMANTIC
               SEA ANEMONE
               MUM'S THE WORD (SO READ MY LIPS)
               TURNING TO TURN, AGAIN
               Bonus Cut: Phone Interview w/Sean @ WMUC 88.1 Washington D.C.

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Two years prior to releasing HAPPY THOSE IN VALENTINE, Miller recorded "live" unplugged.

LBM "Live" @ DREAMLAND THEATRE
(c) 2004 FarFetched Records
Unplugged / acoustic guitar and voice
OUT OF STOCK

FRONT                                                                      BACK

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One year before this "live" release Laurence released a CD compilation of the best material found on his well over looked, self-produced cassette tapes of the 80s. Some of these
songs were performed and recorded with his New Wave Pop band of that day,
THE EMPTY SET, both occurring simultaneously.

DEMONSTRATION
Demo Tapes from Yesteryear
(c) 2003 FarFetched Records
LowFi 4-track recordings
PRESENTLY OUT OF STOCK

 FRONT                                                               BACK

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In 2002 Laurence took the time to sift thru a ton of old reel to reel tapes from his youth,
putting together a Cd entitled "TURN A LEFT AND DOWN THE HALL".  This is an odd
collection of truly bizarre material.  Influences wane between Captain Beefheart and early Eno.

LINEAR NOTES:
"These compositions were written and recorded between September 1974 and May 1976.  Though primarily instrumental pieces, many had lyrics and many used the bass clarinet as
my predominant insturment of choice.  Most songs were recorded at my folk's house in Ann Arbor, while the rest were put together in my apartment in college. Recording gear was low tech, consisting of one microphone and a tape recorder with the Sound-On-Sound feature.
This SOS feature allowed one to "bounce" a previously recorded track from channel A
over to channel B, while then recording a new track over that, simultaneously.
This process could be repeated back and forth several times, before losing
too much audio fidelity. To be perfectly honest though, some of the songs
in this collection were built on nothing less then pure, raw inspiration,
thus not always fully realized."  NOTE:  Much of the original
artwork found on my ART PAGE was rendered
during this particular time.


NOTE: In 2006 Miller created a short playful existential film by the same name, TURN A LEFT
AND DOWN THE HALL, using the title track as the theme song to which the film was based on.

TURN A LEFT, AND DOWN THE HALL
(c) 2002 FarFetched Records
$20.00
Multitrack Solo Recordings from Pluto

FRONT                                                                      BACK

 
INSIDE PHOTO

Striking a pose with his axe of that time, the Bb clarinet, in the woods, on a beautiful fall day.

Photo by Ben Miller

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Backing up into the last century now, there was a point in the mid 90's where Laurence took a short lived hiatus from his right-brain-child (LARYNX ZILLION'S NOVELTY SHOP) and formed
the rock band GORDON GIGANTIC.  During this phase between 1995 and 1996 he had his 4th
adolescence.  Laurence wrote and recorded a whole lot of solo rock stuff with the intention to release 2 Cd's. PLAGUE OF LOVE (love, lust, and lunacy) and LOVE SICK TO DEATH.  However, Plague of Love was sadly the only one to see the light of day, released in 1997 on cassette, and now long since out of print. Below you'll find samples from that vast collection.

PLAGUE OF LOVE (Love, Lust, and Lunacy)|
(c) 1997 FarFetched Records
NOT IN PRINT
Multitrack R&R Solo Recordings

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Oddly enough, it was at this exact time that Laurence began playing out "unplugged" again.
Go figure. Having not played solo since the 80's, he ended up playing a lot of his older material.  Below is his one & only recording of that mid-90's period, then printed on cassette, called
LAURENCE w/a "U" (since re-released here on CD format w/bonus cut).

NOTE:  Laurence was going in several directions by this time;  Booking various performance acts at
the Gypsy Cafe in Ann Arbor, writing poetry again, closing up shop on Larynx Zillion's Novelties,
dabbling in comic lounge, scripting film ideas, and singing in a big band ~ to name but a few.

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Long before Laurence Miller's musical career ever began -- as a young teen still living
at home attending high school -- Larry Miller was writing weird short little songs
lasting no more than a minute.  He hated repitition.

Check out these two samples from that time.
( NOTE: These are not for public release ~ simply uploaded to satisfy your curiousity )

THE EMBLEM MAN (c) 1969
Written in 1969 and recorded 1970 -- His twin brother Ben was backing him up here on guitar and voice.  As in many
of the songs Laurence wrote back in his early teens, this song had a drawing which the song was inspired from.  This will be posted shortly.  As stated, repetition and development was not his interest, hence like all songs written then, this one is about one minute long.

THE ORMS OF YALE (c) 1970
Written and recorded 1970 -- Back then Larry liked to make up words with unique meaning. Orms for instance
meant "oysters".  Who wants to do the math?