The Unspeakable Milo Biner

Description

Produced, arranged, performed by multi-instrumentalist Willie Aron – known for his work with Thee Holy Brothers (featuring Marvin Etzioni of Lone Justice), The Third Mind, Victoria Williams, Syd Straw, Mushroom, Dream Syndicate

Recorded with bassist/guitarist Victor Krummenacher of Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom, and The Third Mind - plus drummer Kevin Jarvis (Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, Iggy Pop, Donovan, Harry Dean Stanton, Steve Wynn)

Recording engineer Jeff Peters has worked with The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Timothy B. Schmidt, Brian Setzer, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks

For fans of John Prine, Loudon Wainwright, Willis Alan Ramsey.

If you live a life around music, you hear a lot of stories. Some are about success and some are cautionary tales. Most are hype and flat-out lies, but then there's Milo Binder's story…

A song-obsessed kid falls under the spell of his era's great singer-songwriters and he lives and breathes songwriting for his entire youth. He eventually writes his own bag of memorable songs and makes a name for himself in post-punk Los Angeles.

His reputation spreads quickly, garnering him press in the form of pictures and column inches in local and national publications; inclusion on a few high-profile compilation albums; and eventually a critically-admired 1991 self-titled debut album. The album was released on the San Francisco-based Alias Records, with guest performances by Garth Hudson (The Band), Victoria Williams,
and "Sneaky Pete" Kleinow (The Flying Burrito Brothers). The album's acclaim led to profiles on NPR, college and folk radio airplay, a national tour, and appearances with the likes of The Indigo Girls, Cowboy Junkies, Donovan, Sarah McLachlan, Dave Alvin, Tom Russell, Peter Case, Michelle Shocked, and even The Butthole Surfers and Soundgarden. Then inexplicably… Milo Binder (given name Todd Lawrence) disappeared for 33 years.

Well…perhaps 'disappeared' is the wrong word. He was still physically visible the entire time but he stopped releasing music and only sporadically played live. What he WAS doing was living his life. Some of his retreat from performing was unintentional. You see, in short order while recording his never-released second album: his label dropped him (singer-songwriters went immediately out of vogue when Nirvana arrived like a tsunami on the music industry); his manager and best-friend John Schillaci was killed in a car crash; and then, Milo's own first child was born with profound, life-altering disabilities. In Milo's thinking, success in the world of Indie-music just was not his priority any longer.

That brings us to today, and The Unspeakable Milo Binder the album that stands before you now. Why the return? "I just woke up one day and realized that nothing was stopping me anymore." Traumas had healed, his family was secure, and suddenly, songs started coming to him again. So, he played a few for his old friend Willie Aron (The Balancing Act, Thee Holy Brothers), and
sessions commenced at the Portland studio of Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom, The Third Mind).

While this was happening, as luck would have it, Heyday Again (a reboot of Alias's then San Francisco crosstown rival Heyday Records) was itself also in the process of re-emerging. So, it seemed like a perfect match for both label and artist to do so together.

One of the features of a double reboot such as this, is that everyone involved is older and wiser and a bit more philosophical about their efforts. Nobody involved in this record cares much about the "industry" part of "the music industry" to the extent that any industry at all still exists. Moreover, everyone here is clear that being an 'auteur singer-songwriter' in 2024 is akin to being a maker of elaborate ships-in-a-bottle. But Milo Binder is still song-obsessed. He has made a new ship-in-a-bottle, and it is a good one. It was made with love and care for whomever appreciates such things.