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Laurence Bond "Larry" Miller is an American rock and Avant-garde musician based in Michigan, United States. Miller is a former member of The 4th World Quartet, Empool, Destroy All Monsters, Sproton Layer, M3, Nonfiction, The Empty Set, Larynx Zillion's Novelty Shop, The Mister Laurence Experience, and Tinn Parrow and his Clapfold Platune.
Laurence grew up in Ann Arbor, MI attended public school, and graduated from Pioneer High School. He went to college at the Boston School of Contemporary Music, finishing up at Thomas Jefferson State College before retiring completely from the academic scene. [1]
Destroy All Monsters, a band Miller was in, was a notable part of the proto-punk, punk, and post-punk Detroit rock scene, featuring such bands as the MC5, the Stooges, and Up. In the late 1980s, he enjoyed renewed commercial success with his single Southpaws Unite!, a John Philip Sousa march crossed with an Avant-garde punk sensibility via the latest Techno Pop technology of the day. [2]
Miller plays guitar left-handed, or “upside down,” in a style popularized by Jimi Hendrix. [2]
Miller began his career as a professional musician at the age of 16 and has made numerous recordings in which all instruments are played by himself, including woodwinds, keyboards, and various stringed instruments. [2]
Laurence has collaborated with his brother Roger Miller from time to time, particularly on the M3 project, named for the three Miller brothers, but he has collaborated with his twin Ben most consistently over the years, particularly through the 1980s and early 1990s. Since Ben is right-handed and Laurence is left-handed, they collaborated mostly as a power trio with a drummer. When Nonfiction ended, Laurence formed The Empty Set, and then later in the 1990s creating Larynx Zillion's Novelty Shop. [2]
In 1999, Laurence reinvented himself as a children's entertainer performing to original canned tracks as his 'play money band'. He released multiple CD collections from 1999 through 2012, later collaborating with Melinda Ingalls (keyboards/vocals) and her animatronic creation "Oso the Drumming Bear". [1]
Currently, he is focused on a new ensemble Tinn Parrow and his Clapfold Platune. Whole-tonal Spazz-Jazz Dada-Rock compositions (some written decades ago) with pockets of free-form improvisation. Cuneiform Records released a recent recording of these with twin brother Ben Miller in July 2023.
Laurence Miller is the younger brother of Roger Miller, a founding and current member of the Boston-based Mission of Burma, and the twin brother of Benjamin (Ben) Miller, also a former member of Destroy All Monsters. Laurence's father was a professor (curator of fishes) at the University of Michigan and was well known in the field of paleo-ichthyology. His mother was a 'dynamic force' and was a key support in her husband's work. Laurence also has an older brother who is a professor and glaciologist, and a sister (now deceased) who was also a scientist and a professor. [2]
Laurence has three daughters, Tara, Ashia, and Brittany, from his relationship with the late Donna Savakis.
? and the Mysterians are an American garage rock band from Bay City and Saginaw in Michigan, initially active between 1962 and 1969. Much of the band's music consisted of electric organ-driven garage rock and an enigmatic image inspired by the 1957 Japanese science fiction film The Mysterians. In addition, the band's sound was also marked by the raw, resonating lead vocals of "?", making Question Mark and the Mysterians one of the earliest groups whose musical style is described as punk rock. Their music and imagery were highly influential on later bands.
Magazine were a British rock band formed in 1977 in Manchester in England by singer Howard Devoto and guitarist John McGeoch. After leaving the punk group Buzzcocks in early 1977, Devoto decided to create a more progressive and less "traditional" rock band. The original lineup of Magazine was composed of Devoto, McGeoch, Barry Adamson on bass, Bob Dickinson on keyboards and Martin Jackson on drums.
The Legendary Pink Dots are an Anglo-Dutch experimental rock band formed in London in August 1980. In 1984, the band moved to Amsterdam, playing with rotating musicians and having, as core members, singer/songwriter/keyboardist Edward Ka-Spel and keyboardist Phil Knight. In 2022, founding member and synthesist Philip Knight retired from touring, and Randall Frazier joined the band on synths, samples and electronics. While no official announcement has been made, Phil Knight is not included in post-2022 recording liner notes.
Nels Courtney Cline is an American guitarist and composer. He has been a guitarist for the band Wilco since 2004.
Dream City Film Club were an English, North London-based rock band, founded in July 1995.
Niagara, born Lynn Rovner in Detroit, Michigan in 1955, is a painter and musician. She was the lead vocalist of the proto-punk rock bands Destroy All Monsters (DAM) and Dark Carnival. Her painting derives principally from the Lowbrow art movement.
Destroy All Monsters was an influential Detroit rock band existing from 1973 to 1985, with sporadic performances since. Their music touched on elements of punk rock, psychedelic rock, heavy metal and noise rock with a heavy dose of performance art. Their music was described by Lester Bangs as "anti-rock". They earned a measure of notoriety due to members of The Stooges and MC5 joining the band, and Sonic Youth singer/guitarist Thurston Moore compiling a three compact disc set of the group's music in 1994.
Phantom Tollbooth was a post-punk/noise rock band from New York City. They played a style of post punk that included elements from jazz, noise rock, and art rock. This allowed Phantom Tollbooth to make sudden starts, stops, and tempo changes in their music. All of their albums were released in a four-year window between 1984 and 1988 on Homestead Records. In 2003, Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard created new lyrics and melodies for Phantom Tollbooth's 1988 album Power Toy. The resulting work was released as Beard of Lightning.
Roger Clark Miller is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist best known for co-founding Mission of Burma and performing in Alloy Orchestra/The Anvil Orchestra.
Sproton Layer was an American rock and roll group formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the late 1960s. Their music was mostly hard rock with psychedelic touches.
And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders is the second of two albums by Dutch punk band The Ex in collaboration with avant-garde cellist Tom Cora. Cora was acknowledged in the credits of earlier album Joggers and Smoggers but didn't actually appear on an Ex album until a recording session in 1990 which led to Scrabbling at the Lock as well as And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders.
Ben Miller is an American rock and avant garde guitarist born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and now based in the NYC-metro area. He has formerly been a member of such Detroit/Ann Arbor bands as Sproton Layer, Destroy All Monsters, and non-fiction. Destroy All Monsters, in particular, still a cult favorite, was a big part of the proto-punk, punk, and post-punk Detroit rock scene, featuring such bands as the MC5, the Stooges, Sonic's Rendezvous Band, and The Up.
M3 was an American experimental rock group, founded by the brothers Roger Miller, Ben Miller and Larry Miller. Their name is a dual reference to the three M surnames, and also pun on the musical notation for a minor third.
Minimal Man was an American industrial and experimental rock project, formed in 1979 in San Francisco, California by leader Patrick Miller.
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with some of the genre's distinguishing characteristics being improvisational performances, avant-garde influences, odd instrumentation, opaque lyrics, unorthodox structures and rhythms, and an underlying rejection of commercial aspirations.
Ben Wa was an American electronic band from Oakland, California comprising Anthony "House" Chaba and Eric Ware, who had worked together before in bands such as Limbomaniacs, Big Janitor, and MCM & the Monster.
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