We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

NEXT TO NOTHING

by Laurence Bond Miller

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $12 USD  or more

     

1.
She’s not afraid and she knows why She’s not afraid and she knows why Some idiot fuck did her again but this time ‘round she don’t have to cry These older boys all playing God So afraid of losing what they’ve already got Whether they have whether they have not She’s not afraid ... I look around all I see is men Men, men, men and men I’m so impressed - "We’ve come a long way baby!" She’s not afraid and I know why She’s clearly got his reason why Nature takes it’s winding course - yea Looks like it’s his time to cry She’s not afraid ...
2.
AOK 04:08
Every good man’s looking for his girl To take him far away from all the madness in his world Someone he can hold on tight to - every day and every night through There to tell him every thing is A. O. K. So it is for every woman too To find a man who knows to satisfy her through and through Someone she hold on tight to - every day and every night through There to tell her every thing is A. O. K. Everything's AOK Everyone every day Everywhere every way He & She believes Every good man’s searching all the world To find that special love of all his one & only girl Someone he can hold on tight to - every day and every night through There to tell him every thing is A. O. K. Of course it is for every woman too A man who knows to guard her well protects her whole life through Someone she can come on home to every day and every night through There to tell her every thing is A. O. K. Everything's AOK ...
3.
PARTY 03:06
Everybody’s drunk - conversations all the same Consciousness is closing up, I wish I never came Suzy makes a scene , now she’s crying with her friends Bobby’s acting mean once again Everybody’s drunk - no one’s making heads or tails Putting on a happy face while hiding in their shells Lana acts insane - excuses never end While Rodney blows his brains out once again Oh no one will remember no they won’t recall a thing The time that it may take for them to wake up the next morning Check out Sandy Baker watch her crawl across the floor Everybody’s laughing as they offer her some more And is that Johnny Joe-Joe making everybody laugh Watch him falling over as he pours another glass Oh well no-no one will remember no they won’t recall a thing The time that it may take for them to make up the next morning Everybody’s fucked - the joke has long gone stale Acting like they’re man enough while tucking in their tails Penny hides inside with a double shit eating grin Tommy’s bumped his head bad once again Well now aren’t we in the business? Yea we’ve bought a t-shirt too It’s just there’s no more profit in this so what’s there left to do? No one will remember you know they won’t recall a thing What difference does it make when they awake? What difference does it make when they awake? What difference does it make... when they awake, to make up the next morning?
4.
I’m hopeless - romance is against me I’m sure I meet pretty faces but can’t find the words Slap my face I turn the other cheek I lie alone and cry myself to sleep Well I’m a hopeless romantic yea when will I learn? My heart won’t stop pounding - I’m getting concerned If I come on strong I scare them half to death Play the sensitive we’re friends at best So I go to the doctor and this is what he said You need far more exercise ... in bed If I don’t cut my wrists I’ll cut my throat How can I go on living without hope? It’s hopeless … It’s hopeless … Well I’m a hopeless romantic
5.
I ECHO YOU 03:21
I echo you... (echo, echo, echo...) reverberations Views without face Words without voices in my head I echo you... (echo, echo, echo...) reverberations Acting as though you wanted Fingers tap into static noise I echo you... (echo, echo, echo...) reverberations Surfing for a truth Reverberating through now Bouncing back and fourth inside you I echo you... (echo, echo, echo...) reverberations
6.
ALL EARS 02:40
No one listens like you do 24/7 with a mouth sewn shut They can’t wait but you do Everyone’s life story ‘cause you care that much Bla-bla-bla with a Ha-ha-ha and the jokes on you Your turn now but they’ve had their peace No one listens like you do On & on motor mouths won’t shut No one knows better than you do If it’s their business they won’t stop Bla-bla-bla with a Ha-ha-ha and the jokes on you Your turn now but they’ve had their peace so they're through with you Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Bla-bla ... Ha-ha Whoa!! No one listens like you do 24/7 with a mouth sewn shut They can’t wait but you do Everyone’s life story ‘cause you care that much Bla-bla-bla with a Ha-ha-ha and the jokes on you Your turn now but they’ve had their peace
7.
Feeling sick - Nothing left Wandering aimlessly out in the rain Want’s to 'kick' - Rid all the emptiness Whistling hollow flash through the vein So pass-say - Nothing new So sick of me - So sick of you Won’t give up - Won’t give in Pretty pretty sirens in waiting Fast to sleep - Slow to wake Wondering how it ever got this way Lost to friends - Ain’t friends anyway Years and years wasted wasting away Happy Leap Year - Oh happy day How is it different when it’s always this way? A tip of the hat, a tip of the glass Here’s to the future pray please no more ... Nothing comes up - Nothing stays down Hard pill to swallow here last time around Happy Leap Year - Oh happy day How is it different when it’s always this way? Happy Leap Year - Oh happy day How is it different when it’s always the same? Always the same... Always the same...
8.
TUBE 02:57
Don’t make it up for me - Try cater to my whims You entertain my thoughts As if I’ve nothing else but to bastardize everything I am A lie that feeds it’s face forever vomits blood Every excuse you make just digs a deeper hole For you to act as if you really give a fuck If all the world caves in you’ll brush it off your hands And say you’re sorry once and then you’ll flip it off As you turn your back because you know you can The man I shot and killed Now hangs in every frame And flickers in my 'window well' I’m counting back the days So I turn it off and I wonder why Everybody seems content to live this way So obvious and so satisfied I wanna split my gear I wanna shock them cold I wanna blow their names deadlock ‘em down tight I strip their threads and shove ‘em down their throats So bloody buddy Think I don’t understand? Sell me what you owe as if I Couldn’t think of that on my own without it in my plans The man I shot and killed Now hangs in every frame And flickers in my 'window well' I’m counting back the days
9.
MOAT 03:29
From me to me Leave a message to myself speaking clearly in the phone So safe inside A reminder to myself I spend too much time at home Busy busy busy with myself Feeling so important here hanging from my shelf From me to me There’s a message in my head thirty seconds to the tone I rest my case Watch it spin it’s ugly web as I hurry my way home Busy busy busy with myself Feeling so important here hanging from my shelf Busy busy busy with myself Does it really make a difference if it’s me or someone else? Conversation’s stuck on the inside I can hear the words but my tongues tied And I’m thinking out of turn - small talk never learned inside Busy busy busy with myself Feeling so important here hanging from my shelf Busy busy busy with myself Does it really make a difference if it’s me or someone else? Conversation’s stuck on the inside I can hear the words but my tongues tied And I’m thinking out of turn - small talk never learned inside REPEAT Busy busy busy with myself Feeling so important here hanging from my shelf Busy busy busy with myself Does it really make a difference if it’s me or someone else? REPEAT
10.
Turn softly into stone Turn softly in… I can see memories fading on their own Slipping each from out my hands leaves me to stand alone Turn softly into stone Turn softly in… I can see the future be for me to tag along Blind to all now empty handed stranded on my own Turn softly into stone Turn softly in… I can see you & me dividing down the road You can take the high one there and I’ll drive on down the low Turn softly into stone (REPEAT)
11.
I won’t mention names That’s not my problem That’s their game and I won't play It’s not my job to stop ‘em ‘Cause when there’s nothing left to say Then I got nothing on ‘em I’m not gonna buy my way The time it takes to waste the time it costs to live that way And with no balls of their own Need to stretch the lives of those around To satisfy their own I could raise my voice but I won’t Like to think they’d change but they don’t know I won’t raise my hand Here with questions of my own Don’t need to understand No I won’t lift a finger Why bother for them? When it’s they that stand alone? So take advantage of friends To give your life more meaning At everyone’s expense Lying, deceiving To justify the dead die-rection that you’re heading in Give my regards this ways away Send ‘em on their merry, merry, merry, merry, way REPEAT
12.
NEXT WORLD 03:08
Half way into the next world I might die trying I'm not making it up I feel like dying down I won't hear you talking I won't see you walking around I won't feel, smell or taste the world around me clocking out somehow Senses working at half speed Ready -Get Set-Go (Right!) Half way into the next world Afraid I'm losing hold... REPEAT ALL LYRICS

about

{NOTE: This was officially released 5/1/2020}

This solo project was recorded at home on 8-track analogue tape in 1998, finally mixed, mastered, and released in May 2020. The focus was on hard-edge rock & roll along with plenty of angst to go around. I played all the instruments and sang all the vocal parts myself as well as engineering and mixing.

Special acknowledgement goes to Richard Veselik who prompted me to write and record this full length LP, back in early 1998, for his new record label Tree-Saw Records. Had he not suggested the idea I would have never thought to write these songs, broadly speaking. So yeah, I just took him up on the idea and over a four month period recorded a full album.

I began on the drums first with a click track (and probably scratch guitar and vocal), imagining each song as I played. I then tracked the remaining instruments and vocal parts one at a time to create a full band sound. Admittedly, this collection is not particularly uplifting but it totally rocks.

Nothing (or should I say 'next to nothing') came of this project, sadly. I then reinvented myself, shortly thereafter, as a children’s performer. I continued in that manner with a 15 year run. I produced and released multiple CD’s for kids (ages 2 thru 200) ending with the addition of Princess Melinda and OSO the drumming bear. www.misterlaurence.com

NOTE: I do in fact drop the “F” Bomb on many of these songs for those concerned…

credits

released December 1, 1998

LAURENCE BOND MILLER: drums, bass, electric & acoustic guitars, synthesizer, sampler, lead & harmony vocals, songwriting, engineering, production.

Recorded on analogue 8-track at PlayRooMuzik, Ann Arbor MI
June thru September 1998
Mixed at Midvale Music, Ypsilanti MI
June 2015 thru March 2016 at irregular intervals
Final editing March/April 2020

Note; Bass tracks for 4 & 11 were recorded at Midvale Music in March 2016.

© 1998 ℗ 2020 FarFetched Records & Bond Voyage Music BMI

NOTE: Feel free to contact me for a physical CD hard copy for $15 (price includes P&H anywhere in the USA)


“NEXT TO NOTHING” Album Review by Gunars P Lelis

Sometimes the end is a good place to start. Such was my experience with Laurence Bond Miller’s album “Next To Nothing”. The initial link took me to the last cut on the album: “Next World”. And what a wise decision that was. It could be arguably the most powerful cut on the album – and saving the best for last is a good strategy, when savoring a good album, like a fine dessert after a great meal. It’s the punctuation mark that seals this elegant musical statement. But it’s even greater than that.

“Next World” hooked me in, and at the end of the cut, it left me wanting more. Well, lucky for me, I had a whole album I could listen to, as the auto track selector led me to the first song: “She’s Not Afraid”. In just over a minute and a half, the song accomplishes its mission: It arrives, gets to the point, and is done. You get an honest taste for what the album will be like. You hear vocal harmonies and chord progressions clearly influenced by the likes of “Pretty Things” and early “Floyd”, as well as others from that era.

“AOK” is a natural evolution of that idea. The pulsating driving rhythm of the intro suggests that we might explode into Punk. The “hell under pressure” energy is perfectly contained, however, as this “Ramones” meets “The Nazz” ménage bursts free as needed, without losing its compass (or metronome). This ‘feel-good’ up tempo song of just over 4 minutes is also, surprisingly the longest song on the album (!). It goes by quickly, replete with the ‘circus theme’ interwoven in the lead break. I’d have to say it’s “AOK”.

Without a pause, the happy rock n’ roll rhythm of “Party” takes you away to another story and mood, and it seems to follow in perfect sequence to what you have already heard. The story line of the lyrics describes the scene of the apt title, perfectly. Now, three cuts into the album, you get the feeling like any and all of these songs could have been released as singles.

The evolutionary road continues, as the beat changes into a rhythm that is a musical statement in itself, with syncopation of multiple melody counterpoints. “One Hopeless Romantic” is just what the title would imply: A voice wanting to be heard. Listen to the words.

The 5th song, “I Echo You” seduces you for a moment, into thinking you will now hear the obligatory, slow, acoustic number. Not, so. In the space of less than three and a half minutes, the song propels you through a concise musical journey of many moods and rhythms, with a really cool, heavy guitar solo, bending your mind. (And the phrase “reverberation” is a sly nod to Roky and company.) Sugar cubes, anyone?

“All Ears” shatters any remaining illusions that the 60’s were ‘happy times’. I see this song as the antithesis to “AOK”. Perhaps this realization is what happens when you merely “echo” the “hopeless romantic” and “party”. Too deep? OK, well then, you can “blah-blah-blah and ha-ha-ha your way out of it, I’m sure. Instrumentally, this is one of my favorite solos on the album. It strikes me a little reminiscent of the Yardbirds, “Mr. You’re A Better Man Than I”. I’ve always been fond of F# minor. (Was “Ha Ha Said The Clown” an unconscious inspiration?)

Before we get to linger and mope, contemplating the meaning of the last song, “Happy Leap Year” comes to the rescue. Musically, it’s a deft blend of the Beatles (“And Your Bird Can Sing” – era), and the Flaming Groovies (“Yesterday’s Numbers” vibe), and a very uplifting beat. By the time you realize what the song is saying, i.e. ‘nothing changes on New Year’s Day’, you don’t care – because you’ve been infected by the groove, the anthemic vocals, and the wall-of-sound guitars. As the building layers threaten to erupt into cacophony, what emerges is a well thought out and executed guitar solo, with some fast and fluid licks, that stop on a dime, yielding to the stripped down rhythmic reprise as outro and finish. When you have such good musical accompaniment, the angst doesn’t matter.

We are suddenly thrust into “Tube”. An obnoxiously happy sounding repetitive verse with a heavy chorus. OK, I’m sensing a pattern, here. There’s a reason for this. The happy music provides the sarcastic backdrop for the words, without having to spell it out for the thick. What makes it forgivable, is the really fun modal guitar solo that pops up after 2:00 and finishes the last :57 seconds of the song. Some really tasty major mode licks, without sounding country – a brief dart into Mixolydian territory, with some minor pentatonic for good measure, back to major, utilizing some open string riffing before the fade. Nice. (Yes, I’m a guitar player – can you tell?)

The guitar intro to “Moat” grabbed me immediately, and the rest of the song got even better. An introspective little ditty – is it really – or is it just self-indulgence? What does it really mean to be “busy busy busy with myself”? We won’t speculate any further on that. Again the instrumental break treats us to some really pleasing fluid lead guitar, in a style we have yet to hear on this album. Well done, Laurence.

“Softly Into Stone” is finally the quiet ‘acoustic’ song, if indeed you’ve been yearning for one. (The appropriate contrast to Joe Walsh’s heavy “Turn To Stone” came up for me, as I listened.) This song sets up the remaining two cuts to build to the final climax of the album.

“Pure Assholes” would almost be a pleasant sounding throwaway, except that it is a perfect bridge between “Softly Into Stone” and “Next World”. That’s one of the really impressive things about this album: Each song is unique. No two sound alike. And they are sequentially, all in perfect succession. That’s what made it easy for me to listen to this entire album in one sitting – no skipping or previewing – I can’t remember the last time I did that.

Each guitar solo is also unique – each in its own style. Yet, they all fit into one package and mindset. I can relate.

I would probably say more about the words and overall concept, if I had seen the lyric sheets at the time I listened. When I listen to music, the initial melodies and the chord progressions (not to mention the guitar playing) have to interest me enough to make it through to the lyrics. That’s one thing I thoroughly enjoyed about this album. I loved every song, musically, from the get go.

If you happen to know that drums were once Laurence Miller’s primary instrument, you will gain an appreciation for how well rounded he is as a musician. The attack that Laurence applies to his guitar playing – the emphatic nuances he employs in his leads and rhythms, underscore that fact. His vocals and harmonies are clear and in tune; his bass playing is right in the pocket. He plays every instrument on the album, and does it well.

This climactic marriage of 60’s sensibility songwriting, with a driving edge that’s ages old – sounds fresh and new, whether this album was recorded in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 1998, or last week. In conclusion, “Next To Nothing” is quite the misnomer. It’s really quite something.

GPL – aka – Modewarrior
May 5th, 2020

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Laurence Bond Miller Ypsilanti, Michigan

obsessed eclectic songwriter, multi instrumentalist, producer, band leader, and right brained southpaw. Brother to Roger (Sproton Layer, Mission of Burma, The Alloy Orchestra, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic), Benjamin (Sproton Layer, D.A.M., Nonfiction, Sensorium Saxophone Orchestra, The 11th Hour), having opened for The Ramones, Devo, Replacements, etc... ... more

contact / help

Contact Laurence Bond Miller

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like Laurence Bond Miller, you may also like: