FIRST NEW ALBUM IN 33 YEARS FROM MILO BINDER, THE UNSPEAKABLE MILO BINDER SET FOR RELEASE ON AUGUST 9 VIA HEYDAY AGAIN / REAL GONE MUSIC

For Fans of John Prine, Loudon Wainwright, Willis Alan Ramsey West Coast Tour Dates Confirmed for Summer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOS ANGELES, CA (TUESDAY JUNE 18, 2024) – Milo Binder, the enigmatic & “lost” Los Angeles troubadour is set to release his sophomore album The Unspeakable Milo Binder on August 9 on Heyday Again via Real Gone Records, 33 years after his debut album.

Produced, arranged, performed by multi-instrumentalist Willie Aron (Thee Holy Brothers (featuring Marvin Etzioni of Lone Justice), Balancing Act), the new album includes bassist/guitarist Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom, The Third Mind) plus drummer Kevin Jarvis (Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, Iggy Pop, Donovan, Harry Dean Stanton, Steve Wynn). 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,” said Milo Binder. “Traumas had healed, my family was secure, and suddenly, songs started coming to me again.”

What’s more, there are confirmed West Coast tour dates including:

7/5/24 @ McCabes Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, Ca

7/9/24 @ Molly Malone’s, Los Angeles, Ca (Nilsson Tribute Show)

7/13/24 @ C&P Coffee Company, Seattle, Wa

7/21/24 @ House Concert, Portland, OR (w/ Victor Krummenacher)

8/25/24 @ Wild Honey Backyard, Los Angeles, CA (w/ Steve Wynn)

Milo’s musical journey begins as a song-obsessed kid who 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.

Cut to 33 years later and 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.

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For More Information, Please Contact Joshua Mills at It’s Alive! Media
323-464-6314, josh@itsalivemedia.com, www.itsalivemedia.com