ABOUT BELLS OF..

BELLS OF.. grew out of the Washington DC punk scene of the 1980's, and arguably Lawrence's style has evolved as a reaction to percieved limitations of this scene as a relevant long-term musical medium. Into the 1990's and beyond, BELLS OF.. continued to transcend boundaries and basically became Lawrence: an original approach to guitar playing, song writing and recording that has few parallels.

Musicians performing at the first live BELLS OF.. show included Lawrence from Capital Punishment and Alec from Untouchables, Faith, etc. This was Lawrence's music, however, and as he changed, so did the line up, styles and musicianship of recorded and performed work. An early change was that Lawrence became the exclusive vocalist. For several years in the late 1980's, the band expanded to 4 members, with two guitars, bass, and drums; through most of its various incarnations, however, the band has been a two- or three-piece for live performance and recordings: Guitar-bass-drums; occasionally guitar-drums or just guitar.

The most stable (or at least longest lasting and most frequently performing) line-ups were as follows: Lawrence (Guitar and Vocals), Andy Cone (Bass) and Bidge (Drums) [circa 1988-1990], Lawrence (Guitar and Vocals), Ian Bass (Bass), Fernando Carr (Drums) [circa 1991-1994]. These two line-ups could not be much more different in terms of style, musical approach or finished product. Unfortunately, much, if not all of the work recorded by the former line-up has been lost. The recordings of the latter line-up form the bulk of the recorded material currently available for the band. Lawrence has continued playing and recording solo with a variety of musicians; in recent years he has continued to play and collaborate with Tom A (one of the original drummers from the mid 1980's), among others.

Musicians performing and/or recording with BELLS OF.. have included Lawrence McDonald, Peter Wilbourne, Blue, Alec MacKaye, Mark McDonald, John Garrish, Tom Allnutt, Jason Ferrell, Ethan Brown, Andy Cone, Bidge, Fernando Carr, Ian Bass, Eugene Bogan, Jason Mezg, Geoff Turner, Mike Fellows, John Aires, Sam Jannada and many others.

BELLS OF.. DISCOGRAPHY

1992
11:11
CD: teenbeat 93 (OUT OF PRINT)

1994
Two Dos Or not 2?
CD: teenbeat 143

1995
Four Your Listening Pleasure
CD: Miguel 3 (OUT OF PRINT)

2000
3's Company?
CD: teenbeat 283

2010
Young McDonald and the Five Season Farmers
CD (available late April 2010): teenbeat 493