A Little Blake Goes a Long Way

Just posted this "sweeping generalization" of Cleveland's Exit Stencil Records. It had one glaring omission. What's going on with Blake Miller? He was excluded because he's from Columbus, right down the street. But the label did send me a stopgap split 7" with Julie Sokolow, anticipating the October release of Blake's sophomore album, Burn Tape.

"Tomorrow Sorrow," is apparently also the first song on the album, a soft, purple folk prayer, proving he's found a comfortable seat between the beards (Sam Beeeeam) and the bearded (Devendra), all the while spanning-off, eerily getting witty with reverb, bells, and tape loops. Go on, it gets stranger.
The second track, "Chilly April" almost naively attempts to become his one man lisa frank animal jug band, but saves it with the mist of a skeletal pop dirge in its center.

After listening to some David Thomas Brougton on recommendation, I'm thinking Blake Miller is destined to be his haunting American counterpart. Both singers are homely familiar, but still sound like they're singing, and creating, from some distant, mystic, crawlspace. Apologies to Ms. Sokolow for not flipping sides yet. I'm simply over-anticipating what's sure to be an interesting full-length (his new site features the first four songs). The real dark-horse.