Willis Earl Beal‘s name and music have been making rounds through the blogosphere lately, and los grillos has to thank the fantastic folks at Aquarium Drunkard for turning us on to him. Like the outsider artists to which he gets compared–Daniel Johnston and Jandek, due as much to his backstory (see this Pitchfork feature) as to his adventurous, ramshackle musical spirit–Beal is a true original whose music deserves the hype it’s receiving. The first song I heard, “Monotony,” is simple, soulful, timeless and just plain great, and I’m psyched to hear a full album.

Beal has an lp, Acousmatic Sorcery, set for release on April 3 via XL imprint Hot Charity. Check it out here and here.

Listen to “Monotony” courtesy of Aquarium Drunkard here.

And here’s a cool video for the song “Evening’s Kiss” (which recalls, in some ways, early Elliott Smith more than anything I’ve heard in a long while)…