Video: Willis Earl Beal "Monotony" + Live Performance At Glasslands

Oddball genius and First Look subject Willis Earl Beal released a video for the song "Monotony" a few days ago right after making his New York debut at Glasslands right up the block from us here in Brooklyn. Our own Dantana was on hand to experience it and recorded quite a bit. Between the two of them you can get a pretty good sense of why people (yes, we are people, too) are so excited about this cat. "Monotony" (above) displays the quiet, go-deep emotional honesty we associate with bedroom-recording artists--often artists who are imprisoned in their bedrooms by extreme introversion. But in his live shows WEB shows the fearless extroversion of high-wire artist; belting out a blues shout, accompanying himself on cymbal and reel-to-reel and even donning a cape ala James Brown or maybe the fantasy super-hero to his bedroom 4-track Clark Kent. Dan summed up the undeniable paradox of WEB's appeal best when he said: "he has magneticism." Watch the series of live clips beginning with "Evening's Kiss" below and continuing after the jump to get a jolt of magneticism in motion--and a taste of what to expect when Beal joins our benevolent afrolord Questlove at BAM's Shuffle Culture Festival on the 20th of this month.