The likelihood is that DM Stith will achieve a substantial cult following and will be respected among his peers, without really penetrating the thick layers that lie between artists like this and mass appeal.

Much, you could say, like label-mate on Asthmatic Kitty and friend My Brightest Diamond. Buffalo-born, Bloomington-based Stith has just released his first EP in Curtain Speech, a curious affair that despite the presence of five tracks, is really all about the song ‘Just Once’, a seven-minute beast that goes from sparse morose alt-folk to fierce string-laden abandon leaving the listener with a feeling of weird post-coitus.

Stith is a songwriter of both the weird-folk kind Asthmatic Kitty go for and the sort who deal with in the pain of the everyday, such as Elliott Smith. The other songs are lovely too, without hitting the same heights and promise much for his album that should be forthcoming in 2009, entitled Heavy Ghost. He used to be a graphic designer, you know.