MILES BENJAMIN ANTHONY ROBINSON
Summer of Fear

Release Date: October 20, 2009

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson's story from a couple summers ago, its pages turned in no particular order: Bitterness. Regret. Betrayal. Bouts of self-loathing. Burning buildings and falling bodies. Breakups and new beginnings. Numerology. And endless nights at the same Brooklyn barólots of last calls that drop you in the arms of another, in the death grip of decisions that are wrong in retrospect yet oh-so-right... right?

Summer of Fear is the culmination of years spent in eight-track studios, cypher-fueled jam sessions, and dicey club dates that often ended in fist fights and broken glass. Not to mention a revolving door of collaborators that helped Robinson work out the kinks in his skewed pop hooks and melancholic melodies, including the Grizzly Bear members (drummer Christopher Bear, multi-instrumentalist/producer Chris Taylor) who worked on Robinson's self-titled solo disc several winters agoóthe winter before the fear set in.

As acclaimed as Robinson's debut was when it finally received a proper pressing in 2008, theÝeffort was meant to be a glorified demo. Summer of Fear is what happened six months later, as life alternated between darkness and light, and spare bedroom songs blossomed into speaker-popping arrangements of sweeping strings, honking horns, and chords that cut so deeply they're bound to leave a mark. TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone - a close friend since the pair met en route to a Grizzly Bear show in 2005 - helped bottle Robinson's bruised hymns last winter, ramping up the tension in such standout tracks as "Death by Dust," "Summer of Fear pt. 2," "The Sound," and the 11-and-a-half haunting minutes of "More Than a Mess".