J Roddy Walston and J Roddy Walston & the Business

It all started when Walston sent entered his demo into a competition to play a slot on a national festival, where he beat 350 hopefuls to play the slot. After the festival, in the summer of 2004, the band relocated to Baltimore, and thrived in the Baltimore scene along with their contemporaries. The band released the five song “Fierce Tiger” EP, which included some re recordings of earlier songs from the band’s career. The following year on April 6th 2007, the band released a full-length album called “Hail Mega Boys” and recorded in a house that band member Billy Gordon was staying that they called “The Pirate Ship”. The song “Rock n’ Roll II” got selected for use in an episode of Beverly Hills 90210, entitled “Rush House”, and then the song “ Sally Bangs” was used on an MTV reality show called Caged. The song “Tell You What” made it to an episode of Glenn Martin D.D.S.

The band signed to Vagrant Records in November 2009, and entered Sound City studios to record their debut released on the label. Prior to the release of the album, the band made an attempt to play every piano in the Manhattan public parks as part of an installation called “Play Me, I’m Yours” by British artist Luke Jerram. Unfortunately, the band missed out two of the 27 available pianos.

July 27th 2010, saw the band release their eponymous debut album, lead by the single “ Don’t Break the Needle” which was used in the opening of the feature film Contraband. A touring poster of the band was featured in the background of an episode of the CBS series, entitled Two Broke Girls. Following the release of the album, the band embarked on a couple of national tours, they also played SXSW and Lollapalooza.

The band released their sophomore album “Essential Tremors”, on September 10th 2013, on ATO Records, and lead the release of the album with the single “Heavy Bells” which made it into the US Alternative Chart peaking at number 11.