1. The Green Light (2006)
2. Sir: (2010)
3. Plea for the Girl by the River (2006)
4. Pigments (2010)
5. Look Backwards, Stupid (2006)
6. $10 (2008)
7. Lump (2008)
8. Weeping Uke (2008)
9. Bib on Your Brain (2009)
10. Going Out of Business (Sap/Slop) (2008)
11. Humming Along (2007)
12. White Flag (2007)
13. Large Yellow Barn (2006)
14. In the Future, You Will Not Wear Pants (2007)
15. A Castle Speaks to a Museum (A Dramatic Reading) (2008)
16. What I Learned at School (2006)
17. Marshmallows (For Elissa and Chris) (2007)
18. Squint (2008)
19. Silhouette, Baby (2009)
20. Science Song (2006)
21. Mountain Climber Returns (2006)
22. Sunset Song (2008)
23. Apartment Style Living (2008)
24. Graphs and Charts and Fingernails (2007)

Download the .zip!

Note: I’m currently gathering songs for the final release in the Benefits series. Upon its completion, I plan on collecting the series in a weird little box set of sorts. Y’know?

From State and Main Records:
“Volume 1.5 Is Here! The Benefit For Langdon Street Cafe is now available! A glorious download-only collection of limited and exclusive tracks from Montpelier’s young record label. Get one at Buch Spieler Music in downtown Montpelier, The Langdon Street Cafe, and online at our bandcamp site.”

Our friend (and future “Quite a Few Men” music video director) Keiko Makishima also shot the show, so expect some links to HD footage sometime next week.

Later, on the 15th, we loaded Brad Krieger’s pickup truck full of gear and drove down to SUNY Purchase’s campus for Culture Shock. Bands this year included The Feelies, A Place to Bury Strangers, Real Estate, and Algernon Cadwallader. We didn’t exactly get the turnout we had hoped for over at the side stage, but GUYS GUYS GUYS: we got to meet Sir R. Stevie Moore, ride the Gravitron, and hang with good folks.

What’s next? Well, we’re hopefully playing New Neighbor Record’s Label Showcase on May 29th, if work schedules allow it. Also, we’re planning a tour for late July/early August, so be sure to contact us if you want us to come to your town.

So thanks again to Megan, Kathryn, Ray, and the rest of the Purchase folks for an incredibly fun night and some unbeatable hospitality. UNBEATABLE! I mean, check it out:

Photos: Cara Sapienza.

As for the other news, Royal Blood is headlining Middle East Upstairs on Wednesday, April 6th! Things will start around 9PM. Joining us will be Deezy & the Brobots and The Ghost Dinner Band. 18+, $10.

Click for larger size

Cool, yeah? Again, that show’s on the 13th at Church. Doors open at 7PM, costs $7 to get in, and it’s 18+. Musical things will start a little bit after 8PM.

We played an Allston basement show December 18th. Pile was there, along with Kal Marks, Bunny’s a Swine, and Fat History Month. Then, on January 12th, Royal Blood played the Middle East Upstairs. Mmoss headlined, with The IOA and the Heather Maloney Band. All great bands, all great folks. We looked like this:

Photo: Jon Gombas

Just a few days later, on January 15th, we played with Kal Marks in a New Hampshire basement full of high school kids. All alcoholic consumption had to go down stealthily in the driveway, which brought back sweet, sweet memories of the minor years. The crowd ruled, and Kal Marks put on a damn good show (They’ll be playing with us at Church on the 13th. Hopefully we can force Bill Kelson turn his bass up really loud).

Next up was Great Scott on January 26th, for Livestock Boston, a concert series benefitting Heifer International. Despite a supposedly severe winter storm, lots of folks made it out and moved their body parts. Pile, as usual, was fantastic. Hopefully we play with them again. Until then, download their album and try to catch them live.

That night was like this:

Photo: Catie Colliton

…and then I was all:

Photo: Catie Colliton

Then, uh, at some point last month I decided to put my 2010 album, the Great Purge, online for download. I think it’s my strongest collection of songs, so be sure to check that out at some point.

So what’s going on now? Well, Royal Blood has been in the studio with Bradford "Brad" Krieger, working on our full-length. I’m especially excited for studio versions of "Divers" and "The Father, the Son, and the CEO". I’ll try to keep you guys updated on our progress. We’re probably about 10% done now, due to us being really picky and whiny.

As for future shows, we’ll be headlining a show at Church on February 13th. We’re playing with Burlington VT’s tooth ache., and fellow Bostonians The Devil and a Penny and Kal Marks. I’ll post the flyer when it exists.

Thanks to Lauren Cunningham, we have some great footage of our performance.

More videos from the show here

Another notable annoucement: the entirety of Royal Blood’s WERS Session is now available to download. This includes "Sky Looks Rotten", "Salvaging the Scraps", "Royal Blood", and "Marquee’s Myth (Stranger’s Plague)", all of which were previously unavailable online until today.

I hope you enjoy this stuff. I’ve been wanting to release some of these songs for years, so I’m definitely interested in hearing which ones tickle yer fancy and which ones make you cringe.

Here’s the boy:

The Benefits of Home Recording Vol. 2: Cave Paintings

1. Instrumental
2. Scissors & Glue
3. Spend the Day
4. Faces Faces
5. Anxiously Awaiting
6. Tight White Straight Jacket
7. Trapped Inside of a Burning Building (with Cody Sowers)
8. Steel Fingers
9. Simple Geometry
10. I Spend All of My Time
11. Dug
12. Thirty Second Love Song
13. Swim, Tire, Drown
14. Pi
15. Untitled Flower Song
16. Dewey the Fish: A True Story (with Cody Sowers)
17. Wordsound (with Dustin Martin)
18. How It Works
19. Over the Horizon (with Cody Sowers)
20. Railroad (with Ryan Williams)
21. Bastard Sun
22. Red Ladders (Acoustic)
23. Midnight Flight
24. Drip Drip Water, Ticking Clocks (with Cody Sowers)
25. Fishing!
26. Cake Designs
27. Butterfly Flies into Hell
28. Whistlesong

If you haven’t checked out Volume 1 of the series, it’s also available for free on the Explodepants download page.