Tally Hall

Tally Hall is an American rock band formed in December 2002 based in Ann Arbor, Michigan with a relatively significant cult following. Once under the Atlantic Records recording label, Tally Hall is, again, signed to indie label Quack! Media who previously helped finance and nationally distribute their debut studio album, Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum. They are known for their upbeat melodies and whimsical lyrics; the band members, themselves, having once described their musical style as «wonky rock» and «fabloo rock». They are preparing to release their second album Good & Evil , which was recorded in October/November, 2009 with Atlantic Records. They recently announced the release date to be June 21, 2011, under the Quack! Media record label.

Often recognized by their trademark colored ties, Rob (yellow-vocals/guitar), Zubin (blue-vocals/bass), Ross (gray-percussion), Joe (red-vocals/guitar), and Andrew (green-vocals/keys) make up Tally Hall which got its start in 2002. Andrew, the only member not originally from Michigan, began writing songs when he was eight years old and eventually headed to the University of Michigan to study composition. There he met Rob, who had attended high school with Zubin and joined Joe’s film production group. When Tally Hall’s original drummer left the band, they recruited Ross, who had gone to high school with Joe.

Tally Hall was the name of an indoor shopping plaza on Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum, the arcade whose name shares the title of their debut album, is all that remains.

The band has received an amount of national media attention, performing their song «Good Day» on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on August 2, 2006 as well as appearing in MTV’s segment You Hear It First in September 2006. The band appeared at the 2007 South by Southwest Music Festival. On August 3, 2008, Tally Hall was a performer on the BMI stage at Lollapalooza.

Tally Hall was invited back by The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on September 16 to help promote the launch of Tally Hall’s Internet Show. They performed «Welcome to Tally Hall» in newly donned black vests over top of their traditional colored ties, white shirts, and black pants.

The band worked on several projects after the completion of «Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum», including covering the song «Smile Like You Mean It» by The Killers for the sixth The O.C. soundtrack: Music from the OC: Mix 6.

The band re-released Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum on April 1, 2008 with their new record label, Atlantic Records after some re-recording and re-mixing was done.

On September 9, 2009, Hidden in the Sand (HITS), a prominent Tally Hall fan site, broke the news that Tally Hall was going to release a collaborative song this fall, featuring Nellie McKay which would be released as a free download from mp3.walmart.com when customers of Walmart purchased a book called The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo. The book had been made available for purchase earlier that day.

The same day, HITS reported the title of the song, Light & Night, along with a short audio clip of it in another update. Instructions on downloading the song can be found in the HITS Blogs post. It is not known whether Light & Night will be included on the upcoming 2010 LP.

In their 2010 March tour with Jukebox the Ghost and Skybox, it was reported that Joe Hawley had unexpectedly backed out of the entire tour for currently unknown reasons. Hawley was replaced with Casey Shea, who wore a black tie. Upon questions about Hawley’s well-being, the band has stated that everyone is ok and something came up at the last minute. On March 25, 2011, the band announced that all five band members are still together, though the circumstances behind Hawley’s disappearance is still unknown.

The band was managed by The Hornblow Group, who also manages They Might Be Giants, OK Go, and Oppenheimer, until 2010, when Tally Hall changed management to Stiletto Entertainment, who manages Barry Manilow in addition to several other solo performance acts.

As of March 25, 2011, it appears that Tally Hall has returned to their original label, Quack! Media. The reasons behind this change and Atlantic Records’ present involvement with Tally Hall are still unknown.

In addition to music, the band also creates numerous movies. These movies include both music videos and humorous skits. The best known of these videos is the music video for «Banana Man» which resulted in significant publicity among online users visiting the website Albino Blacksheep, along with «The Bidding», another popular title by the group.

Corresponding with their single «Good Day», released on February 26, 2008, the band released a music video for Good Day on YouTube.

In August 2008, the band performed a three-song live video set for LiveDaily Sessions, including the songs «Good Day,» «Be Born» and «Greener», which premiered on August 28, 2008. They have appeared on Fearless Music several times, playing songs such as ‘Be Born,’ ‘Ruler of Everything,’ ‘Misery Fell,’ ‘Good Day,’ and ‘Banana Man.’These recordings can be found on YouTube.

Taking on an even larger role within the band’s video portfolio is the ten part bi-weekly variety-show series Tally Hall’s Internet Show (T.H.I.S.), which debuted on September 15, 2008. Each episode is ten minutes long and is posted on their website http://www.tallyhall.com. The content primarily includes comedy sketches and music videos.

With the release of Tally Hall’s Internet Show in September 2008, it became clear that many music videos would be released within the Internet Show. «Good Day» was the first music video to be seen in episode one. Other music videos include «Welcome to Tally Hall», «Two Wuv», «The Whole World and You», «Greener», «Ruler of Everything» and «Hidden in the Sand».

Current members
Rob Cantor (Yellow tie) – Guitar and vocals
Ross Federman (Gray tie) – Drums (2004–present)
Joe Hawley (Red tie) – Guitar and vocals
Andrew Horowitz (Green tie) – Keyboards and vocals
Zubin Sedghi (Blue tie) – Bass and vocals

Additional touring members
Casey Shea (Black Tie) – Guitar and Vocals (March 2010 Tour)

Past members
Steve Gallagher (Gray tie) – Drums (2002–2004)