Tally Hall

Tally Hall

Place of Origin	Ann Arbor, MI
Genres	Rock, Indie Rock
Years Active	2002-Present
Label	Quack!, Atlantic Records
Website	Official Band Website Tally Hall's Myspace Tally Hall's YouTube
Band Members
Joe Hawley: Vocals, Guitar Rob Cantor: Vocals, Guitar Ross Federman: Drums/Percussion Andrew Horowitz: Keyboards, percussion, vocals Zubin Sedghi:Vocals, Bass
Past Members
Steve Gallagher: Drums/Percussion Honorary Members Bora Karaca: Bora Karaca Live Backup Casey Shea: Guitar Jeremy Kittel: Violin

Tally Hall is an American rock band formed in December 2002 in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is often recognized by their trademark colored ties. The band is made up of 5 members:

Rob Cantor (yellow tie - vocals/guitar)
Zubin Sedghi (blue tie - vocals/bass)
Ross Federman (grey tie - percussion)
Joe Hawley (red tie - vocals/guitar)
Andrew Horowitz (green tie - vocals/keys)

Now under the Atlantic Records recording label, Tally Hall was previously signed to indie label Quack! Media who helped finance and nationally distribute their studio debut album, Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum which is known for its upbeat melodies and whimsical lyrics; the band members themselves having described their musical style at the time as "wonky rock."

History

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 and Zubin, who both attended the same high-school and played in a band called listedBlack. The three formed a band (name unknown) and played small shows around the University of Michigan dorms, where all 5 members went to school.

Rob met Joe on campus and as they began to become friendly, Rob learned of Joe's musical abilities and asked him and Steve Gallagher to join the band as lead guitarist and drummer, respectively. Later, they played a few gigs under the name Gallagher and then as 540 (the address of their house at the time). Joe originally suggested the name of the band be "Tally Hall" and everyone agreed (except Andrew, who was not from the area and didn't grasp the magic of what the REAL Tally Hall meant to people in the Detroit area).

Tally Hall was the name of an indoor shopping plaza on Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills, Michigan. A wonderous arcade/museum of coin-op machines and oddities called Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum was a popular establishment within Tally Hall and is now all that remains after the Tally Hall complex was torn down.

Eventually, they all agreed to name the band Tally Hall and they began to record some EP's and play small shows around the UofM campus.

In 2004, when Steve Gallagher left the band, they recruited Ross, who went to high school with Joe.

From 2005 until 2010, the band was managed by The Hornblow Group (They Might Be Giants, OK Go) but they changed management in Spring/Summer of 2010 to Stiletto Entertainment.

Complete Demos

The LP known as Complete Demos is essentially just a compilation of the songs they recorded for the two EP's they previously released (Party Boobytrap & Welcome To Tally Hall) with the addition of the unnamed hidden track, referred to as Hidden In The Sand. But unlike the EPs, they put effort into manufacturing and packaging, officially released the album in September 2004 and sold the CD at shows and from their website.

Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum

2005

The band began touring outside their general hometown area in 2005, promoting this album, which was initially released in November 2005 under the Quack! Media label in Ann Arbor, MI. Their shows mostly featuring tracks from the album. However, their live concerts often feature a couple cover songs. They're probably best known for their cover of Biz Markie's "Just A Friend", which they used to end every set with but it's not played too often anymore.

A live version of Just a Friend can be found on The Pingry EP released in 2005. Later, In 2006, a studio version was recorded and shelved -- because the band was not happy with it -- but later was released as one of a few bonus songs provided by Atlantic Records for their 2008 re-release of MMMM. These bonus songs (Just A Friend, Mucka Blucka, and Dream) were distributed via download codes handed out at live shows and through the Twitter account of hiddeninthesand.com (A.K.A. HITS).

2006

Quack! Media re-released the album in September 2006 with more focused marketing behind it and a wider distribution plan. It helped get them into more stores and gained them more national attention, including impressing radio personality Mancow enough for him to recommend Craig Ferguson listen to the album. Soon after, on August 2, 2006, they were performing their song "Good Day" on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. In September 2006, Tally Hall appeared in MTV's segment "You Hear It First."

2008

After signing to Atlantic Records, the band released Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum for the 3rd time on April 1, 2008 with their new record label, but this time they were given the opportunity to re-record and re-mix parts they've never been quite satisfied with and allow a more experienced engineer to gear the songs in a radio-friendlier manner, though the songs did not gain much more radio airplay. In addition to the album, Atlantic Records produced Tally Hall's Internet Show, which was intended to coincide with the release of the album but due to some musical licensing issues, there was a delay and the Internet Show didn't get started until September 2008.

The band also appeared at a few South by Southwest Music Festivals and 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, 2008 to help promote the launch of Tally Hall's Internet Show. They performed a "radio edit" version of "Welcome to Tally Hall" in newly donned black vests over top of their traditional colored ties, white shirts, and black pants. This was the first time the vests were worn.

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. They also recorded a song in 2009 called Light And Night featuring Nellie McKay as a free download, distributed by Walmart, when people bought the book "The Magician's Elephant."

Discography

LPs

EPs

Compilations

Songs From The O.C. Mix 6

Singles

Miscellaneous Collections Of Songs

Side Projects & Old Bands

Equipment List

The following is a list of equipment the members of Tally Hall use or have used.

Still seeking specific models on many of the following items.

Percussion

Ross uses a Pearl drum set.

Guitars

Joe has used a Fender Stratocaster in the past, but now uses a Rickenbacker.
Rob uses a Les Paul.

Bass Guitars

Zubin uses a black Fender Jaguar bass.

Keyboards

Andrew uses a Roland keyboard.

Mics & Amps

Roland amps.
Seeking info on mics.

Misc.

Andrew uses a Macbook for some sampling.