Good & Evil
| Good & Evil | |
| |
| Studio Album | |
| Released | June 21, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Recorded | October 26th 2009 - November 26th 2009, at The Sunset Sound Factory in Los Angeles, CA |
| Length | 48:50 |
| Label | Quack! Media (2011), Needlejuice Records (2022) |
| Producer | Tony Hoffer |
Good & Evil is Tally Hall's second studio album. It was released on June 21, 2011 by independent label Quack! Media on CD, vinyl, and digital download.
Their record label Needlejuice Records will reissue the album sometime in 2022, with an EP featuring non-album tracks from the era. This will include Light And Night.[1]
History
Pre-Release
After the re-release of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in 2006, Tally Hall would start to perform many new songs, partly due to the fatigue of playing the same couple songs from their first album for years. These included Misery Fell,[2] Turn The Lights Off,[3] and Sacred Beast. These songs seemed more mature than much of their previous work and were fan favorites, some being standards in their setlist.
In February of 2009, they would schedule multiple performances at the Union Hall building in Brooklyn, New York.[4] At these concerts, the band would try out new songs they had written the year previous and reworkings of older songs, including You & Me, Mind Control, and &.[5] All of these gigs would prevent recording and filming, though people would find a way to record them.
On Twitter, Tally Hall would announce they would be recording a new album sometime in the summer of 2009,[6] however this would be rescheduled to the fall of 2009. On October 19th 2009, Tally Hall began pre-production on Good & Evil.[7] This would include rehearsing and figuring out which songs would fit on the album. The working title of the record was to be "A Coincidence of Contradictions".[8] It is not known when this name was scrapped.
The first day of recording would begin at The Sunset Sound Factory on October 26th with Grammy-nominated producer Tony Hoffer and engineer Todd Burke. Unlike many other artists, Tally Hall were given full creative control by Atlantic Records over Good & Evil, which helped with the general experience of making it.[9]
It was revealed that they were recording 16 songs on Ross Federman's Twitter account, however when asked at a concert later on, it was said that they had 14 songs, so it is assumed those either became Fate Of The Stars or were 2 other songs that were scrapped. These could've been Murders or I'm Gonna Win, as they were in contention for Good & Evil.[8][10]
On November 26th, Tally Hall completed tracking at 1:38am, leaving them one day to prepare for their tour with Rooney and Crash Kings. The tour lasted from November 27th[11] to December 20th 2009,[12] This tour also featured the refined instrumentation for the album tracks, including Rob Cantor performing lead vocals on his song You & Me.
In January of 2010, Rob made a note to hiddeninthesand.com about the album, reading "we're currently finishing up the mixes and very excited about the new album. can't wait for everyone to hear it..." hiddeninthesand.com predicted the release date to be no earlier than June 2010, but more likely to be summer 2010.
On January 28th, 2010 Tally Hall posted a blog on MySpace indicating they completed production on the album and had turned the album into Atlantic Records for review. In an interview with AnnArbor.com two months later, Rob revealed the name of the album, "Good & Evil". Despite this, no release date was publicly revealed and was assumed to still be released in the summer of 2010.[9] One song from the album, You & Me, was debuted by Ann Arbor’s 107.1 on March 9th, indicating the album could've been releasing within 2010.
Meetings between the band and Atlantic Records during April 2010 were supposed to conclude with a release date, but with no announcement left speculation that the album was moved to a 2011 release date. On July 4th 2010, an interview with AnnArbor.com would reveal that the release date was moved to sometime in 2011, but that Atlantic Records remained optimistic about the album.[13]
Back to Quack!
After a nearly 4 year long partnership, Tally Hall would part with Atlantic Records sometime in early 2011. Luckily they were allowed to keep Good & Evil and so, they once again signed with Quack!Media to release it on June 21, 2011, with a tour supporting it in July and August of 2011.[14]
On May 2nd 2011, the first single from Good & Evil, "You And Me" was officially released on Consequenceofsound.net and YouTube.[15] The next day, the limited edition deluxe version of Good & Evil was made available for pre-order on the Quack! Media web store. With this edition were a trophy, a photo from the Welcome To Tally Hall music video, a ticket from Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, some forehead tattoos, and a placard from their 9/17/2008 performance at Club Largo in Los Angeles.[16]
On May 4th 2011, Amazon.com listed Good & Evil's full track listing and samples of each song. This would be most people's first taste of most of the studio work they had done over 2009. The song samples were taken down a day later on May 5th, but were saved by members of the community, who spread them amongst each other.[17]
On June 7th 2011, pre-orders for the CD went live on Quackmedia.com. The first 250 orders got an autographed booklet by each member of Tally Hall.
In the days leading up to the album's release on June 21st, the members of Tally Hall would host two Ustream events, answering questions and premiering songs from the album. The first of these happened on June 14th, hosted by Andrew, Ross and Rob from Andrew's New York apartment. They premiered Never Meant To Know, Misery Fell and Out In The Twilight. The next day, Joe and Zubin hosted from Quack! headquarters in Ann Arbor and premiered Cannibal, Sacred Beast and You.
Post-Release
The day finally came on June 21st 2011, when the album was finally released worldwide. This came with many positive reviews for its depth and maturity in comparison to their previous album.
On July 20th, Tally Hall hosted a open rehearsal on StageIt.com to raise money for the upcoming tour. On this livestream they answered a couple questions, and performed 6 of the songs on Good & Evil.[18] On July 21st 2011, Tally Hall started on the only tour supporting the album, with SPEAK, Casey Shea, and April Smith as opening acts. This tour would be unique, as it featured a pre-recorded introduction by Bora Karaca, who would perform with them as orange tie during the tour. Another unique part of the tour was their cover of "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, with Zubin Sedghi and Joe Hawley sharing lead vocal duties.[19]
The last show of the tour would be at Mr. Small's Theater in Millvale, PA on August 20th 2011. This would be the last time Tally Hall would ever perform. After this performance, Tally Hall would retire for the fall to pursue other projects,[20] including music and education.
Needlejuice Reissue
In early 2021, it would be announced that Tally Hall signed with Needlejuice Records to re-release Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum and Good & Evil. These would release alongside EPs of non-album material from the respective album eras. The EP with Good & Evil will include Light And Night. Variants will include a picture and other colored variants, however these have yet to surface.
It is currently unknown when Good & Evil will be announced or open for pre-orders, but it is likely to within 2022.
Themes
The main theme of Good & Evil is the concept of duality, an opposition/contrast between two concepts. This is evident in the album title and cover artwork, which use the duality of goodness and evilness, and black and white respectively. & is another example of this theme, with many of its lyrics showing duality (i.e. "Weak & strong & wet & dry & right & wrong & live & die").
This is intentional, as Tally Hall has stated the concept of duality is prevalent throughout the album.[9][20] In a 2011 uStream livestream, Joe stated there was a story to Good & Evil, specifically the story of "mathematics, or a paradox". Joe also makes reference to a scene in the movie Labyrinth, featuring two guards, one always lies and one always tells the truth.[10]
Track listing
| # | Title | Writers | Lead Singers | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Never Meant To Know" | Cantor | Cantor | 3:40 |
| 2. | "&" | Hawley | Hawley | 3:14 |
| 3. | "You & Me" | Cantor | Cantor | 2:52 |
| 4. | "Cannibal" | Sedghi | Sedghi | 3:28 |
| 5. | "Who You Are" | Cantor | Cantor | 3:40 |
| 6. | "Sacred Beast" | Hawley | Hawley, Sedghi, Cantor | 2:22 |
| 7. | "Hymn For A Scarecrow" | Hawley | Hawley | 4:50 |
| 8. | "A Lady" | Hawley | Hawley | 1:05 |
| 9. | "The Trap" | Sedghi | Sedghi | 4:31 |
| 10. | "Turn The Lights Off" | Hawley | Hawley, Sedghi, Cantor | 2:56 |
| 11. | "Misery Fell" | Horowitz | Sedghi | 3:34 |
| 12. | "Out In The Twilight" | Cantor | Cantor | 2:51 |
| 13. | "You" | Horowitz | Horowitz | 2:57 |
| 14. | "Fate Of The Stars" | Horowitz | Sedghi, Hawley, Cantor, Horowitz | 6:50 |
References
- ↑ Needlejuice Records FAQ
- ↑ Tally Hall performs new song "Misery Fell" live @ in NYC. underratedmagazine. YouTube.
- ↑ Turn the Lights Off - Tally Hall Live 09.23.2006 (The Blind Pig - Ann Arbor, MI). vinniec.
- ↑ TALLY HALL announce Union Hall residency! irockiroll. January 9th 2009.
- ↑ Tally Hall - Live at Union Hall, February 2009. YouTube playlist.
- ↑ Tally Hall tweet about recording in summer of 2009.
- ↑ Tally Hall tweet about their first day of pre-production.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 2019 Joe Hawley interview.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 AnnArbor.com interview, March 5th 2010
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Tally Hall's uStream Wrap Up. June 17th 2011.
- ↑ Tally Hall tweet about the first day of their tour with Rooney and Crash Kings.
- ↑ Tally Hall tweet about their final night of touring in 2009.
- ↑ Interview with AnnArbor.com when Rob first reveals a "2011" release date ETA for Good & Evil
- ↑ Back to Quack hiddeninthesand.com post
- ↑ Link to release of You And Me on CoS
- ↑ Unboxing Tally Hall's Good & Evil. YouTube.
- ↑ Good & Evil Track List hiddeninthesand.com post
- ↑ Tally Hall StageIt Concert (Part 1 of 4). YouTube
- ↑ Tally Hall: Pure Imagination. YouTube.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 My Car and My Guitar Interview with Joe and Zubin.