A place to put news paper articles and etc.

The Ann Arbor News:

Catching up with Tally Hall Ann Arbor rock band goes national with CD; MTV debut
Sunday, August 06, 2006
BY ROGER LELIEVRE
News Arts Writer

With Tally Hall, the wildly popular Ann Arbor rock band, making its coast-to-coast television debut last week on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,'' can a No. 1 single be far behind?
Not yet ... but maybe next year.
Granted, the past few months have been full of good news for Tally Hall, possibly the next Tree Town band to make the big time, but talk of a hit of that magnitude is a little premature, even for a group that's been on a roll.
"That's a concept we haven't thought of, our place on the Billboard chart,'' mused guitarist/vocalist Zubin Sedghi recently. "It could happen, we don't really know - but it would probably be a year away.''
The News caught up with Sedghi, Rob Cantor, Joe Hawley, Andrew Horowitz and Ross Federman by phone from a car wash just outside of Chicago, where they passed the cell phone around while hosing down the official Tally Hall van. Band members were headed back to Michigan after appearing at the "Rock Around the Block Festival'' gig in Chicago, where they are quickly developing a following helped by a live appearance on the Chicago-based, nationally syndicated "Mancow's Morning Madness'' show. This Friday the band is booked at the prominent New York City club The Knitting Factory.
"It just seems like there's a lot of progress being made,'' said Horowitz. "We're having a great time, and we're not playing in dive bars that much any more. It's really fun.''
A few months ago Tally Hall - former University of Michigan students, all but one of whom hails from Detroit - won a second John Lennon Songwriting Contest in so many years with Cantor's "Just Apathy.''
The video for the catchy single "Banana Man'' was featured on three episodes of this season's MTV reality show "Real World (Key West),'' and "Good Day'' was played on an episode of Fox's television's "The O.C.'' this spring.
The band has been on tour with Japanese pop duo Puffy AmiYumi this summer, a video for "Good Day'' is now being shot, and their career is now being guided by the same management company that counts They Might Be Giants, OKGo and the Violent Femmes as clients. All this has been leading up to the official national release of their debut CD, "Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum,'' later this month, although the album is already available locally, and also through Amazon.com and on iTunes.
"Ever since we have started adding people onto our team, each one has helped us quite a bit. We're looking forward to working with (management) more and seeing where they take us,'' said Sedghi. "If we do as well as their other bands then we will be all right.''
Cantor said the past few months have been amazing: "The momentum just seems to be continuing to build, which is the best part.
"The high point of the last year? That's tough to say,'' he added. "Each time something exciting happens, that feels like the high point. It's all been pretty awesome, a lot of experiences I'll remember, that's for sure.''
The television exposure can only be a good thing.
"Historically, national TV appearances and debuts tend to be very good as far as helping a band to progress,'' Federman said, "so we're looking forward to seeing what might come of it and letting more of the world hear our music.''
"It will be exciting to see what the response is from that - whether we can get on other shows. ... We are hoping for 'Conan O'Brien' next. We'll see what the future holds for us,'' Sedghi added.
Conan may have to wait. Tally Hall members will soon make their MTV debut on an upcoming segment of the show "You Hear It First'' (broadcast date TBA).
"It's kind of hard to put yourself at a distance and see objectively what's going on,'' said Hawley. "When you are in the middle of something like this it's kind of abstract.
"It was very nice of Craig to have us on the show. It came as a surprise when we found out he was a fan and that our friend Mancow in Chicago told him about us,'' Hawley said. "People are friends with other people. It's just about having a lot of good friends and sharing things with those people.''
Although living in the now is good, Tally Hall continues to look to the future.
Fans at the band's recent Top of the Park show in Ann Arbor were clearly delighted with several new songs, but time to pen new tunes can be difficult to come by.

"It's tough now,'' said Cantor. "We've learned to utilize every spare minute we have. I have never been so good at disciplining my time since I was a full-on science student my freshman year in college.''
Band members were also pleased with the Top of the Park turnout.
"It seems like every time we play in Ann Arbor the audience increases exponentially,'' Horowitz said. "We are looking forward to playing out next show there. ... I think we're probably going to be playing at the Blind Pig at the end of September,'' he said, adding that after that the next venue of choice would be the much larger Michigan Theater.
"We want to do another hurrah at the Blind Pig,'' he added.
Meanwhile, there's plenty to do between now and then.
"The busier we keep ourselves, the better,'' said Cantor. "While a vacation might sound appealing, we'd all rather be doing this.''
Hawley agreed.
"It's a matter of staying focused and thinking positive,'' he said.
So what are the chances of Tally Hall making it big? Better than most, Brad Savage, music director at Ann Arbor's 107.1 FM, which has also been programming the band's songs, said.
"Tally Hall really has a realistic shot at it. I think in a lot of cities there are a couple of top local bands that are always on the cusp of success, but Tally Hall seems to be getting beyond that,'' said Savage. "I think they have a shot at getting national attention, a nationwide radio hit, tours and everything.''
So what is it that makes Tally Hall special?
"They're very likable and quirky, memorable lyrics and a good stage show, too,'' he explained. "They can make it interesting for a casual fan who has no idea who they are, and that's what takes talent.''
Roger LeLievre can be reached at 734-994-6848 or by e-mail at rlelievre@annarbornews.com.

Wonderful article! It's wonderful seeing them get so much exposure.

That would be AMAZING if they could get on Conan. Craig Furgueson is great and all, but I am pretty sure Conan beats him in the ratings on a regular basis.

I have a loose connection with the music producer on Conan. I will try and contact him and say "maybe instead of a bunch of japanese bands you should have tally hall on. it may not be the best thing you do in your life for yourself only, but for everyone around you."

ahahaha.


do it.

It seems that no news is bad news these days. We ought to write Andrew a "keep up the good work."

for the sake of finding it:

LA Times
August 3, 2006

Up to their necks in musical styles

Tally Hall's music reminds you of the joke about the weather in the Rocky Mountains: If you don't like it, just wait 30 seconds. The Ann Arbor, Mich., five are sound collagists who segue from barbershop harmonies to Queen-like rock opera to chunky power pop to clever hip-hop — sometimes all in the same song.

Their self-produced debut, "Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum," is dizzyingly cut-and-paste, reminiscent of They Might Be Giants. And live, each member wearing a white shirt and assigned a colored tie, the quintet exudes the good humor of Barenaked Ladies playing a kegger party.

"At times it can get a little bit daunting to get some of the rhythm transitions to work, but it's like we say, if the song starts to get a little bit boring, throw in some calypso," Joe Hawley says wryly. "Of course, we say that, but we try not to be gimmicky. A lot of times, the songs come across as goofy, but we take them very seriously."

Indeed, the band, which performs tonight at Spaceland, is as conceptual as it is playful. Of the ties, Hawley explains, "We didn't want to look like an era. So we went for a look that emphasizes singularity and uniformity at the same time."

Besides, being sharp-dressed can come in handy — as when Hawley, fellow singer-guitarist Rob Cantor, singer-bassist Zubin Sedghi, singer-keyboardist Andrew Horowitz and drummer Ross Federman set out to make a video for the song "Good Day," which appeared on the TV show "The O.C." "We're doing it guerrilla-style," Cantor says. "We shot part of it at Michigan Stadium.... I think the grounds crew thought we were important because of our ties."


EDIT:

well, here's the whole thing:


August 3, 2006

BUZZ BANDS
He gets high with a little help
Nick Castro & the Young Elders throw a nouveaux-folk free-for all, and Tally Hall's eclecticism outshines even their wardrobe.
Ah, the freedom of the studio

On "Come Into Our House," the new album by L.A.'s Nick Castro & the Young Elders, exotic sounds are always waiting to run away with the melodic line or shift the vibe over several continents. It's a neo-folk trip on steroids.
"The concept that I've always had is that the record itself is not a live band," Castro says of the CD, on which 11 musicians play a laundry list of stringed instruments and percussion. "I try and embrace it as its own format and really do the things that sometimes I'm incapable of doing in a live situation."

Some songs are built around poetic sketches. Others tell their tales without words.

"The instrumentals that are looser were just conceived in the studio," the singer-songwriter-instrumentalist says, "as simply as picking up a drum and turning on a mike and saying, 'Oh, that sounds great, let's add this.' And then the process would continue until we felt, like, maybe we have enough stuff on the song now, I think it's done."

Home after a month on the road with Young Elders collaborator Wendy Watson, Castro plays tonight at the Echo in Echo Park. He won't say what the band will be like. "We've been touring a lot for the last few years," Castro says from Rapid City, S.D., before a recent gig, "and I think people have kind of come to expect the unexpected."

Up to their necks in musical styles

Tally Hall's music reminds you of the joke about the weather in the Rocky Mountains: If you don't like it, just wait 30 seconds. The Ann Arbor, Mich., five are sound collagists who segue from barbershop harmonies to Queen-like rock opera to chunky power pop to clever hip-hop — sometimes all in the same song.

Their self-produced debut, "Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum," is dizzyingly cut-and-paste, reminiscent of They Might Be Giants. And live, each member wearing a white shirt and assigned a colored tie, the quintet exudes the good humor of Barenaked Ladies playing a kegger party.

"At times it can get a little bit daunting to get some of the rhythm transitions to work, but it's like we say, if the song starts to get a little bit boring, throw in some calypso," Joe Hawley says wryly. "Of course, we say that, but we try not to be gimmicky. A lot of times, the songs come across as goofy, but we take them very seriously."

Indeed, the band, which performs tonight at Spaceland, is as conceptual as it is playful. Of the ties, Hawley explains, "We didn't want to look like an era. So we went for a look that emphasizes singularity and uniformity at the same time."

Besides, being sharp-dressed can come in handy — as when Hawley, fellow singer-guitarist Rob Cantor, singer-bassist Zubin Sedghi, singer-keyboardist Andrew Horowitz and drummer Ross Federman set out to make a video for the song "Good Day," which appeared on the TV show "The O.C." "We're doing it guerrilla-style," Cantor says. "We shot part of it at Michigan Stadium.... I think the grounds crew thought we were important because of our ties."

Fast forward

Update: Cold War Kids, the L.A. quartet whose distinct fusion of Delta blues and minimalist indie rock earned them coast-to-coast buzz, have signed with Downtown Records, bassist Matt Maust says. The imprint, which has ties to Atlantic and is home to Gnarls Barkley, Art Brut and Eagles of Death Metal, "is a new label, but with a team of veterans," Maust says. "They just seemed like a real powerhouse." Look for a full-length album in October.... Exuberant indie rockers the Little Ones are close to a deal too, but for now they are concentrating on this month's Monday residency at Spaceland, where they will be test-driving a couple of new tunes.... And popular Sunset Strip dance-rock band Shiny Toy Guns has signed to Universal.

Touts: Sharp old-school punk — that's what Left Alone brings to the table on its album "Dead American Radio," which features cameos by Rancid's Tim Armstrong and HorrorPops' Patricia Day and comes out Tuesday. Left Alone plays an early show Sunday at the Knitting Factory.... Dream-rock trio Gliss celebrates the U.S. release of "Love the Virgins" with a show Monday at the Viper Room.... Go Betty Go is back. New singer Emily Wynne-Hughes now fronts the quartet, playing the next four Tuesdays at the Key Club.... The Bronx (sophomore album just out) and 400 Blows play the Roxy on Wednesday.... And Glacier Hiking, impressive at the Echo last week, plays Wednesday at the Viper Room.

-- Kevin Bronson and Frank Farrar

from spin.com:

Artist of the Day
Tally Hall
August 15, 2006


Tally Hall
Who? Tally Hall -- Joe Hawley (guitar/vocals), Zubin Sedghi (bass/vocals), Rob Cantor (guitar/vocals), Ross Federman (percussion), and Andrew Horowitz (keys/vocals) -- met at the University of Michigan in 2002, and they're more concerned with having fun than making easily classifiable music.

What's the Deal? Tally Hall derive their name from a now-defunct mini-mall in Farmington Hills, MI, and like any good shopping center, the band offer consumers a little bit of everything: Listeners can pick up some melodic rock, sugary pop, totally un-hip hip-hop, and a bit of electronica in Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum. The totally varied album plays like a hyperactive child, bouncing from rap ("Welcome to Tally Hall"), to Broadway-style harmonies ("Taken for a Ride"), to backwoods country featuring violin and banjo ("Be Born"), to calypso ("Banana Man"). Not having fun yet? "Two Wuv" is a candy-coated ode to the Olsen twins featuring the chorus, "Mary-Kate and Ashley I hope you understand / That I love you a lot and I want to be your man."

Fun Fact: Keyboardist Andrew Horowitz won the 2004 John Lennon Scholarship Competition for the Tally Hall song "Good Day," the first track off Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum. ALYSSA RASHBAUM

Now Hear This:
Tally Hall - "Taken for a Ride" (Download MP3)

Now Watch This:
Tally Hall - "Banana Man" (QUICKTIME)

Talk Would you throw a party in Tally Hall? COMMENT

On the Web: tallyhall.com

http://www.spin.com/features/band_of_the_day/2006/08/060815_tallyhall/

This one's way old but it's an awesome read:

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:dTDXxbsFXeMJ:www.t...amp;ct=clnk&cd=1

April 22, 2005
Messrs Rob, Joe, Andrew, Zubin and Ross

What do five students from the University of Michigan have in common? Music, a strong appreciation of orchestration and a good sense of humor are the ingredients that make up pop band Tally Hall. Their sound is somewhere on the weird road to The Beatles, Frank Zappa, early Elton John, Weezer, They Might Be Giants and the Bare Naked Ladies. Tally Hall’s sound could be described as a jumble of words and complimentary influences thrown into a stew of clever songwriting and stellar musicianship.

Formed in December of 2002, Tally Hall began writing songs, playing together and doing shows around Ann Arbor, MI. They did this all while attending class, recording their songs and doing their own videos—as well as building and maintaining the band Web site and making T-Shirts. Their music is quirky but not steeped in kitsch. Though their sound is fun, it is by all accounts ‘pop music,’ and the inherent talent of the bands five members is immediately obvious upon first listen. Recently, themusicedge.com caught up with Tally Hall and conducted a phone interview (or attempted to rather) with all five members (at the same time) to understand the way the band makes music, how they got to were they are and how they go about doing what they do.

*In order to avoid confusion on the part of the interviewer, “Tally Hall” will represent the collective voice of the band.

ME: How far along are all of you in school?
Tally Hall*: Three of us are seniors, one of us is a junior and one of us is a sophomore. We’re going fulltime with the band in May. The plan is to do some touring.

ME: How did the Tally Hall meet?
Tally Hall: Most of us met in college.
Joe: Rob and Zubin grew up together and were in a band together in high school. Andrew met us in college and he’s from New Jersey, but the other four of us are from Bloomfield, MI. Ross and I weren’t friends; we still aren’t friends in fact (laughing). That kind of aggression in our band has really paid off. You can tell in our music, its very aggressive (more laughing). We’re transforming into screamo.

ME: Were any of you involved in school music or did you take lessons?
Tally Hall: All of us did some music in high school, orchestra and band.
Andrew: I’m studying music composition now and everyone else is involved in music some way. Ross is in the marching band.
Ross: I’m a music lieutenant.
Andrew: We started the band as a hobby and now it’s sort of taken off. So once we get full time I think we will be doing quite a few different things.

ME: The video for ‘Banana Man’ is great, who put that together?
Tally Hall: Those are all Joe’s brainchildren.
Joe: I’m a film and English major.
Andrew: Zubin is our Webmaster. We all sort of pitch in and do different things.
Ross: I think we’ve been really lucky in that everyone in the band can specialize in certain things.
Tally Hall: We’re like the A-Team!
Rob: Ross is just a clumsy bystander!
Tally Hall: He’s the Steve Urkle on our A-Team (laughing)!
Zubin: Or maybe he’s Balki [from the television show Perfect Strangers]?
Rob: Ross has just become the butt of every joke. But he laughs with us – but he might be crying inside.

ME: On a more serious note, what were some of the benefits you guys have gained from being involved in school music? More specifically, how have those things benefited your band?
Andrew: (mumbles something inaudible)
Rob: Andrew was distracted by the Wurthers Original Candy he is eating.
Andrew: (mumbles again)
Rob: He’s frazzled by the Wurthers.
Andrew: I learned how to write classical and contemporary classical and that is what my main focus has been. My main passion is rock, but I’ve always been sort of forced into the classical idiom and have always sort of rejected it but its influence has helped. It’s helped my confidence in playing. When you play rock music, there’s a certain type of energy that is undeniable in that genre of music. I think recording is also more involved with rock music. You can do pretty much anything you want in a recording.
Ross: Our musicology professor wrote a book about how recording is the new poetics of rock. Sheet music doesn’t do justice to rock music.
Andrew: With rock music, there have been a lot of advances and they continue to do innovative stuff. With classical music they’re still playing the same stuff they were playing 50 years ago.
Tally Hall: There’s no reason you can’t incorporate classical influences into rock music and make it part of the art.

ME: With regards to recording, is that a technique you learned along the way by doing your own demo’s (Partyboobytrap EP and Welcome to Tally Hall EP), or is that another area of study for one of the band members?
Joe: I’ve actually mastered Final Cut Pro, which is video editing software. I used it to record all of our demos. It’s supposed to be for video, but I developed an unusual technique by doing high-quality recordings by building a metronome track in an iPod (it’s sort of complicated) and I had been experimenting with that and when it came time to do the Tally Hall recordings I went with that.
Rob: The Tally Hall recordings sound pretty professional to our ears (I think). We recorded them in the attic of our house and laid them down one track at a time. We were turning off the refrigerator and the lights to cut back on the fuzz – it was a very low-tech operation relative to the product that came out of the session. We were proud of the process.
Joe: We recorded everything through my camcorder. I had a microphone and a ‘line in’ jack. It was grueling.

ME: How does the writing process work for Tally Hall?
Rob: We have three different songwriters in the band: Joe, Andrew and I. It’s about equal numbers of songs. I think each of us have a uniquely different style.
Joe: My style is I have a song in my head and I can’t get it out and I put a lyric to the music and do a rough demo in Final Cut or Garage Band and then show it to the band. I usually have specific ideas for the song. I put it together pretty meticulously before I present it to the band. Rob is a little bit looser.
Rob: I usually start with some sort of concept or basic idea and it ends up becoming part of the hook or the chorus and then I come to the band and everyone fills in their parts. The harmonies are usually worked out well in advance. It’s more of a fusion of musical ideas versus Joe who comes with these finely tuned versions of songs.
Joe: And for Horowitz (Andrew) he just shows up at practice and a song just comes out of him.
Andrew: I usually come up with songs in spurts (giggling heard from band). I’ll sit down for a couple of hours and just come up with something. A lot of the songs grow when they get to the band, and we’re all pretty harsh critics within the band. There’s been times when any number of us has brought a song to the band and we’ve decided that it needs a lot of work.
Rob: We’re hypercritical of each other.
Joe: We don’t like filler. I think that when we get into a real studio we’ll try and make every song it’s own little masterpiece.

ME: What are some of the lessons you all have learned playing together as a band?
Zubin: First thing we learned was to work with each other. All of us have pretty strong personalities. We all have busy schedules; we’re all tied to other commitments. Basically working together and as a group tends to be more of a compromise in order to be successful. Would anyone like to add anything?
Joe: I’ve learned a lot about how other people work and how to compromise in a group setting. Not to be cliché, but learning how to write and create songs as a group…And making Zubin answer the phone.
Ross: That is sort of banal. (Pauses) By the way I didn’t mean the question was banal, I meant his answer was banal.
Rob: We have an intra-band conflict over the pronunciation of the word ‘banal.’ (Arguing over the word ensues)

ME: What are some things that you guys rely on dynamically during live performances?
Ross: I think we rely on each other to make sure we really have everything down before we play. The last thing I want to worry about is whether Rob is going to hit a note, or whether Andrew has his parts down on the keyboard, or if Joe is going to remember the lyrics. I rely on everyone else to be on the ball when it comes time to perform.
Zubin: I’m going to add something to that. Because we spend so much time together and because we are all such good friends, I think that adds something to our performance. It’s an almost inside joke type banter with each other. It keeps things relaxed. A camaraderie of sorts.

ME: In what ways has the Internet helped your band?
Tally Hall: We couldn’t have done it without the Internet.
Rob: There are a few major Internet factions that have been able to help us along. The first is that Zubin designed an awesome Web site using flash. Our Web site is awesome. Joe’s videos on our Internet site have allowed us to attract a lot of people and they’ve allowed us to branch out and reach other Internet hot spots. The ‘Banana Man’ video was on a site called albinoblacksheep.com that got a ton of hits. Because it was on there it spread to a lot of other blogs and forums. Online networking communities, mainly Myspace.com, have enabled us to promote ourselves online effectively.
Joe: TheFaceBook.com (it’s a college specific Web site like Myspace.com) is a local site that I went through and added a ton of friends to and we’d email everyone when we had a show in Ann Arbor.
Rob: And themusicedge has been helpful, we’ve had a lot of downloads off of there as well.
Andrew: We figured if we let people download our music for free, and if they liked it, they’d pass it on to friends. So, in that way it’s been a great success.
Rob: We should mention one other Web sitethat has been helpful to us called indie911.com. They allow us to stream our material for free and that’s where a lot of people say they first hear us. They also give us a little bit of money for radio play. It’s not much but it’s still pretty cool.

Tally Hall is a band that is utilizing every resource available to make their presence felt in the world of music. From the Internet and benefit shows to song competitions like BMI’s John Lennon Scholarship Competition, which garnered the band a first prize for their song “Good Day,” the possibilities are virtually endless for a band with the right amount of patience and ambition. Tally Hall will be touring this summer, so keep your eyes open. This might be your last chance to catch them in a small, intimate setting.

Thanks to Zubin, Joe, Ross, Rob and Andrew!!!!

For more information, please visit www.tallyhall.com or check out their songs in the musicedge.com MP3 section.

By Shane Roeschlein

[quote:8bc271ad61="olivergringold"]
http://www.themusicedge.com/moxie/news/spotartist/tally...l-on-the-verge.shtml
[/quote:8bc271ad61]

great job, Oliver!

I've never seen that before.
I'm sure there's a lot of old stuff I haven't seen yet..

thank you for that!

[quote:5a97d88bf6="Doris"][quote:5a97d88bf6="olivergringold"]
http://www.themusicedge.com/moxie/news/spotartist/tally...l-on-the-verge.shtml
[/quote:5a97d88bf6]

great job, Oliver!

I've never seen that before.
I'm sure there's a lot of old stuff I haven't seen yet..

thank you for that![/quote:5a97d88bf6]
A lot of the old articles can be found in HITS.

yeah, and if you've found an article, it would be best to just post the link instead of the whole sotry

Well, I thought it was interesting, so meh.

[quote:ba393210aa="olwhatshername"]yeah, and if you've found an article, it would be best to just post the link instead of the whole sotry[/quote:ba393210aa]

sometimes pages go missing...

[quote:f35253f5f3="olwhatshername"]yeah, and if you've found an article, it would be best to just post the link instead of the whole sotry[/quote:f35253f5f3]props for the use of the word "sotry."

http://www.thedailypage.com/going-out/theguide/event.php?id=145651

this technically isn't exposure but i thought i was cool
http://www.2bhifi.com/kiki/archives/001128.html