Tally Hall (band)

Early years

Often recognized by their trademark colored ties, Cantor (yellow-vocals/guitar), Sedghi (blue-vocals/bass), Federman (gray-percussion), Hawley (red-vocals/guitar), and Horowitz (green-vocals/keys) make up Tally Hall, which got its start in 2002. Horowitz, 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 Cantor, who had both attended high school with Sedghi and joined Hawley's film production group. When Tally Hall's original drummer left the band, they recruited Federman, who had gone to high school with Hawley.

The name "Tally Hall" comes from its use as 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, remains there, though the shopping center has changed names.

In 2005, the band released their debut studio album, Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum.

The band has received 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, 2008, 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.

Tours and Good & Evil

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, 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.

In their 2010 March tour with Jukebox the Ghost and Skybox, it was reported that Joe Hawley had unexpectedly backed out of the tour. Hawley was replaced with Casey Shea, who wore a black tie. On March 25, 2011, the band announced that all five original band members were still together.

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.

With the release of Good & Evil, Tally Hall returned to their original label, Quack!Media.

Post-Good & Evil

After the release of Good & Evil, the band became inactive, and all of its members went on to more or less independent endeavors.

Horowitz, under the moniker "edu", released a solo album called sketches in 2012. He also was involved in production and piano on John Legend's Love in the Future.

Hawley returned to school, but released an album, Hawaii: Part II, as part of his musical side project ミラクルミュージカル (Miracle Musical). He collaborated with Tally Hall members Sedghi, Federman, and Cantor on the album. Hawley later released Hawaii: Part II: Part ii, a compilation of outtakes and demos of the original album.

Cantor released his solo album, Not a Trampoline, on April 14, 2014. In addition, he has made several viral videos on YouTube, including "SHIA LABEOUF" and "29 Celebrity Impressions, 1 Original Song - Rob Cantor".

Federman has made occasional appearances as producer, percussionist, and DJ with the pseudonym "Mr. F", although his main focus has been school. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a 4.0 science GPA, and is attending Yale University for grad school. Sedghi, aside from appearing in Hawaii: Part II, has simply stayed in school.

In mid-2016, Joe Hawley announced his new hip-hop music project "Joe Hawley Joe Hawley" which was released October of that year.

Videos

In addition to music, the band has also created 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 the song 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.

In July 2014, band member Rob Cantor released a video in which he seemed to perform his song "Perfect" by singing spot-on impressions of 29 celebrities. In the video, Cantor is accompanied by another band member, Andrew Horowitz, on piano and backing vocals. The video received more than 7,000,000 hits in 10 days. Shortly thereafter, Cantor revealed the video to be an elaborate hoax.

Tally Hall's Internet Show

Taking on an even larger role within the band's video portfolio was 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 ran 10 minutes long and was posted on their website. The content primarily included 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".

Episode List

1. Good Day (September 15, 2008) – 9:24
2. Death Request (September 29, 2008) – 11:35
3. Taken for a Ride (October 13, 2008) – 9:17
4. Welcome to Tally Hall (October 27, 2008) – 11:37
5. Who Cares (November 10, 2008) – 9:24
6. Mary-Kate And Ashley (November 24, 2008) – 10:31
7. 15 Seconds of Bora (December 8, 2008) – 9:08
8. The Whole World and You (December 22, 2008) – 11:06
9. Potato Vs. Spoon (January 5, 2009) – 8:32
10. Good Night (January 19, 2009) – 10:53

Current members

Additional touring members

Past members

Studio albums

Singles

EPs

Compilations/Soundtracks

In other media

Tally Hall's "Banana Man" was featured on The Real World: Key West. The song "The Whole World and You" can be heard in a commercial for Crayola's 3D Sidewalk Chalk. In addition, the song "Mucka Blucka" was used in the 4th season premiere of The Good Wife.