Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum (M.M.M.M.) is Tally Hall's debut studio album. Their previous recordings were all independently produced and distributed demos. All of the tracks on the album are fleshed-out, finished versions of their demo tracks, with the exception of "Haiku," which is a completely new song. The album gets its name from a museum of mechanized curiosities of the same name located in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

The album was officially re-released on September 12, 2006 under the Quack! Media label.Article about Tally Hall, including video clip of band's segment that was featured on MTV This re-release coincided with additional publicity on MTV, national distribution in all major retail stores, and various other TV appearances including The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. The music video for "Good Day" was first shown at Tally Hall's two Ann Arbor concerts, on September 23, 2006.

Tally Hall was later signed with Atlantic Records and was approved to go back and touch-up Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum at Stratosphere Sound Recording Studios in NYC. The first single (Good Day) from the new version of M.M.M.M. was released February 26, 2008. The new version of the album was released on April 1st, 2008. This release also included a vinyl LP pressing of the album.

References

Artist/Band Information

Tally Hall is an American rock band formed in December 2002 based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 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. They are known for their upbeat melodies and whimsical lyrics, the band members themselves having once described their musical style as "wonky rock" (although they now refer to themselves as a "fabloo rock" band, where Rob describes the band's dropping of the "wonky rock" genre in favor of a less-restrictive title.). They are preparing to release their highly anticipated sophomore album, Good & Evil , which was recorded in October/November, 2009.

History

Often recognized by their trademark colored ties, Rob (yellow-vocals/guitar), Zubin (blue-vocals/bass), Ross (grey-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 toured promoting their album, with shows mostly featuring tracks from the album. However, their live concerts often feature a couple cover songs such as "Free Bird", "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?", "Blinded by the Light", "Who Loves The Sun", "Praise You", "Happy Together", "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", and "To Be with You", but they're probably best known for their cover of Biz Markie's "Just a Friend", which they used to end every set with. As of 2008, it was said to be "retired" from their set but they will still perform it from time to time (they included it in a July 2009 show and a December 2009 in Detroit and Austin, respectively). A live version of Just a Friend can be found on The Pingry EP. In 2006, a studio version was recorded and is now considered a bonus song provided by Atlantic Records and distributed via download codes handed out at live shows and through the hiddeninthesand.com Twitter account, where Tally Hall bonus songs are randomly distributed..

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 2006Article about Tally Hall, including video clip of band's segment that was featured on MTV . 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. HITS Blogs update announcing Tally Hall's upcoming collaboration with Nellie McKay. 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. H.I.T.S. update featuring a clip of "Light & Night" with Nellie McKay. 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 is reported that Joe Hawley has unexpectedly backed out of the entire tour for currently unknown reasons. Hawley was replaced with Casey Shea, who wears 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.

The band is managed by The Hornblow Group, who also manages They Might Be Giants, OK Go, and Oppenheimer.

Videos

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.

Tally Hall's Internet Show

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 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".

Episode List

# Good Day (9/15/2008) – 9:24

# Death Request (9/29/2008) – 11:35

# Taken for a Ride (10/13/2008) – 9:17

# Welcome to Tally Hall (10/27/2008) – 11:37

# Who Cares (11/10/2008) – 9:24

# Mary-Kate And Ashley (11/24/2008) – 10:31

# 15 Seconds of Bora (12/8/2008) – 9:08

# The Whole World and You (12/22/2008) – 11:06

# Potato Vs. Spoon (1/5/2009) – 8:32

# Good Night (1/19/2009) – 10:53

Band members

Current members

*Rob Cantor (Yellow tie) – Guitar and vocals

*Ross Federman (Grey 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 (Grey tie) – Drums (2002–2004)

Discography

Studio albums

*Complete Demos (2004) (Independent)

*Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum (2005) (Quack!Media) (Re-released in 2008 on Atlantic Records)

*Good & Evil (2010) (Atlantic Records)

Singles

*Good Day – Single (2008) (Atlantic Records)

*Light & Night (f/ Nellie McKay) (2009) (N/A)

E.P.'s

*Partyboobytrap (2003) (Independent)

*Welcome To Tally Hall (2004) (Independent)

*The Pingry EP (2005) (Independent)

Compilations/Soundtracks

*Music from the OC: Mix 6 (2006)

*The Sims 2: Apartment Life (2008)

Trivia

*Vaughn English, an unsuccessful contestant on the 2009 season of American Idol, auditioned by singing Tally Hall's song, "Banana Man." The contestant dressed in a yellow suit during the audition. Vaughn English singing Banana Man on American Idol

*Tally Hall wrote and performed every song featured on Playhouse Disney's short series Happy Monster Band.

*The song "Banana Man" has also been featured on The Real World: Key West.

*"Good Day" was featured on the television series The O.C.

*Tally Hall's "The Whole World and You" can be heard in a commercial for Crayola's 3D Sidewalk ChalkCrayola commercial featuring Tally Hall's "The Whole World and You" .

References