The Facts About Tally Hall’s Next Album

EDIT:   Before you read this outdated article, please note that all current information about Tally Hall’s next/new/upcoming album (entitled Good & Evil) is in the Tally Hallmanac:
https://www.hiddeninthesand.com/wiki/index.php?title=Good_%26_Evil

There’s been a lot of skewed and/or completely false information lately, scattered around the internet, about the reasons for delay and/or current status of Tally Hall’s next album. I felt it was necessary we focus on the facts and get a more accurate sense of just what’s going on. So… after some bothersome nudging of a few members of Tally Hall, please read what I’ve been able to rip from their brains. Oddly enough, I think this whole thing is so far out of their hands at this point, that no single band member knows all the details of where they’re at as a whole.

Before I go any further, I must emphasize the fact that Tally Hall is made up of 5 very smart, mature, and patient guys. They won’t show dissatisfaction about any one person or thing, even if they’re feeling it. They will show their frustration with a situation, but never point any fingers. And that’s exactly what’s happening here. But that’s because, in this situation, the blame for the delay can be placed in a number of places.

Tally Hall has a 2nd album. It is written. It is ready. I don’t know all the tracks on it, but I think we can safely assume many of the songs on it are the ones we heard on the May ’09 tour. But it’s not being recorded. Not yet, anyway.

At this point, I can say it’s Atlantic who has given the red light. We’ve learned this from Maxwell’s recent post. And after all I’ve heard, I believe it’s fair to assume that Atlantic has not felt the album was good enough to warrant spending however-many-dollars on making this record back in January when recording was originally supposed to start. Hey, the times really are tough and Tally Hall still is relatively unknown, so there’s no telling if the money Atlantic spends will be made back. So it appears the whole project’s been on hold because of this.

But is it Atlantic’s fault? From what I gather, it is and it’s not. Yes, they’re the ones in control.   Their hands are on the button, if you will. But you can trace this back to the current state of the record industry, too. I’ve spoken to a number of people at Atlantic. They all do genuinely love music. But this is a big-time company and they’re not going to be taking any risks during this poor economy, which promotes even more pirating of music throughout this very confusing change for the entire record industry. You’d have a valid argument if you said a good (i.e. not manufactured pop/hip-hop) band can gain more exposure (and possibly more income) on an independent label these days.

The good news is, Atlantic is contractually obligated to put the record out at some point, and as I understand it, Tally Hall plans to begin recording this fall and are hoping for an early 2010 release.

Is this definite? No. We’ve heard this before.   So I thought it might be a good idea to somehow get Atlantic’s attention and let them know we will support AND PURCHASE the next album, when it’s released. One way to do this is by sporting a Tally Hall twibbon on your Twitter avatar, like so:

See, it’s Tally Hall’s logo… but mixed with a roman numeral 2… as in Tally Hall #2!   Get it?   It’s clever.   Admit it.

But if a twibbon is worn in the twforrest, and no one is around to see it… does it make a difference?
Not a whole lot. Which is why I propose we all send a tweet to @atlanticrecords all about the same time while sporting our twibbons and tell them you are tired of waiting for Tally Hall’s next album. We currently only have 50 people wearing this twibbon so I sincerely hope more of you put one on. It’s really easy. Just go here: http://twibbon.com/join/Tally-Halls-2nd-Album

Here’s an example tweet for you to use if you wish:

@atlanticrecords Dear Atlantic, I am tired of waiting for #Tallyhall ‘s next album. Please make it happen so I can buy it!

Recommended tweet time: 1:00pm EST Friday, August 7th.
If you can’t do it then, do it as close to then as possible.

Also, if you don’t have — and don’t want — a Twitter account, you can send that message to catharine.mcnelly@atlanticrecords.com (I don’t know who the best person to send it to is, but I’m sure she’s one of them)

I’m also told there will hopefully be some more exciting news to come before the album even gets recorded. Make sure to stay subscribed to the HITS News feed, or the HITS Twitter to stay informed!

P.S. About that Mancow situation. I’ve been told that Mancow jumped the gun by announcing he’d play a new song on his radio show. He was then asked not to by the band, who I should mention, were not mad at him whatsoever and are extremely appreciative of Mancow’s support of Tally Hall throughout their career. They did give him some demos to listen to, though. Just to get some feedback from him. No word on what his opinion was, though.   Please accept my insincere apologies for creating any undeserved hate-mail sent his way.