Tally Hall’s Ustream Wrap-up

Tally Hall recently hosted two little listening parties on Ustream. They took questions and played some songs from their album, Good & Evil, which is finally being released on June 21st, almost 6 years after their last (and first) album was initially released. On Tuesday, June 14th, Ross, Rob, and Andrew broadcasted from Andrew’s apartment in Brooklyn. Some of the things they talked about were:

1. In a nutshell, the reason it took so long to release Good & Evil is that after they recorded it, they thought it sounded good, Atlantic thought it sounded good but they just wanted to hold on to it for a bit.  In the end they decided they didn’t want to release it after all and they gave it back to the band and took it to Quack, with whom they’re happy to be back with.
2. The “?????” item in the Deluxe Edition is  dependent  on what number you were in the pre-order, so you will receive more or less gifts depending on what number you were.
3. Andrew thinks La Roux’s “Bulletproof” was the best single of the last year.
4. Grinnell  College had streakers when they played there.
5. “I’m Gonna Win” was the song that JUST BARELY missed the cut.
6. Rob once again answered the question of “Whatever happened to [his song] Time Machine?” with “Gone. Sometimes you have to kill your babies.”
7. Andrew reiterates a question and answers it:  “Is this gonna be our last album?  Maybe…… maybe NOT….” and cites The Office as the inspiration for his answer.  Do you get the reference?  If so, comment below.
8. A question was asked about live drums.  Ross says “Pretty much, yes.  Everything was done live with a few exceptions.”
9. Rob got a voicemail in the middle of the broadcast from a man dialing a wrong number and wants the callee to know his boat is ready to be put in the water.
10. “Why is the tour 18+?” Andrew says they TRY to play All Ages venues, but venues don’t make money on alcohol if it’s All Ages, so they can’t always play All Ages venues.  But if you can organize a show while they’re in town, and it makes sense for them to play (ie. they have the time & they won’t lose much money), maybe they’ll do something.  You can contact them through Twitter or email band@tallyhall.com or through Facebook.  They will try to figure something out.
11. They don’t hate Florida!  Unfortunately, it’s kinda far to get to on tour sometimes.  (During the 2nd night, Joe also addressed this by saying he specifically tried to book a show in Florida… but it just didn’t work out.  “The resources associated with this situation are not aligning in a way that may or may not be considered desirable. Trying to be diplomatic.”)  Rob brings up a good point by asking Floridians if THEY ever thought about moving.
12. They would consider writing a broadway musical (we have heard rumors that they may have already worked/will be working on such a thing).
13. Will there be a 2nd season of THIS?  There may or may not be.
14. They advise asking Joe about his disappearance on the 2nd night of the Ustream, which the people did.
15. “Fate of The Stars” was specifically not played.  They’re leaving that as at least one surprise for when we have the album in hand.
16. Ross picks Team Zombies over Team Unicorns.
17. Andrew does do lead vocals on a couple songs.
18. Why is Ross’s hair grey?  Ask Zubin and Joe.
19. Andrew wants to know if anyone actually LISTENS to vinyl or is it just a collectors thing.
20. Joe designed and did all the artwork throughout the album.
21. They half-seriously suggested that if you play a weird or unique instrument, to email them and they might let you play on stage with them while they’re in town.
22. “Stationary Love” will probably not be on the next album (or any album after that).
23. Andrew supports Tracy Morgan’s freedom of speech.  Rob agrees.

Throughout the broadcast, they played three songs from Good & Evil; Never Meant To Know, Misery Fell, and Out In The Twilight. Here are the recordings of those songs, as we heard them… which was not too clean to begin with. (Apologies for the missing beginning of Never Meant To Know)

Never Meant To Know:

Misery Fell:

Out In The Twilight:

Joe and Zubin helmed the second night of the Ustream listening party on June 15th from the offices of QuackMedia in Ann Arbor. Oh, Bora was there too, via Skype (or something like it). Some of the things they talked about were:

1. Zubin says “Cannibal” is about being very hungry and having no other options.
2. Joe was asked why he wasn’t on the last tour.  “Seems like a question that should be addressed.  Basically… my personal life and my professional life intersected in a way that may have been considered unsavory.  So given that conflict, I was unable to tour.  I will be on the tour at the end of July into August.”
3. “What happened to THIS?”  Zubin says THIS died.  But it’s still alive.  So that answers that.  (He later says there’s nothing planned for THIS season 2.  Joe adds they had a lot of ideas for it.  But Atlantic still owns THIS so they’re still affiliated with them in that regard.)
4. Joe:  “There is sort of a story to this album [Good & Evil].  It’s the story of mathematics, or a paradox.  There’s a scene in Labyrinth that kind of references this album , or vice versa.  It’s the scene involving the two guards.  ‘One of always tells the truth and one of us always lies.‘  It’s a riddle.”
5. Zubin is pretty confident that Andrew had the longest beard but Joe thinks Ross’s had something going on during the album.  Bora had a halloween party at his house and Ross dressed up as a convincing Moses.
6. Zubin would love to go to Ireland or anywhere abroad.
7. They are currently talking about music videos.  It’s still in the works, so they don’t really know.
8. This tour will have some Marvin’s content played but mostly focusing on their new album.
9. “Why is Ross’s hair grey?”  Genetics.
10. This will be the only planned tour of 2011.
11. Aside from Bora who whistled, there were no other guest musicians on the album except perhaps Tony Hoffer (producer).
12. To record MMMM, they visited the Music School of Michigan to record all sorts of things;  they went outdoors, did some field recordings, had big groups of friends sing & clap, etc.  Good & Evil was a much more pared down album and it focused more on their instruments and kind of keeping it simple, especially relative to Marvin’s anyway.
13. Joe has played Shadow of  Colossus.
14. “Do you guys mind when people record your live shows?” Zubin:  “Yeah, why not.  Have at it.  It’s not normally the… the recorded version of the song is kind of what we’d prefer people to hear, but there’s also an element of live that you can’t get anywhere else. So… go for it.”
15. “Have Mary-Kate and Ashley heard Two Wuv?”  They don’t know.
16. The first album Zubin every bought was Ini Kamoze’s  “Here Comes the Hotstepper”  followed by Green Day’s “Dookie.”  Joe doesn’t recall his first album.  But remembers his dad bought him a lot of Beatles albums in one go.  To impress a cute girl on his bus, Zubin said The Beatles were his favorite band (even though he didn’t know much about them at the time).
17. Zubin’s a  fair-weather  fan of “Weird Al” Yankovic.
18. “I was wondering if you’d ever make older, rare songs available for download.  I’d love to pay for them.”  Zubin says:  “That’s an interesting thought.  I don’t think we’d ever make them available but they’re probably floating around out there if you wanted to get your hands on them.”
19. Zubin currently is listening to Fleet Foxes and Al Green.  Joe’s current faves are a secret.
20. Zubin is very weary of consuming baked goods from fans because he knows they’ll have a show the next night and doesn’t want anything to go wrong.
21. There will be new Tally Hall swag on the website soon.
22. Zubin’s favorite venue might be The Blind Pig, not necessarily for the sound but for the atmosphere and energy of the Ann Arborites.
23. Neither of them have had a McBeastly.  (A McChicken, a McDouble, and a double quarter-pounder… one unit, three sandwiches.)
24. Bora will hopefully be coming along on the tour and documenting the whole thing and adding his signature Bora flair.

They also played three songs; Cannibal, Sacred Beast, and You. Here are those recordings.

Cannibal:

Sacred Beast:

You:

Thanks to David Thom and Joe Jakubowski for the audio recordings – and to “bbgun” on LiveStream for archiving the streams for our re-viewing pleasure.