Tally Hall, The Spinto Band preview

Tally Hall, The Spinto Band
Schubas, Chicago
Thursday, March 20 & Friday, March 21, 2008

How chipper can one band possibly be? Recession is breathing down our necks, most the world dislikes the United States, extreme weather is ravaging our country, and soon it will be cheaper to charter a flight to work than drive. But damnit if Tally Hall will let that stuff get them down.

There isn’t a storm cloud to be found in the 14 songs on Tally Hall’s Atlantic debut, Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum. Hell, the first thing you hear on the album (originally released by Quack in 2005) is the members harmonizing, a capella, the line “I’d like to welcome you and say hello/Good day” on “Good Day.” Even when the group (four of the five members sing, so pinpointing an exact frontman isn’t easy) struggles with a long-distance relationship on “Greener” Tally Hall manage to sound like they wrote the song in a rehearsal room full of fluffy bunny rabbits. Elsewhere they go calypso for the bizarre “Banana Man,” rap surprisingly well on “Welcome To Tally Hall” (the band are named after a suburban Detroit mall home to the arcade, Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum – see a link to it on the band’s Myspace page), and try to seduce the Olsen twins on “Two Wuv” (“Mary Kate and Ashley/I hope you understand/that I love you a lot and I want to be your man”).

Openers The Spinto Band are a bit less A.D.D. but just as feely goody with their bouncy indie pop. At least that’s the impression we formed from the three-song – “Later On,” They All Laughed,” and “Summer Grof” – disc we received. We’re assuming (nobody bothered to send us any info other than the band name and song titles) it’s a sampler (CD-R, after all) of material from the record the band recorded with producer Dave Trumfio late last year but, according to a February 18th post on their Web site, haven’t set a release date for.

The Thursday show starts at 9 p.m. and also includes The Moneynotes; the Friday gig is all-ages and starts at 7.

– Trevor Fisher

Click here for streaming Tally Hall samples.

Click here for streaming Spinto Band samples.

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly