DARYL HALL

Daryl Hall has had the great good fortune, in his own words, of “being in the right place at the right time” for what has turned out a rich and varied career. He has worked with virtually all of the great musicians of modern popular music as well as entering into new relationships with the best of the latest generation of artists.

Starting his career as a teenager on the streets of Philadelphia, he quickly formed creative affiliations with such artists as Smokey Robinson, the Temptations and many other top soul singers of the ‘60s. He began his recording career with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, working as both an artist and session musician.

In 1972, he formed a partnership with childhood friend John Oates and embarked on a 30-odd year creative journey. In addition to his work with Oates, he has made music as a solo artist, first recording with Robert Fripp in the late ‘70s, producing the much-acclaimed Sacred Songs as well as working on Fripp’s critically praised Exposure.

From the mid-’70s to the mid-’80s, Daryl and John would score six #1 singles, including “Rich Girl” (also #1 R&B), “Kiss on My List,” “Private Eyes,” “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) (also #1 R&B), “Maneater” and “Out of Touch” from their six consecutive multi-platinum albums—’76’s Bigger Than Both of Us, ’80’s Voices, ’81’s Private Eyes, ‘82’s H2O, ‘83’s Rock N Soul, Part I and ‘84’s Big Bam Boom. The era would also produce an additional 5 Top 10 singles, “Sara Smile,” “One on One,” “You Make My Dreams,” “Say It Isn’t So” and “Method of Modern Love.”

Daryl also wrote the H&O single "Everytime You Go Away," which singer Paul Young scored a number-one hit with a cover of the song in 1985.

That same year, Daryl and John, participated in the historic “We Are the World” session as well as closing the Live Aid show in Philadelphia.  Daryl also made an album with Dave Stewart that year, Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine. He has recorded such solo works as Soul Alone in 1993 and Can’t Stop Dreaming in 2003, both of which were received well internationally.

By 1987, the R.I.A.A. recognized Daryl Hall and John Oates as the NUMBER-ONE SELLING DUO in music history, a record they still hold today.

Daryl’s latest project is a monthly web series, Live from Daryl’s House (http://www.livefromdarylshouse.com).

Past episodes of Live from Daryl’s House have featured a mix of well-known performers like Smokey Robinson, The Doors’ Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek, Nick Lowe, K.T. Tunstall, Todd Rundgren, Gym Class Heroes’ Travis McCoy, Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, Finger Eleven’s James Black and Rick Jackett, the Bacon Brothers and country star Jimmy Wayne, along with newcomers such as Philly soul singer Mutlu, Canadian techno-rockers Chromeo, MySpace pop-rock phenom Eric Hutchinson, Cash Money rocker Kevin Rudolf, Wind-up Records’ Chicago rockers Company of Thieves, Bay Area singer/songwriter Matt Nathanson, Charlottesville, VA’s rising Parachute, Chicago rock band Plain White T’s, highly touted tunesmith Diane Birch and Brooklyn-based soul singer/songwriter Eli “Paperboy” Reed.

Daryl started the free monthly web show in late 2007 after having the idea of “playing with my friends and putting it up on the Internet,” and the show has since garnered acclaim from Rolling Stone, SPIN, Daily Variety, CNN, BBC, Yahoo! Music and influential blogger Bob Lefsetz, who have cited Live From Daryl’s House as a perfect example of a veteran artist reinventing himself in the digital age by collaborating with both established colleagues and newer performers.

 
CHROMEO

Chromeo is Pee Thug and Dave 1: best friends since their adolescence, virtuoso musicians, walking hip hop encyclopedias, and the only successful Arab/Jew partnership since the dawn of human culture. After spending the three years since the release of their debut album, She’s In Control, jet setting, globetrotting, and embarking on an overall sensual conquest of planet Earth, Chromeo headed back to their Montreal lab to put together album number deux.

The result, Fancy Footwork, is quite simply the most smoothed-out, hook-heavy, unabashed lovers’ funk since Chromeo’s last album, actually. What makes this footwork so fancy, you ask? Step the fuck off and open your heart to the finest distillation of Minneapolis groove this side of Mazarati. Dave and Pee are back in the ‘07 to heal the fractured soul of dance music. Teenage lovers, 20 something blogpoders, 30 something burn-out ex-raver “graphic designers” and 40 something sistas can all finally party under one roof…and that roof has a name, AND that roof is on fire, and the only ones who can put out that funk-fire also happen to be the guys the roof is named after: CHROMEO. Does analog synth wizard P-Thugg still rock nightgown-sized DipSet t-shirts, talk through a keyboard, and have the thousand-yard stare of a well-practiced gangster? You bet he fucking does. Does vocalist and guitarist Dave 1 still dress like a French Lit professor from 1965? Can he still ask you to twerk without coming off like an imposter? You better believe he can.

Chromeo is slick. Chromeo is dripping with reverb. Chromeo is Moog riffs, luxurious harmonies, macho guitar solos and real-deal songcraft. From the dancefloor-ready singles “Fancy Footwork” and “Tenderoni,” to the autobiographical Jew-boy ballad “Momma’s Boy,” to the epic sax-laden album closer “100%,” Fancy Footwork rolls you through a sleek, melodic world where all you need to worry about is whether you’ve got your sunglasses on and the right moves to keep up. Remember the debate when Chromeo first came on the scene? The endless back and forth about whether those boys were joking or not? Well, Fancy Footwork will put any vestigial haters to sleep forever. There ain’t nothing “ironical” about this music. It’s Hall & Oates riding on 22’s, busting shots in the air with Quincy Jones driving. That shit ain’t funny.

So there you have it: Chromeo, the band reborn…the sex, the beats, the dream, the suits, the gloves, the laughs, the tears, the past and the future. All rolled up into one big blunt, smoked up through Pee’s talkbox tube and exhaled into your brain. Enjoy.