Rob Cantor

Last updated

Rob Cantor
Rob Cantor1.jpg
Cantor performing with Tally Hall in 2006
Background information
Birth nameRobert Howard Cantor
Born (1983-08-26) August 26, 1983 (age 40)
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, United States
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • singer-songwriter
Instrument(s)
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Years active2002–present
Labels
Member of Tally Hall

Robert Howard Cantor (born August 26, 1983) is an American singer-songwriter and creator of multiple viral videos. He is mostly known as a vocalist, guitarist, and co-writer for the indie rock band Tally Hall.

Contents

In addition, Cantor is also known for his solo work as a comedy musician and viral video creator, particularly from the viral comedy song "Shia LaBeouf", in which actor Shia LaBeouf is depicted as a cannibalistic serial killer. His other work has included a solo album titled Not a Trampoline, and another viral video, "29 Celebrity Impressions, 1 Original Song".

Early life

Cantor was born and raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. [1] His father is an OB-GYN. Cantor is Jewish; he had his bar mitzvah at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. [2]

Later, in 2002, while attending University of Michigan, he formed Tally Hall with bassist Zubin Sedghi and musician Andrew Horowitz. He majored in molecular biology, with a minor in nonprofessional music. He graduated in 2005, and turned down a full scholarship to medical school in order to pursue music full-time with Tally Hall. [1]

Career

Tally Hall

Between 2002 and 2011, Cantor performed as a guitarist and vocalist of the Michigan-based band Tally Hall. Tally Hall is currently on hiatus. The band's six members are distinguished by the color of their neckties, with Cantor's signature color being yellow. [3]

Cantor's career as a member of Tally Hall saw the release of two full-length albums: Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum (2005), and Good & Evil (2011). The band also released one full demo album, titled Complete Demos (2004). [3] "The Bidding", which Cantor co-provided lead vocals for, was certified gold by the RIAA on July 12, 2023, along with the band's song "Hidden in the Sand". [4]

Work with ミラクルミュージカル (Miracle Musical)

In 2012, Cantor would make contributions to the musical project ミラクルミュージカル, spearheaded by Joe Hawley of Tally Hall. He performed vocals alongside Hawley for both the single "Variations on a Cloud," released on September 11, 2012, and for the track "Time Machine" from the album Hawaii: Part II, released on December 12. [5]

Viral videos

Since 2011, Cantor has worked on multiple viral projects, including songs and corresponding viral videos, posted on his SoundCloud and YouTube pages. In 2012, he released the comedy songs "Christian Bale Is at Your Party" and "Shia LaBeouf" (also known as "Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf"). [6] In the latter, Cantor narrates a story about the actor Shia LaBeouf as a cannibalistic serial killer. Cantor posted a demo of the song to his SoundCloud page, from which it spread virally. [7]

On July 1, 2014, Cantor posted a video titled "29 Celebrity Impressions, 1 Original Song", in which he and his friend from Tally Hall, Andrew Horowitz performed Cantor's song "Perfect" in 29 different celebrity impressions. A week later, he released a making-of video, demonstrating that the act was a hoax done through audio and video editing, and in fact featured 11 different impressionists dubbing over his voice. [8]

On October 21, 2014, Cantor posted a video titled "'Shia LaBeouf' – Live", the music video to his 2012 song of the same name. The video is a mockup of a live performance, featuring numerous dancers and performers, primarily the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles, the West Los Angeles Children's Choir, and the Argus Quartet. At the end of the video, the actor Shia LaBeouf is seen applauding the performance, in a parody of a scene from Citizen Kane . [7] [9] [10] Cantor has stated that the video took four months to organize and one day to shoot, and that it was worked on by 161 people, including Cantor's former musical collaborators Zubin Sedghi, Bora Karaca and Zach Krasman. [10] The video was nominated for best "Individual Short or Episode (Online Film & Video)" at the 19th Annual Webby Awards and won. [11]

Not a Trampoline and other work

During Tally Hall's hiatus, Cantor has focused on his solo career, working as a commercial songwriter and eventually releasing a solo album, Not a Trampoline, in 2014. [6] [12] Cantor later worked with Intel in 2016 in a promotion for True Key. [13] [14] In recent years, Cantor has done a notable amount of work with several Disney TVA properties – contributing his musical talents to the soundtracks of multiple shows, including Disney Junior's T.O.T.S. and Disney Channel's The Ghost and Molly McGee . [15] [16] He frequently partners with Genevieve Goings in producing Disney-affiliated nursery rhymes, lullabies, and other simple children's songs, and The Ghost and Molly McGee features one-minute Cantor originals once per each episode. [17] [18] Cantor also contributed the song "I Stand by Your Side" to the soundtrack of 2023 film River Wild. [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cannibal Corpse</span> American death metal band

Cannibal Corpse is an American death metal band formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1988, now based out of Tampa, Florida. The band has released sixteen studio albums, two box sets, four video albums, and two live albums. The band has had little radio or television exposure throughout its existence, although a cult following began to build with the releases of their early albums, including Butchered at Birth (1991) and Tomb of the Mutilated (1992). As of 2015, they achieved worldwide sales of two million units for combined sales of all their albums. In April 2021, Cannibal Corpse received their best "first week" sales of all-time and first Top 10 on the Billboard Top Album Sales Chart as Violence Unimagined entered at No. 6 with 14,000 copies sold.

Even Stevens is an American comedy television series produced by Brookwell McNamara Entertainment that originally aired on Disney Channel from June 17, 2000, to June 2, 2003, airing a total of 65 episodes spanning three seasons. It follows the life of the Stevens, a family living in suburban Sacramento, California, mainly focusing on the clashing personalities of its two younger children, Ren and Louis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shia LaBeouf</span> American actor (born 1986)

Shia Saide LaBeouf is an American actor, performance artist, and filmmaker. He played Louis Stevens in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens, a role for which he received Young Artist Award nominations in 2001 and 2002 and won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2003. He made his film debut in The Christmas Path (1998). In 2004, he made his directorial debut with the short film Let's Love Hate and later directed a short film titled Maniac (2011), starring American rappers Cage and Kid Cudi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cage (rapper)</span> American rapper

Christian Palko, better known by his stage name Cage, is an American rapper from Middletown, New York. With a majority of his career being spent with record labels Definitive Jux and Eastern Conference. He has released six solo albums, in addition to two compilation albums and two EPs.

<i>Marvins Marvelous Mechanical Museum</i> (album) 2005 studio album by Tally Hall

For the Museum, see Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum.

<i>Complete Demos</i> 2004 compilation album by Tally Hall

Complete Demos is the compendium of Tally Hall's first two EP disks, Welcome to Tally Hall and Party Boobytrap, both of which were recorded in Joe Hawley's attic. "Good Day" won Andrew Horowitz $10,000 in the 2004 BMI Foundation's John Lennon Scholarship Competition. "Just Apathy" was named the Grand Prize Winners for Session II of the 2005 John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the pop music category. In addition to Welcome to Tally Hall and Party Boobytrap, Tally Hall recorded the Pingry EP demo disk which primarily consisted of acoustic one-take demos. Several songs from the Pingry disk were re-recorded in addition to songs from Complete Demos and others to form Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tally Hall</span> American rock band

Tally Hall is an American rock band formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in December 2002, and publicly active until the conclusion of their Good & Evil tour in 2011. The band is known for its upbeat melodies and whimsical lyrics. The members originally described their musical style as "wonky rock", later redefining their sound as "fabloo", in an effort to not let their music be defined by any particular genres after critics began defining the characteristics of "wonky rock".

<i>Born Villain</i> 2012 studio album by Marilyn Manson

Born Villain is the eighth studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on April 25, 2012 by Cooking Vinyl and Marilyn Manson's independent record label Hell, etc. It was the band's first release since the departure of Ginger Fish, who had been their drummer since 1995, and was their only album to feature Fred Sablan. The record was co-produced by the band's eponymous vocalist alongside former Nine Inch Nails member Chris Vrenna, who left shortly after its completion to focus on other production work.

<i>Muppets: The Green Album</i> 2011 compilation album by Various artists

Muppets: The Green Album is a cover album of twelve songs originally from the Muppets, covered by alternative rock and pop artists. The album was released by Walt Disney Records on August 23, 2011, on a digipak CD and as a digital download. A music video was also produced for the album's sole single; "Muppet Show Theme Song", featuring OK Go attempting to produce their own music video until they are interrupted by the Muppets' antics.

"Marijuana" is a song by American hip hop recording artist Kid Cudi, taken from his second studio album Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (2010). The song was produced by Cudi, alongside American record producer Dot da Genius, who provided the song's guitar solo.

<i>Born Villain</i> (film) 2011 film by Shia LaBeouf

Born Villain is a surrealist horror short film directed by actor Shia LaBeouf in collaboration with singer Marilyn Manson. The film features a series of vignettes involving Manson's character cutting women's hair, a doctor inserting an eyeball into a woman's vagina, and characters reciting passages from William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Born Villain is sound-tracked by the Marilyn Manson song "Overneath the Path of Misery".

"Fjögur píanó" is a song by Icelandic band Sigur Rós from their sixth studio album, Valtari. Two official music videos were released. The first, directed by Alma Har'el and starring Shia LaBeouf and Denna Thomsen, premiered on June 18, 2012. The second premiered on 15 October and was directed by Anafelle Liu, Dio Lau and Ken Ngan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elastic Heart</span> 2013 song by Australian singer Sia

"Elastic Heart" is a song written by Australian singer Sia, featuring Canadian singer the Weeknd and American record producer Diplo, for the soundtrack of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, a film based on the novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins. Andrew Swanson assisted the artists in writing the song, with production handled by Diplo and US producer Greg Kurstin. It was released on 1 October 2013 as a single from Catching Fire by RCA, Republic and Lionsgate. "Elastic Heart" peaked at number 7 on the singles chart of New Zealand and was certified gold by the Recorded Music NZ. It also appeared on the charts of Australia, Belgium, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FKA Twigs</span> English singer and dancer (born 1988)

Tahliah Debrett Barnett, known professionally as FKA Twigs, is a British singer, songwriter, and dancer. She was a backup dancer for numerous musicians, and made her musical debut with EP1 (2012). Barnett's debut studio album, LP1 (2014), reached number 16 on the UK Albums Chart and number 30 on the US Billboard 200. It was nominated for that year's Mercury Prize. She released the EP M3LL155X (2015) and took a four-year hiatus, after which she released her second studio album, Magdalene (2019). After signing with Atlantic Records, she released the mixtape Caprisongs (2022). Her work has garnered acclaim and has been described as "genre-bending", drawing on various genres including electronic music, trip hop, R&B, and avant-garde.

"Shia LaBeouf" is a 2012 song by singer-songwriter Rob Cantor that portrays Hollywood actor Shia LaBeouf as a cannibal. In 2014, Cantor released an expanded music video with a cameo from LaBeouf himself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melissa Villaseñor</span> American comedian (born 1987)

Melissa Anne Villaseñor is an American comedian and actress. First garnering attention for her stand-up shows and impressions, Villaseñor found wider success when she was hired to join the cast of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live ahead of the show's 42nd season in 2016. She then departed SNL at the end of the 47th season in 2022, after six seasons as a cast member.

LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner is an artist trio consisting of American actor and artist Shia LaBeouf, Finnish artist Nastja Säde Rönkkö, and British artist Luke Turner. Their performance art explores connection, emotion, and collaboration across digital and physical platforms.

"The Bidding" is a song by American rock band Tally Hall. It was released on October 24, 2005 as track 5 of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum. The song was written by Joe Hawley with vocals led by Hawley, Rob Cantor, and Zubin Sedghi. It received generally positive reception, amassing over 171 million streams on Spotify and 27 million plays on YouTube. In 2019, the song became a viral song on the social media platform TikTok, with many using the beginning verse and two ending verses as a sped-up soundbite on the site.

"Hidden in the Sand" is a song by American rock band Tally Hall. It appears as a hidden track on the band's debut album, Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum. It's the band's most popular song due to usage on TikTok.

References

  1. 1 2 Lax, Rick. "Tally Hall: Welcome To Tally Hall". Unrated Magazine. Archived from the original on June 4, 2016. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  2. ↑ Chessler, Suzanne (January 5, 2006). "Building Buzz: Ann Arbor–based band Tally Hall boasts a debut CD, a national tour and three Jewish members". The Detroit Jewish News . pp. 45, 49. Retrieved June 13, 2023– via University of Michigan.
  3. 1 2 Cantor, Rob (August 4, 2011). "Tally Hall's Rob Cantor Estimates That His Band's Cult Following Counts 200 Billion Fans". Dallas Observer (Interview). Interviewed by Darryl Smyers. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  4. ↑ "American single certifications – Tally Hall – The Bidding". Recording Industry Association of America . Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  5. ↑ Larson, Sarah (November 9, 2020). "Hawaii: Part II Album Review". Dakota Student . Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  6. 1 2 Paltrowitz, Darren (April 7, 2014). "Rob Cantor Is Not A Trampoline, Even If His Career Seems Like One". The Improper. Archived from the original on August 6, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  7. 1 2 Fixell, Ethan (October 27, 2014). "Here's How You Get Shia LaBeouf in Your Cannibal Music Video". MTV News . Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  8. ↑ Sneider, Jeff (July 9, 2014). "29 Celebrity Impressions Music Video Was a Hoax; Singer Reveals 'Making Of' Video". TheWrap . Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  9. ↑ Worland, Justin (October 24, 2014). "Shia LaBeouf Doesn't Mind Being Called a Cannibal". Time . Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  10. 1 2 Ramisetti, Kirthana (October 22, 2014). "Shia LaBeouf gives his approval to wacky 'cannibal' music video". Daily News . Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  11. ↑ Muscarella, Anne (April 7, 2015). "19TH ANNUAL WEBBY AWARDS NOMINEES ANNOUNCED". The Webby Awards . Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  12. ↑ Cantor, Rob (June 1, 2014). "Interview:Rob Cantor". Artistdirect (Interview). Interviewed by Rick Florino. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
  13. ↑ Kulp, Patrick (April 12, 2016). "Intel tries to make online security fun with commercial full of Internet stars". Mashable . Retrieved September 24, 2023.
  14. ↑ O'Reilly, Lara (April 13, 2016). "Intel 'Nobody Else Quite Like You' Rob Cantor Ad". Business Insider . Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  15. ↑ Palmer, Roger (May 8, 2019). "Disney Junior Orders A Second Season of 'T.O.T.S.'". What's On Disney Plus. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  16. ↑ Zahed, Ramin (May 3, 2023). "'Pupstruction' to Wag Its Tail on Disney Channel, Disney Jr. and Disney+ in June". Animation Magazine . Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  17. ↑ Higuera, Diego (July 24, 2022). "SDCC '22: Disney haunts San Diego Comic Con with THE GHOST AND MOLLY MCGEE". Comics Beat . Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  18. ↑ Betti, Tony (August 15, 2023). "Disney Junior's "The Wonderful World of Songs" To Debut August 16th". Laughing Place. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  19. ↑ Hough, Quinn (August 5, 2023). "River Wild Soundtrack: Every Song in the 2023 Movie". Vague Visages. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.