Fitz & the Tantrums on "Live From Daryl's House"

With a shared love of old-school street corner soul, R&B and four-to-the-floor funk, Daryl Hall and L.A. band Fitz and the Tantrums make the perfect pairing for the 35th and latest edition of award-winning Live from Daryl’s House. Daryl joins Fitz, singer Noelle Scaggs and sax player James King for a toe-tapping, hand-clapping, get off your couch set that includes “Girl, I Love You,” a song Daryl wrote and originally recorded in 1967 with his first band, The Temptones.

“To get to play with one of my biggest influences and idols was a dream come true,” raves Fitz, who founded the band and recorded their debut LP on an old church organ he purchased for $50. “Daryl and the guys put it down and we all left it on the floor! We went pretty deep into the Daryl Hall catalog to sing the first song Daryl ever recorded. It was a day we will never forget!”

The seven-song set includes four Fitz and the Tantrums originals, which they call soul-influenced indie pop, from Pickin’ Up the Pieces, their just-released album on Dangerbird Records, home of the Grammy-nominated Silversun Pickups, including the title track, “Breakin’ the Chains of Love,” “Dear Mr. President” and “MoneyGrabber.” Aside from “Girl, I Love You,” Daryl and the band decided to take on “Perkiomen,” a song written by him in 1970. The latest edition of the Webby-winning series debuts Oct. 15 at www.lfdh.com.

The latest Live from Daryl’s House spotlights the tandem of Fitz and Noelle, as well as James King on sax, who have made a name for themselves on the local L.A. circuit with residencies at clubs like Spaceland by creating a rousing party atmosphere. The new album was released in August, and climbed to #27 on the Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. The band has opened dates for Maroon 5 as well Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, while their song, “News 4 U,” was featured on ABC’s Desperate Housewives. The L.A. Times’ Ann Powers enthused: “The hooks catch and the energy sounds genuine… a fine proxy and party starter.”

Says Daryl: “These guys are referencing a certain kind of sixties soul that I find refreshing.”
The past 12 months have marked a steady stream of superlatives and recognition for Live from Daryl’s House, with Hall receiving a Webby Award for Best Variety series from more than 10,000 entries at the 14th annual ceremony in June at N.Y.’s Cipriani Wall Street. That same month, Daryl took part in a special set with former show guests Chromeo at Bonnaroo.

The past 34 episodes of Live From Daryl’s House have featured a mix of well-known performers like matchbox twenty’s Rob Thomas, Train’s Pat Monahan and Jimmy Stafford, Smokey Robinson, The Doors’ Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek, Toots Hibbert, Nick Lowe, K.T. Tunstall, Todd Rundgren, Gym Class Heroes’ Travis McCoy and Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump along with newcomers such as 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, Boston bluesman Eli “Paperboy” Reed, indie soul diva Sharon Jones and highly touted tunesmith Diane Birch.

Daryl started the free monthly webcast in November 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.