Title Pending was an alternative rock band from Titirangi, West Auckland from the 5th of June 2012 until the 15th of February 2018. Consisted of Cameron Mason McCurdy (vocals, drums), Ruben Mita (guitar, backing vocals), and Josh Rundle (bass).
History[]
Formation (2012-2013)[]
Title Pending began at Green Bay High School, after Cameron Mason McCurdy saw Heroes for Sale perform at an assembly and decided to start a band.[1]
In-Sync Hallucinations (2014-2015)[]
In separate music classes for the year, van Orsoy de Flines left the band to form Courtney Hate, and Rundle took over on bass.[1] The band played their first gig at UFO on the 10th of October 2014 alongside Courtney Hate, The Big Gus and Death By Butterflies. In December of 2014, Mason McCurdy and Mita recorded an album worth of material from 2012 while Rundle was on holiday in Sri Lanka. The album, In-Sync Hallucinations was released on the 31st of December 2014.
All-ages gig scene & Murder in the Modern Day (2015-2016)[]
The band released several singles, "February", "Blink", "Yesterday's Bread", "15"[1] and "Faith Coat" while playing regular gigs as part of the Auckland all-ages scene, including the ZEAL Festival of Noise alongside Courtney Hate, The Big Gus, and Joe Says No. On the 31st of December, the band released the album, Murder in the Modern Day.
First final show & continued activity (2017-2018)[]
The band played the first of two "RIP TP" gigs on the 21st of January 2017, after Mason McCurdy decided to move to Wellington with Long Boy bandmate Leon Molyneux. He didn't move and instead the band continued to play gigs through to 2018, notably opening for Japanese punk band Guitar Wolf in a secret Titirangi house show.
Breakup & second final show (2018)[]
Mita transferred to Victoria University in Wellington, and on the 15th of February 2018, Title Pending played their second final show, a secret house gig where The D4 opened for them as practice for their own reunion tour. They played a song they had written the day before, which eventually became "At the Roundabout" by Blu Fish.
Other projects & RIP TP EP (2016-Present)[]
Mason McCurdy and Rundle went on to form Blu Fish with Mitchell Baber from The Big Gus, the band won the 2018 National Battle of the Bands[2] and have released one EP, Shments.[3][4]
Mita has several times joined Blu Fish on stage to play guitar for "Baby, Please Don't Go" by Joe Williams, a staple of Title Pending sets, as well as on occasion"Cabin Dance" and "King Kunta" by Kendrick Lamar.
Mason McCurdy and Mita have recorded improvised folk music together since 2016 under the name Dog Fork and The Condescending Satsuma, a reference to a previous improvised post-rock project, Crab Chunk and The Persistent Wafer.
In 2019, after several reunion performances at house parties from 2018 to 2019, the band recorded the unreleased songs from their regular 2016-onwards live set, "Dental Care", "Cabin Dance", Neck Value" and "Happy Camper". The four tracks are set for release as the RIP TP EP in December 2019.
Members[]
Final lineup[]
- Cameron Mason McCurdy - vocals, drums, trumpet, bass, guitar (2012-2018, 2019)
- Ruben Mita - guitar, bass, drums, keys, backing vocals (2012-2018, 2019)
- Josh Rundle - bass, guitar (2013-2018, 2019)
Past members[]
- Marieke van Orsoy de Flines - bass (2013)
Live members[]
- Callum Lincoln - bass (2019)
Discography[]
Albums[]
- In-Sync Hallucinations (2014) - Self-published
EPs
- Murder in the Modern Day (2015) - Self-published
- RIP TP EP (2019) - Self-published
Singles[]
- February (2015)
- Blink (2015)
- Yesterday's Bread (2015)
- "15" (2015)
- Faith Coat (2016)
Links[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2
Bandstanding, The Fringe, page 21, issue 152, September 2016, https://issuu.com/fringemedia8/docs/1609?workerAddress=ec2-52-201-252-3.compute-1.amazonaws.com
- ↑ "Bandstanding", The Fringe, page 14, issue 178, February 2019, https://issuu.com/fringemedia8/docs/1902
- ↑ Concert Review: Blu Fish Swim in Success, Radio 13, https://radio13.co.nz/articles/concert-review-blu-fish-swim-in-success/
- ↑ Blu Fish’s debut EP Shments is a slice of dynamic surf-rock goodness, Happy Mag, https://hhhhappy.com/blu-fish-shments/