New Years by the Bay

Tonight Owen Cartwright and I will be playing with Charlie Hendrick and Jason Dean's new band Tit City at New Years by the Bay in Belfast, Maine. Before getting into, here's a little background on Tit City:
 
I first heard Tit City this spring in its early stage as a duo (Jason Dean on drums/Korg synthesizer and Charlie Hendrick on computers/vocals) as they were developing their set for some gigs in New York. The blend of computer generated drums with the live drummer was something that Charlie, Jason, and I had played around with in the past at the Gilbert's Open Mic before that establishment closed. This combination sounded really great when it evolved from an open mic improvisational atmosphere to an arranged set. Fast forward to summer of 2010: after the set had evolved and much of the lyrics been more clearly defined, I began helping Charlie and Jason record an album version of their set and developing some new ideas possible only on a studio version.
 
After learning the songs through the recording process, I was invited to join Tit City to play at a Halloween dance party put on by Hot Pink Flannel at The Underground Lounge in Rockland, ME. I thought about playing vibes with Tit City (or perhaps digital mallets like in The Limited Time Only Band days--but I decided keyboards and my standard live electronics setup was enough gear to bring around). The gig went great (the obscene amount of technical setup time Charlie and I had probably had something to do with it), there were some great costumes (my favorites being the giant skull and the magic mushroom), I had become one of the mayors of Tit City (as a "citizen"/audience member called me at a later gig), and we got a decent sounding live recording. Hot Pink Flannel liked us enough to immediately schedule us to play at their holiday dance party (The Bad Sweater Dance Party). We then called up Owen Cartwright and asked him to join the band on guitar--don't worry, he brings a computer too.
 
We are missing Clint Hartzel, but Tit City while making a different kind of music, in some ways feels like a reunion of The Limited Time Only Band. The two gigs we have played since Owen joined the band have been a lot of fun. We have even added a few The Limited Time Only Band songs with new twists to our set (Bleeding on Venus, Untitled, and Logjam). Last night at rehearsal I had an interesting realization about a structural development in the music of The Limited Time Only Band to Tit City: The Limited Time Only Band played theme and variations improvisations with some pop/dance tunes and extended free improvisations while Tit City plays a primarily dance oriented set with highly focused avant garde transitions.  With our cross-genre influences, electronic sounds, and improvisational structures, I would classify Tit City as a new type of fusion but when asked, the simple answer I give is that it is a pop/rock electronic band with live drums and guitar playing tunes from a wide variety of genres.
 
Charlie posted some samples of the album recordings (before Owen and I joined the band).
 
Tonight we will be playing at Beflast, ME's New Year's by the Bay at the First Church UCC Hall (on Spring St. between Church St. and Court St.).  Our first set will be 6:00-6:45pm and 7:00-7:45pm.