Wrap up

Well, it has been both a glorious and hellish last few weeks.  We have wrapped up the Album (and if you want to know the title, watch the interview below).  And we are now huddled around the kitchen table making our final preparations to leave on tour down to SXSW and up the West Coast.
To be honest, all of the odds and circumstances have stacked against us.  Yet we have persevered with a good heart, and our guardian angels of sorts have been with us as well.  I can't wait to finish tying up the last loose threads of this production, and to hit the road!!! :)  Below is a nice little link to an interview I did earlier this week that should be able to fill you in just a bit more...

xoxo - DV

It's a wild world

The wildness of the final phase of production is now fully upon us!  It is absolutely amazing how intense the energy and work is right now.  But I'm truly working on distilling something essential from this crucible of creativity.  And I'm not the only one working on it either!  I feel nearly bewildered (gotta throw another wild in there somehow...) by how many people we have helping us out.  I have never even met half of these people personally (yet), and still they are putting in some REAL elbow grease - showing us some real LOVE. 
It has also been quite the journey over this last week, to really reflect on all of this.  What was I doing 4 years ago?  Three years? One year?  The grinding work, and the labor of love that we have invested directly into this project has been immense.  And in any given moment, it usually just feels like what it is: moving a mountain with a teaspoon.  Entirely possible, incredibly improbably, and without a doubt it is an epic journey that has never left me with regret.  But for me, I took the two rules literally - move mountain - with teaspoons - and realized that beyond that, THERE ARE NO RULES.  So it has been a very interesting perspective to see just how much we have accomplished, and even stranger to see what sort of shape it has all taken.  These are probably vague fancy words to try to describe the fact that I am amazed and mind-blown as well as the feeling that a mountain of pressure/weight/circumstances could collapse on my at any moment.  And who knows how good or bad it's all going to be.  I for one, however, feel grand.  I feel like I have my own two feet on the ground, and I am taking them exactly where I want them to be!
Scobra deserves a HUGE SHOUT OUT right now, because he has been putting in brutally long days of music production, and mixing.  And we have had some of our worst, craziest, most inexplicable, and heart-wrenching brick walls in our path - especially in the tech. realm... Scobraham-Lincolns realm (oh yeah! Happy prez day to you all).  So he has really been holding out like a proper member of the kriegsmarine in Das Boot, and not succumbing to the pressure. 

Please like our new FB page BTW:  http://www.facebook.com/Dionvox
On an entirely different note, I am happy to tell you that I am going to see Die Antwoord tonight.  Haven't been to a big fun show in ages, and am looking forward to dancing my hiney off ;) 

DIONVOX 2012

     Wow!  So much has gone on over these last few months!  And I have been terribly remiss in posting anything on here.  It seems as though the world is changing a mile a minute these days, and to be quite honest, I have been caught up in the whirlwind of it all.  So first off, we are now DIONVOX, not Ramona The Band.  This is a bit of a transition period, as we are working on moving over all of our sites, and getting the word out.  On Friday, we will play our first show as DIONVOX (see details here) and on Saturday, we will play our last show as Ramona The Band for the 2nd annual February Freak Fest.
     In other news, we are featured in the first issue of a new magazine called NW Prodigys.  In fact, I'm on the dang cover!! Check it out:  This is what I look like on an ipad ;)

And in other creative news, we did a crazy-awesome photoshoot with Kiliii Fish where we built a giant spider web (entirely out of 2x4 and packing tape).  Kiliii took a time lapse of the building process and made a little video.  Here it is:

OK!  I've got to keep working on our shows now.  But just so's ya know~ Scobra is in the studio as I type, putting the final mix on our album.  We will release the newbie album, and tour down to Austin and back in March.  Next post will include the tour schedule! :D

xo
-DV

Gobble Gobble

     Holy WOW!  What a crazy few weeks it's been!  First off though, it's Thanksgiving.  So happy Turkey Day :)  Holidays are some of my favorite days to hunker down and get creative.  They are also a day where things in the outside world seem to slow down, which is the main reason why I am able to write this post right now.  I am happy to report that since we won the Spin Magazine/Popchips competition (that's right, WE WON!!!!) we have been madly busy with all sorts of wonderful new opportunities.  MADLY BUSY being the key words there.  So please use that as your reason to excuse me for not having posted anything earlier.  And since it has been a while, and so very much has happened, I will give a brief rundown of some of the events...
     During the final few hours of the Spin competition, Scobra and I had a photo shoot with the lovely and talented Fiona Pepe.  One of the resulting shots is this:

 
        So then, the day after our winning was announced, we played a Victory Show!!!! - Photocredit Tim Basaraba.

     And in other news (there has been so much going on!) aside from the fact that we are now officially playing SXSW on the SPIN stage - releasing our full length album and then touring it down there and back, and all under a new name.... We have a photo shoot and interview this Sunday for a brand new publication that will be hitting the stands in early December.  I don't want to ruin any surprises, so we'll keep the mag name under wraps for now, but O MY GOSH we are going to be featured with some very heavy and amazing people!! So stay tuned.
      And in honor of a day of sharing and creativity, here's a link to a free download of an underground track of ours  http://ramonatheband.org/track/killing-time-remix-ft-wynne-glizzy-leila-steinberg

xoxo
-Dion Vox

Groovy Sunday

     Alright, that title probably makes me sound like a blues-hippy, but I don't care.  I can't help but start this out by stating that I am at home right now, sitting in my kitchen.  Drinking coffee, smoking a cigarette, surrounded by silence, wearing a bathrobe, writing.  What happy peace I have right now :)       Granted, I am still working, and the Spin mag / Popchips competition still isn't over yet.  In fact, a hole delicious storm of activity is coming up for us.  Blah blah blah - a whole list of lists of tasks and production work - plus some foxy photo shoots!
     But today, I want to just post some fun stuff that I have discovered recently.  Just because. 

And now for just some cool things that I found today:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.211536058908209.54156.100001554503581&type=3

xoxo - Dion Vox

PS - Don't forget, we are playing our (hopefully... probably...) VICTORY SHOW this Wednesday at the High Dive in Fremont.  Checkit~  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=265108813517149

We are in the lead!

Hey again :D

So I am proud as punch to announce that Ramona The Band is in the lead for the Spin Magazine/Popchips competition.  But we are only in day 8 out of 14 right now, so please remember that you can vote for us every 24 hours.
And another tidbit of tasty news is that we are on Spin's website!  Here are some screenshots to commemorate ;)

 And here's a link to the page on their site: 
http://www.spin.com/articles/spin-popchips-reveal-5-finalists-band-search

And just for giggles, here's a really nice blog that was written about our entry ~

http://www.soundonthesound.com/2011/11/01/send-a-seattle-band-to-austin-vote-on-popchips-pop-up-live-videos/

Thank you a million times over for all of your love, wishes, good luck, and support!! You guys are the reason we are in the lead!!!

xoxoxox
-Dion

The FINAL Round

Wow-ee!
We made it to the final round of Popchips/Spin magazine competition for a slot on the Spin stage at SXSW!!! Which also means, we finally get to unveil the video we made of our Vaudeville Carnivale show :)  Which also means, you can VOTE for it when you view it, and help us win!


Here's the video and VOTING link ;)

http://apps.facebook.com/popchipsfinalfive/contests/162446/voteable_entries/34776128





We also threw a big Dia De Los Muertos party last night, and here are a few fun photos

 Photos are courtesy of Kook Teflon and Debora Spencer.

Pleas help us out with the competition!!! Pretty pretty please, with a cherry on top~

xo
 - Dion Vox