Cruising past the 8th Mile

It was after a LONG LONG time that we played in Bangalore and it was totally worth the wait! The 8th Mile at RVCE was jumping and celebrating with us and it was an awesome feeling to play a fun gig after a few failed attempts (which our manager Vijay has promised to write about)

Right from when we entered the campus to the time we left we were treated exceptionally well by the crew of students led by Rahul and Ramya (or so it seemed) and everyone else in the team that had got us there. We were led straight to sound check, the stage was set up the way we wanted, everything was available and all in all, it was a setting for a super gig!

There was this one issue of rain which kept showing up in small measures but it was never really a major threat! The students had turned up in large numbers and most of them seemed to know the songs we were singing which was always good! And you know its going to be a good gig when the response to your first song is something like this!!

Eitherway .. the show was damn good fun and we had a blast playing and I would like to thank everyone from RVCE for having called us there and for the brilliant hospitality! you struck a chord in our hearts! And I hope you spread the music … legally!

A HUGE HUGE thank you to Veena for coming and taking some of the most wonderful pictures of the band on stage ever taken! You are an absolute sweetheart!

PS: All these pictures are courtesy of Veena’s photography. Please do drop in a note if you like them! and watch out for the rest!

Mumbai has been good!

We came to Mumbai on Thursday directly after our Calicut show and it has been quite super so far!

Our trip to the North East got confirmed! we are off to play in 15 cities in the 7 north east states and we start with Calcutta! That is going to be one hell of a trip and I am gearing up for it already!

I won the International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year award for RadioVeRVe .. Read about that here ..

Jithin got his violin microphone!!! for people in the know .. its a big step forward

We are playing tonight for the Miss Teen India Contest .. that should be a lot of fun

And to confirm again … we are playing in Bangalore tomorrow! at the RV College of Engineering .. this will be our first show after a long long time in Bangalore .. we are told that we start by 2.30 .. so just confirm with the college if you can and land up for the show! and if you do … please do stop by and say hi after the gig!

Will keep you informed about more updates from our end! and there are many coming

In God’s own Country!

We have had a very interesting week so far .. after the jaunt at the Mirchi Studios, we headed to Calicut where we had the whole day to ourselves at the NIT Calicut guest house. We headed out to the beach which was a LONG LONG way from the guest house and then had some super Kerala food at one of Jithin’s recommended joints … After all, he is the Mallu boy and it was only fair to pay heed to his advice there ..

The show the next day was all over the place but Nitin and Navin worked brilliantly with the students of NIT who were sweet and accomodating and got some sort of order and the show could finally begin … The show itself was okay .. it wasn’t our best show and there were a ‘few incidents’ in the crowd which marred the first trip we took to Kerala … But lets focus on the positives …

Jithin’s parents finally got to see their son play live on stage with the band and they were overjoyed! His entire family was there with a few friends and they loved the show! atleast thats what they told us

Inspite of how it went, we garnered quite a few fans and I must thank at this point, Anand and his friends who came and hung out with us after the show .. we are very very touched by your support and love for us!

Anand – you still owe me the list of names which you haven’t sent in!

Anand did read this post and send me the list of people who are featured in this photo above .. Thanks for that!

And I would like to really personally thank
Anand, Tushar, Naveen, Naidu, Harish, Prasad, Ajith, Deepak and Hussamuddin for a lovely evening!

We are determined to go back there soon and we’re sure this time round, things will be a lot better!

But that is past .. and we have moved on …

We are in Bombay now and are playing for the ‘Miss Teen India’ contest tomorrow which promises to be a blast! After that we head to Bangalore to play at RVCE on Sunday .. that will be a belter of a show! We haven’t played a public show in Bangalore for so long its not funny!! More about that soon!

The CD is on sale in the US of A!!

This was probably the one question that was most asked over the last month!

“I stay in the US of A … Where can I get the CD?”

And now we have found you the best solution possible!! The CD is on sale on CD Baby dot Com  and they have promised to deliver our CDs on a high priority basis! so you should have no issues getting your copy anymore!!

Head to http://cdbaby.com/cd/raghudixit  and order your copy NOW and while you are at it, order for your friends and family and everyone you can think of! I’ve heard it makes a great present for you boss also

This is the first time CD Baby has agreed to stock more than 5 copies of one artist at a time because we have guaranteed that they will sell these out very very quickly! now .. its time to show them that we were not kidding!

Also, can you people from the US shoot a small video of you unboxing the CD when you receive the CD from CD Baby!

Radio Mirchi, NIT Calicut and a Contest!

If you are dying to find out what the contest is … skip to the end of this post .. but I recommend you read the whole thing .. don’t say I din’t warn ya!

The band is on the road again and we have a few shows over the weekend. We are playing at NIT, Calicut tomorrow for their cultural fest and this is the first time this line up is playing in Kerala. The organizers are expecting and have been promising us a packed house!

We had a quick stop over in Chennai this morning at the Radio Mirchi studios for our very own ‘Darbuka Siva’ special show where we were interviewed in Tamil mostly, but ended up answering in English mostly!

Also, for the first time ever in the history of radio in Tamil Nadu, a band played Hindi and Kannada songs live in the studio!! actually, Siva tells me, in the history of Mirchi in Tamil Nadu, no band has played anything live! so this is quite a first!

We had a total blast playing acoustic versions of our songs with a lot of impromptu live stuff and a fun interview which is infact routine Siva stuff!

The interview will air this Saturday night between 9 and 11 PM and all of you in Chennai, better not miss it! I will get my hands on this interview somehow after its aired and it shall be available to The Raghu Dixit Tribe exclusively! so make sure you join the Tribe!! More about the tribe itself coming soon ..

Now its time for a contest! Lets hear the best caption you can come up with for this picture! The best caption wins a free CD autographed by the band!! So lets hear it!

Ripping Hummaa Apart!!

Thanks to Arjun who pointed out to us that we are on top of the charts on the Hummaa top 10 countdown. I went to check and its not just top of the charts, 4 out of the top 10 songs on the Hummaa chart at the moment are from the album!!

That sounds like something to be happy about .. now lets see if all 8 songs can get up there

RDP on KBCS.fm in the US of A

Our dear Radio Jockey Genie just messaged us and told us that tracks from our album will be played on KBCS FM back home in the US !!

This will be an hour long feature between 2100 and 2300 PDT on Wednesday, the 26th of March which translates to 0930 to 1130 IST on Thursday, the 27th of March for us in India.

Please go over to the radio station’s website and check if the station is available where you are and if not, please do listen online! the radio streams live online also!!And once you listen, its time to come back and tell us what you thought

Thanks a ton Arpana for this!

A good show and a clean room!

There are only 2 things a band on the road wants … A good show and a clean room. There is the money, there is the adulation and everything else that comes with it, but at the core of things, we would be really happy with a great show! sometimes even with a good show … and a nice place to go sleep at the end of the show!

A few shows happened recently which warmed our hearts and it would just be unfair for me to not mention it!

We went to Vasavi College very very very tired! It was over 10 hours of travel after shows that finished in the wee hours of the morning that we landed in Hyderabad. Raghu’s voice was completely sore and he din’t even make it for soundcheck eventually.

The minute we landed in the airport, there were a couple of students waiting for us and we even had a choice of cars for us to pick to take to the venue! That itself is quite something for us!

Nitin was at the venue and he had sorted the sound out, Siva worked on the drums and got that excuse of a drumkit to sound tight! Everything just worked like clockwork and it was a total pleasure working there and getting things into place. The tiredness and weariness just went out and things somehow just fell into place!

A large part of this turnaround was the way in which little things were taken care of for us which is really appreciated!

The other show we played recently was in Chennai where we played at the ArtSeek Music Festival which we really were blown away by the variety and the freshness of the music we saw! But that is a whole new topic which I will talk about soon!

For now .. thanks Vasavi College especially Kapil and the other boys who did everything there! You guys rock!

The ArtSeek Music festival – Chennai

We’re headed to Chennai today to play at the ArtSeek Music festival organised by our very own ‘Darbuka Siva‘. The festival has some wonderful musicians and a very wide variety of music.

We will be playing in Chennai for a public audience for the first time ever! and since its the hometown of 3 of our band members, we expect some super audience support and a kickass show!

If you are in Chennai, please to make yourself available at the ArtSeek Music Festival

Details available on the poster .. Click here to buy tickets!

Some reviews and CDs in Stores

Its now been about a month since we launched and a couple of weeks since people have started getting the music in their hands! We are thrilled that quite a few of them have been writing very nice things about us! Here are links to a few reviews of the album and the band from various different sources online and offline..

• Review of our launch show on Split Magazine
• Anand Varghese’s brilliant album review on Split Magazine – we just kept gushing over his choice of words!
• Vidya Pradhan did a wonderful write-up on ‘Water No Ice’
• One of the first reviews of the album came in the Mumbai Mirror by Rohit Bhatia.

Also, our ever vigilant friends have been hard at work, they have been reminding store owners and educating them about the music they need to stock and promote and finally pictures of the CD in stores across the country have begun to trickle in! It felt a little lonely here posting pics of stores only in Bangalore …

Thanks to Ashvinie, we have proof that the CD is available in Planet M in Mumbai. So if you are in Mumbai, there is one place you can definitely go and get our music from!

And everybody .. I am still waiting to hear from you people about the bonus CD, what have you done with it? and start sending us pictures!