ONOFFON

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Today's ONOFFON SSP of the Day is a real honor - I sent a thank you to the publisher of UNSIGNED Music Magazine, explaining that we were truly honored to receive his nomination for Song of the Year, especially on a song that was recorded and released almost nine years ago and in a 'commercially-challenged' genre. He wrote back -"It was a very tight race, but needless to say the song is absolutely one of my favorite songs of all time...period. I guess it is hard when your music crosses boundaries, people want to put things into boxes and when something veers away from that they have a hard time absorbing it. I saw your win (referring to the IOMA's) for Bridge to Presage, congratulations it is well deserved!All the very best to you and your family this year and keep pushing forward with ONOFFON – commercial acceptance is fleeting, what you guys are doing is way beyond that “moment in the spotlight”. "We sincerely thank the publisher of UNSIGNED for those amazing words.....

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Today's ONOFFON SSP of the Day is a radio interview with Von Babasin that just went live on a new show called 'The Big Apple Meets Tinsletown' on Radio Loger. They did their homework - knowing about my film background - working special effects on Jaws II - and my father's history. It was very cool - you can go to their BBs and click on the show to download and listen -The Big Apple Meets Tinsletownhttp://www.weloveatwt.com/cgi-bin/dcforu....rum=DCForumID30If you like the show, leave your thoughts. You don't have to sign up or register to post - just let them know you support what they are doing and/or what we are doing...

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The ONOFFON SSP of the Day is a comment left on our MySpace page from an independent artist of some reknown, Jeff Miller, from a group called Simon Apple. Their latest album, River To The Sea, has guest musicians like Buck Dharma, Tony Levin, John Helliwell, and Dave Stahl, playing with the core group.This is what Jeff had to say -MySpace - ONOFFONhttp://www.myspace.com/onoffon"My initial listens of ONOFFON sort of reminded me of a cross of Brand X and Zappa (that's a good thing!). Further listens reveal that ONOFFON sounds like... ONOFFON. Originality and uniqueness is often hard to find in today's music (that's not a good thing!). Individual creativity is the sign of a great artist... ONOFFON... good stuff.... keep the vision guys! ." I've always believed that if you don't do something totally unique to yourself then you will only be a one of the pack. But, if you do succeed while blazing your own trail, you'l carve a niche in music all your own.Thanks to Jeff for his kind words...

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Today's ONOFFON SSP of the Day is a front page feature on the Reel Sound of Music website. They are a non-profit promotional resource for unsigned and independent artists and musicians - they also network with a number of filmmakers, mostly in the documentary field.Reel Sound of Musichttp://www.reelsoundofmusic.com/index.phpONOFFON at Reel Sound of Musichttp://www.reelsoundofmusic.com/modules.php?na ... tist=29Our thanks to JoAnne Brockway for her undying support of independent art and creativity...

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ONOFFON SSP of the Day -What an interesting day this has been, indeed...This afternoon, I had an in depth interview with a reporter from The Daily News, the second largest newspaper in the Los Angeles area, for an article they will be publishing about me, my father, and the jazz museum I'm building. It will be running in a special section of the paper called the Valley News - referring to the San Fernando Valley, where I grew up.This evening, I was playing at a private residence with my cover band, Vinyl Dogs. We made quite the splash - everyone enjoyed our performances. The coolest compliment I received was from a 19 year old bass player who came up to me and introduced himself. His comment to me was, 'you rock that bass like no other'. And tonight, as I logged on to my computer, I received an email from an artist of some reknown who had just listened to ONOFFON's latest CD with this critique -"Fantastic CD!!Hey Von,The new CD is terrific!!I only had 2 listens, but it might be my favorite of your releases. It's like Gil Evans/Miles Davis stuff... with Bela Fleck, Pat Metheny, etc... a whole bunch of varied stuff that makes it uniquely and cohesively ONOFFON!If it wasn't 4am, I'd write more... and more coherently! I'll definitely be having this in heavy rotation. Great work!!"An article in a major L.A. newspaper - appreciation of my bass talents in the rock world - and then comparisons to Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Bela Fleck and Pat Metheny... talk about diversity - it doesn't get much better than that...

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The ONOFFON SSP of the Day is a very nice email from the Section Editor from the Daily News after reading the story that writer, Rick Coca wrote after our interview - she had this to say -"Von,So glad that we are finally able to get the story about the museum in the Valley News. I told you I wouldn't forget about you! And.... Oh My God! I can't believe you have all that stuff!!! Sounds awesome. When the museum is up and running I would love to come and see the collection. My brother too. He is a big jazz fan.We may not fit it in this week, but the story is written and will run soon.Good Luck,Leslie MooreSection Editor - Valley NewsThe Daily News"I can't thank Leslie and Rick enough for taking the time to cover this story. This is a major step forward - hopefully we can garner more of the media to see the tremendous worth in this important endeavor... If these ground breaking virtuosos don't deserve the recognition - what hope do any of us have in affecting the future of music?

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Today's ONOFFON SSP of the Day is in honor of my father - I was very happy to find this page -Jazz Cellists in the Yahoo! Directoryhttp://dir.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music....strument/Cello/Scroll down a few names and you'll find -Babasin, Harry "The Bear" Information and photos of the jazz cellist and bassist.www.onoffon.com/harrythebear.html It's gratifying to me to see some of my hard work make it through into the mainstream - my father deserves every accolade in recognition for his tremendous talents and musical contributions...

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Here's a great ONOFFON SSP of the Day - I was perusing various ONOFFON links when I visited the Surrender Now page at Emusic.com. There was a very nice review left by someone from Italy who happened to find our music and download the album -eMusic - ONOFFONhttp://www.emusic.com/album/10812/10812743.htmlMembers say -"These Guys rocks! macosxrho from Rho (Milan), ItalyI downloaded this album because of a good review of it in the indie magazines and I was shot by their wonderful style of music: a mix between Pat Metheny, some Yes ingredients, free Jazz, pop, all elegantly covered by their instrumental skills. This is no an experimental CD - this is new fresh mature music from a group that can be on all the charts, if only the hated majors were interested in real music. If you are in search of some really good music and not a clone group, this CD is worth a listening: you will be amazed why you don't know them before now! Well done, Babasin brothers!"I really enjoyed the part where they said, "new fresh mature music from a group that can be on all the charts, if only the hated majors were interested in real music". Now, I'm not trying to label bash here - these are their words - but I'd like to say this. Almost every 'industry' person I've ever spoken to says we're 'too good' and 'too diverse' to get a record deal. They always tend to be so limited of sight when talking about finding your demographic - who do we promote to? As this person points out, our music could be on "all the charts". Why not? Why not accept a wide variety of sound from one group? Different songs could be on different charts - jazz, blues, fusion, adult contemporary, alternative rock, pop - I say take the blinders off.Okay - enough of my rant... All I can hope is that digital distribution becomes what we all hope it can be and grant many of us independent musicians the ability to earn a decent living and continue to produce the music we truly love... Without passion - you're nothing...

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A cool little ONOFFON SSP of the Day today - I happened across a link the other day - a podcast that had included our song "Mardi Gras" in its playlist. I thought that was pretty cool and there was a comment board at the bottom of the page, so I decided to leave a thank you, as I usually do when someone shows an appreciation for our music. This was his response -Webjay - "theGIBBshow (#3)" by gibbgibbhttp://webjay.org/by/gibbgibb/thegibbshow2823329?nop=4"gibbgibb:No...Thank YOU, VON!!! Artists like you & big-league groups like ONOFFON are what makes the time spent on Webjay more than worthwhile. Keep it comin' in '06!!! GIBB"Our thanks to GIBB for finding our music and giving us just a little more exposure...

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The ONOFFON SSP of the Day is the article in today's Valley News section of the Los Angeles Daily News!It was published today - if you live in the San Fernando Valley in northern Los Angeles, go out and pick up a copy of today's Daily News. Only 50 cents and you can find the article about me, my dad, the jazz museum, and ONOFFON, on page 12 of the Valley News section, in all valley editions. Unfortunately, they have not updated their website yet, but when they do, I will post the link here for all to see.Until then, only those who live in this part of the world can pick it up.My sincere and heartfelt thanks go to Rick Coca, the writer, and Leslie Moore, the section editor, for making this happen for us...