We just uploaded our 2nd Chillin’ with Lovespirals podcast tonight, wherein we talk about our involvement with the Pink Floyd fan tribute, None of Us is Pink. This time around we spent just a little under 10 minutes talking, but who knows how long the next one will be? We’re thinking we’ll be doing them once every 2 weeks, but that could change if things are more or less exciting, I suppose. Ryan’s still not sure what all we’ll talk about, but we love to talk, so I’m not too worried about it. Now I’d love to know how many people are listening and if we’ve done an OK job getting the word out there that the podcast exists?
All posts by Anji
Geeking out
Wow I feel like such a geek right now. I just upgraded iPodder and am downloading the new episode of TWIT (This Week in Tech), plus I’m using the newly installed MacFLAC to decode a few bootleg tape trader files, and I’m getting ready to encode our latest podcast from AIF to mp3 (whilst I blog, of course). Oh, and I just got a big box of goodies from Griffin (Derrick is da man!) and so I’ve been checking out iTalk and iTrip a little bit. They always say Aquarians love technology, and I’d have to say that is completely true!!! Back to the fun…
RIAA
I can hardly believe I faxed the RIAA today. I felt all creepy doing it. Even though I’m a recording artist, I feel that most of what they’ve been doing is largely misguided and wrong. I guess I think of them as “evil.” But I do want to get ISRC codes for our songs so that BMI can track our royalties. We don’t get tons, but it’s nice to get checks now and again from radio play and stuff.
Lovespirals on Pink Floyd Tribute
Lovespirals have contributed a lovely cover of Pink Floyd’s 1969 song, “Cymbaline,” to None of Us is Pink, a massive 3-CD tribute assembled by fansite/forum, Neptune Pink Floyd. Billed “The world’s greatest and largest international collaboration to make a Pink Floyd Tribute CD, by fans for fans” this downloadable collection of 49 tracks was lovingly assembled, mastered, and packaged by hard core fans of this seminal band for absoultely no profit whatsoever. None of Us is Pink is available via BitTorrent in SHN format, along with complete artwork including a 27 page booklet, at the NPF site. You can also enjoy Lovespirals’ version of “Cymbaline” in 192k mp3 on Lovespirals’ MySpace page for a limited time.
Final Vinyl
Finally got around to ordering Griffin’s turntable interface for Final Vinyl. I had used FV before to grab some stuff off the tape deck, but now I’m grabbing stuff from the 1200, which is really weird. The first album I converted to mp3 was some tracks from The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie. I don’t mind hearing the record static on that album at all. Just keeps the 60’s vibe. It is really weird hearing record sounds on an iPod, though, I must admit.
I converted some Mick Karn and Japan stuff after that, which was cool, but I’m realizing I need to pick up Quiet Life on CD. That’s got to be my favorite album of theirs. It would be cool to hear it all quiet for once, ironically I suppose. Actually the first Japan tune I grabbed was “Suburban Love” which I had listened to not that long ago and realized how much it sounds like the kind of stuff that Ryan’s been into the past year or so. The whole instrumental breakdown part is tres “Summertime” and “Peace Love & Happiness” and hence “Sandcastles.”
Anyway, the converter is pretty cool. There’s a little hum, but unless the music is super quiet, you don’t notice it much. It still beats having to buy everything in my extensive record collection over again in CD format. And now I have a great excuse to listen to some old records I haven’t checked out in awhile, to decide what I really do want in digital format.
More site updates
Wow. I really like how the site looks now with the extra box for the podcast. The page is finally balanced out just right. Before we had a blank space just waiting to be filled. I guess I could standardize all our feed tags at some point, though… It seems there really are no web “standards” at this point, just the unspoken rule that they should be orange. I read about this new CSS way of making the links now, but we’re still using small images. I dunno…
It occurs to me that I should update the LSD site to link their discography to the new CDBaby pages now. We just sent out a box of CDs to them to sell because they had Ardor back-ordered by someone somehow. I thought it would stop offering them for sale if they were out of stock, but I guess not. I dunno how much longer the albums will be in press, but I’ll keep sending them over as long as I can get them. I think CDBaby taps into a different fanbase than Projekt, which is kinda cool.
I’m already sort of looking forward to recording the next podcast. I wonder how many people have heard the first one?
Things change
I don’t get heckler fans that write to say, basically, that they do not accept Lovespirals and want Love Spirals Downward to return. I mean, how do they think Ryan is going to react? “Oh, they’re right. I better try to record another album like Idylls now.” I suppose these same people hassle Robin Guthrie about Cocteau Twins? Bands can’t remain static forever. People change and move on. Band members grow apart and lose interest. Things change. A decade is a long time for a little indie band to stick together, really. The bands that stay together longest are the ones who attain great popular success, and even those don’t always make it. Like Pink Floyd. They had to go through several different variations to get through their 30 years. I can hardly believe that Roger has rejoined the others for this special gig they just announced. Hopefully it will turn out better than the Cocteau Twins reunion that was supposed to go down earlier this year…
Garageband Podcasts
I totally forgot to mention the other week that I’ve been checking out the new Garageband podcast feature! Right now they’re offering free bandwidth to members for podcasting, which is pretty cool. I uploaded the half hour Hungry Lucy Interview Feature as a test, so now you can check that out at any time of day you like, rather than waiting for it to come on Chillcuts. Now I’m editing down a Lovespirals/LSD feature to upload next. Stay tuned for more info on that. Here’s a link to my :[chillcuts]: Garageband podcast.
Jewel box or Digipac
We were wondering what kind of CD packaging people prefer these days; jewel box or digipac? It seems to me that we used to think digipacs were somehow inferior when they came into the radio station at KUCI, but now I see that they actually cost a bit more to produce. There’s something a bit weird about them; the way they feel and how they sit in the CD rack amongst the other CDs. But then again, it seems like a lot of people just take the disc out of the case and put it into a vinyl folder style case. Of course, these days, I imagine many folks are ripping them into their computers and portable listening devices, and just shelving the CD.
Ryan was saying that he’s never released a digipac, so he might like to do that for the next release. And when he found out it uses much less plastic, he was even more interested. We just saw someone talking about how plastic is ruining the ocean’s ecosystem because so much of it finds it’s way into the water, and it never breaks down, so it stays there forever. Animals eat the plastic thinking it’s food, and then they starve. In some places, there is more plastic than actual food in the waters. Its really sad.
So maybe we’ll be more hippy and do a digipac.
You can read more about plastic nurdle environmental impact on Alquita.com
Chillcuts Hungry Lucy Feature
I’ve scheduled my 1/2 interview feature with Hungry Lucy to run twice daily at 1pm and 8pm PST so that hopefully everyone will get a chance to check it out. I think it turned out pretty cool and am planning to get some other features up in the near future. I’m also considering doing band features like this as Podcasts. Just not sure how long to make them or how often or how I’ll issue them etc etc…
We’ve been talking about doing a Lovespirals Podcast feed, but now I’m thinking it should be a Chillcuts Podcast, instead, so it can be more broad in scope. Or maybe it can be a group effort somehow? Like “Lovespirals in the Chillcuts Studio” or something. We’re really bad with names… I don’t relish coming up with our Podcast title and blurb. That’s the worst part of art, naming it.
Back catalogue on iTunes
The entire back catalog of albums by Love Spirals Downwards is now available on iTunes Store USA, UK, Canada, & Europe. If you are unfamiliar with the former band incarnation, this is a great opportunity to explore the many sound and style changes Ryan explored from 1992 to 1998. We’ve created a special Lovespirals/Love Spirals Downwards iMix with some of the highlights from both Love Spirals Downwards and Lovespirals.
Troubles with anjibee.com
Man, what a fricken flake I am! I just now realized that my personal site has been down for months and I had no idea. I paid to renew my domain not that long ago, too. I totally forgot I was hosting it on Earthlink, and when I switched servers, I just totally neglected to move my site. Duh! I’ve been thinking the past week or so that I really need to redesign my site because I made it in, like 1999, and haven’t updated it once. I spend all my time working on this Lovespirals site (and the Love Spirals Downwards site) so I never think about mine. Plus I’ve got the new Chillcuts site and about a dozen other sites like MySpace and Soundclick and stuff that I maintain… Hmm… I don’t even really feel like I need a personal site, per se, but there is a lot of stuff I’ve done outside of Lovespirals that might be nice to archive. It’ll take a lot of time and work though, which doesn’t sound that fun. I dunno. I just forwarded to my bio on here for now.