Just thought I’d send a holiday greeting out to everyone on this sunny So Ca Christmas day. Hope everyone is having a good time wherever they may be!

I always wanted to get one, but there was always something more important that I seemed to need. Well thank god for Christmas to fix little situations like that. It’s actually our band Ipod and it’s one with a 40 gig drive. A Mini may have been better for its portability but its 4 gig drive limits it a little. Particularly since I’m taking advantage of having the big drive in our Ipod. This week I’ve changed the way i view digital music listening. No more crappy 128 mp3’s which I’ve always hated listening to. Now I’m encoding my music library as 320 aac’s, which sound way better, and for music that I absolutely love I’m using the Apple Lossless Encoder, which doesn’t alter the sound of the original music but just cuts the file size in half. Now listening to music on a computer or the Ipod is actually enjoyable.

Just remembered that there is a free download of Ryan’s 1994 cover of a Dr. Seuss holiday classic from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas available on the Projekt Records website. Interpreted in a very dream pop, shoegazery way, the tune cleverly plays upon the vocal style of Suzanne, who often sang in nonsense words for Love Spirals Downwards (prior band incarnation, in case you didn’t know). Perfect choice for the band! So check it out — “Welcome Christmas”

Just got Katamari Damacy last night – omg! It was supposed to be a Christmas present from Ryan, but I guessed what it was anyway so he just let me have it. We played it for hours and I was dreaming about it all night long. That game is so crazy, Peter Max, Yellow Submarine, and pure Japanese fun all rolled up (pun intended) into one big fun nonsensical package. I want to go play it again right now.

The past few days there’s been electric work being done around here and it’s been a total bummer! I realize now how reliant I am on electricity for everything I do. First of all, having to power down my computer sucks. But I also can’t listen to music on the stereo, play a game on PlayStation2, do laundry, cook food, or even fricken SEE in most of the rooms. Sigh.

Of course, I’ve found out that a lot of the wiring was in pretty bad shape, so it’s all for the best that it’s getting fixed… I just can’t wait for it all to be done so that I can go back to my usual electronified lifestyle!

For now, however, I have to switch off all my computer gear again – boo hoo.

I’ve had this concept of an internet radio station and record label that I’ve been working on for a few months now, called chillcuts.

I thought I’d reactivate my old Live365 account that I used to stream “The Lovely Ladies of Electronica” with back in 1999. I began a trial run last week. I’m trying out their new Mp3Pro streams, which are better sounding, but a pain in the ass. I have to re-rip anything I might want to play from CD format into Mp3Pro format, because turning an mp3 into an Mp3Pro just doesn’t sound good.

Right now my station selection is relying heavily on the Live365 library, which luckily has a lot of cool tunes. I’m slowly adding my own selections into the mix as bands send me their CDs, so my playlist is expanding every few days. I’ve got about 6 hours of music on random play. Later, I’ll make personalized playlists and schedule them at set times.

The lame thing right now is that, since I’m using a free account I began during their beta phase, only paid listeners can tune into my stream. I’ll probably sign up for their free “upgrade” trial sometime soon so I can test out the new Mac live broadcast tool. Anyone will be able to tune in during that phase. If everything seems cool, then I guess I’ll bite the bullet and start paying for my account, so the general population can tune in, along with the paid subscribers.

After that, then I’ll worry about the record label side of my plan…

Find out more at chillcuts.com

Sheesh! I can’t believe tomorrow is fricken December already! The year is over, more or less. The whirlwind of American Holidays is upon us, and we didn’t get our album out. We’ve been fiddling with this second one way more than the first one. Some of the songs have been recorded 2 or 3 times. Consequently, I think it’s way, way better than the first one. Still, I wish we had gotten it out in time for Christmas. Oh well! Early next year, perhaps?

There’s a reason why I never got into Live Journal and the like since I’d rather write in my website than in someone else’s. So here’s my first entry into our new blog here. For historical and curiousity’s sake, for now I’ve decided to leave up the older band journal posts, which you see here in the blog as old posts from many many months ago. Since I don’t keep a diary or anything like that, is it kind of interesting see what you were going through at times in the past.

Anji contributed lyrics and vocals to 2 tracks (“Love Me Leave Me” and “Smoke”) on the brand new Bitstream Dream album, Integrated. You can stream or download “Love Me Leave Me” via BeSonic.com.

Lovespirals’ out of print 1999
Ecstatic EP is now available digitally, in 192kbps mp3 format. It is 40 mintues long:

You can also check out every release by Lovespirals and Love Spirals Downwards, including audio clips of every track. Plus, you can take a peek at some of Anji and Ryan’s favorite music at Lovespirals’ user page.

Apple is now selling Lovespirals’ 2002 album, Windblown Kiss,
and Love Spirals Downwards’ 2000 retrospective compilation,
Temporal: A Collection of Music Past & Present, in their iTunes
music store. You can purchase either individual songs or the entire
album. Click the button below to launch Windblown Kiss in your iTunes store:

Ryan & Anji have joined the new music area of the trendy
community site, MySpace, because… you know, everyone who’s cool is
doing it!