Lovespirals to Attend New Media Expo

The band will be attending the New Media Expo in Ontario this weekend. I am accepting a People’s Choice Podcast Award for my work as a co-host of the all-girl PodShow podcaster talk show, ShowGirls, on Friday at 4pm in Expo Hall B. Lovespirals will be attending the RumorGirls/ExtremePods party tonight, which PodShow founder Adam Curry is apparently attending specifically to get a hug from me… Pix later?

Ryan and I will have copies of Long Way From Home with us, which we will be more than happy to autograph and sell for the low-low expo price of just $10! So please, come on up and say “Hi!”

Lovespirals 2007 Bio

This new biography is more like a history lesson of Lovespirals! Might need to be cut down a bit for public consumption….

After nearly a decade of artistic collaboration between singer/songwriter, Anji Bee, and multi-instrumentalist/producer, Ryan Lum, it seems almost a moot point that Lovespirals evolved out of Projekt act, Love Spirals Downwards. Yet Lum’s former band incarnation remains popular within dream pop circles; popular enough that his first 2 early 90’s albums are currently being reissued. And Love Spirals Downwards have long held the reputation as Projekt’s best selling act. So though Lovespirals have been around as long as LSD, the two projects are still inextricably linked in many minds.

Lovespirals have made plenty of fans of their own over the years. Their earliest work was tied to the late 90’s California drum ‘n’ bass and downtempo scene they each DJ’d in; Lum as a club DJ and Bee as a college radio jockey. The duo’s fledgling jazzstep white labels became the first tracks Lum promoted in the burgeoning mp3 format – predating even the invention of iPods or iTunes. Appearances on various artist comps at the turn of the millennium, such as Chill Out Lounge Vol. 2, brought Lovespirals to the attention of chillout music listeners worldwide.

Perhaps confounding their newfound fanbase, Lovespirals sidestepped into a moody blend of jazz, blues, world, and folk styles for their 2002 Projekt debut, Windblown Kiss. Hailed as a “post shoegazer masterpiece,” and the “herald of gothic jazz,” Lum’s uniquely dreamy musical blend of genres and Bee’s sensually romantic vocals surprised and delighted listeners with its fresh approach to the dream pop sound. Bee’s mix of ethereal and jazzy harmonies endeared her to Lum’s longtime fans, who happily crowned her with the title of “sultry chanteuse.”

Merging their two musical sides, in 2005 Lovespirals followed up with a collection of jazzy yet rock-infused chillout music — aptly named Free & Easy — on their own label, Chillcuts. The band resumed their interest in dance music, producing several deep house and downtempo numbers that have been licensed fairly extensively on TV and cable such as MTV, VH1, E!, and many others, including The Oprah Winfrey Show. Overall, Lum explored more funky musical territory, replete with Rhodes piano, wah-wah guitar, and extended electric guitar solos, while Bee dug deep to discover a soulful vocal sound verging at times on rhythm and blues.

As part of the promotions for Free & Easy, the band founded a podcast called Chillin’ with Lovespirals. This brought not only the band, but Bee specifically, to the attention of Adam Curry, through his newly launched Podsafe Music Network. In late 2005, Curry signed Bee to his brand new media company, PodShow, calling her “the sexiest voice in podcasting.”  The resultant show, The Chillcast with Anji Bee, has gone on to become a popular staple of the podsafe music podcast world, with listenership increasing by the thousands monthly. The Chillcast also enjoyed a stint on Sirius Satellite Radio. Bee is also a co-host of an all-female PodShow podcaster collabocast called, ShowGirls, which recently won a People’s Choice Podcast Award.

Picking back up in 2007 with the more 70’s-inspired sounds of Free & Easy, Lovespirals have truly hit their stride on their third album, Long Way From Home. Melding the dreamy folk and rock of Windblown Kiss, with the soulful jazz and blues of Free & Easy, the duo seamlessly blend prior influences with new sounds and styles. Bee confidently spins seductive tales of beautiful sadness and spiritual longing set to Lum’s masterfully melancholic music. Bluesy electric guitar abounds, with touches of wistful slide guitar, tinkling piano, and haunting harmonica to evoke a lush, organic, Americana feel. Renowned music podcaster, C.C. Chapman, has said this is Lovespirals best work to date, and the band agree. In fact, Lum believes this is his finest work, bar none.

Chillin’ with Lovespirals 41: Satanic Kernel Panic

After a trip ton eventful trip Starbucks where Anji was recognized, the band are super amped to share the latest news and stories including Anji’s iMac pooping out amidst the flurry of promotion for Long Way From Home, the necomancer who made the first order of our CD, updating our various websites, getting our first CD review from CC Chapman, Anji being the 6th most recognizable voice in podcasting, plus the entire Lovespirals remix of “Motherless Child” from the brand new Motherless Child EP

Links:

Buy Long Way From Home on CD & Digital and get an immediate digital download as well from Bandcamp

Get the Motherless Child EP in your choice of digital download from Bandcamp

Preorder Lovespirals' New CD to Get Free Digital EP

preorder special
Lovespirals are offering their upcoming Motherless Child EP – featuring remixes by Karmacoda, Hungry Lucy, MoShang, Beauty’s Confusion, The Glowering Eyes, and Ryan of Lovespirals – with preorders of their 3rd album, Long Way From Home. While the official release date is schedule for October 23rd, the band have pledged to send out personally autographed copies of the new CD as soon as they become available. The remix EP, however, is an immediate digital download with every order placed through the Lovespirals Webstore.

[audio:http://chillcuts.com/audio/CHL0701medley.mp3]

Listen to an 8 min medley of Long Way From Home (128 mp3)

Lovespirals Bio for Peace Love Productions

Lovespirals have another remix competition launching on Peace Love Productions’ site, so it’s time to update our band bio once again! Always fun to spin our life story to fit a particular project… not! If only these things wrote themselves.

Lovespirals return to Peace Love Productions for their 2nd remix competition with “This Truth” from their upcoming 3rd album, Long Way From Home.  A mellow mid-tempo Rhodes-driven number with warm, soulful vocals, bluesy guitar  licks, and an upbeat vibe, this 96 bpm track is ripe for remixing in any number of genres.

Indeed, genre-bending is Lovespirals forte. The duo of musician, Ryan Lum, and vocalist, Anji Bee, began collaborating during the height of the atmospheric jazz-step drum ‘n’ bass scene of the late 90’s, creating white label dubplates. Surprisingly, their debut full length CD, Windblown Kiss (Projekt 2002), was a collection of dream pop and alt folk with jazzy overtones. Their 2005 follow up, Free & Easy (on the band’s own label, Chillcuts) was more electronica oriented, featuring jazzy downtempo and deep house tracks alongside jazz and blues influenced pop. Long Way From Home (Chillcuts Oct. 2007), finds Lovespirals adding classic Americana to their colorful sound palette to create some of their most beautiful and melancholic music to date.

Melancholic beauty is Ryan’s musical trademark. His prior work as Love Spirals Downwards explored the same ethereal depths as the Cocteau Twins and Slowdive, who appear alongside LSD on the iTunes Essentials: Shoegaze & Beyond playlist. The top selling act of preeminent darkwave label, Projekt, Love Spirals Downwards’ 1992 debut, Idylls, and 1994 followup, Ardor – which have sold aprox. 30,000 combined to date – are being reissued in an expanded and remastered digipac format in late 2007.

Lending a grounding energy to the music is the sensual voice of Anji, who’s known as “the sexiest voice in podcasting.” Anji began her podcasting career in mid 2005 by creating Chillin’ with Lovespirals to promote the band’s music and stay in touch with their fans. She caught the attention of PodShow founder, Adam Curry, who is a staunch supporter of Lovespirals on his infamous Daily Source Code. Her weekly music show, The Chillcast with Anji Bee draws in several thousand loyal listeners and ShowGirls – featuring Miss Bee – just won a People’s Choice Podcast Award.

Lovespirals’ music has been featured on MTV, VH1, E!TV, ABC, WB Network, and many other television and cable channels internationally. Their albums are available digitally via iTunes, Rhapsody, and Emusic as well as in CD format through Amazon, CDBaby, and other online retailers.

Chillin’ with Lovespirals 40: The Big Four Oh

Our podcast has hit the big 4-0! Update on the new Lovespirals album progress, our New Media Expo 2007 plans – including a ShowGirls meet ‘n’ greet and Lovespirals unplugged performance, review of the B.B. King show at Hollywood Bowl, John Mayer boosted our stats, Chillcast #80 RSS problem and stat anomaly, band email, Love Spirals Downwards reissue update, “Motherless Child” Remix EP news — including a clip from the brand new Chris Caulder (of Beauty’s Confusion) remix! 

Chillin’ with Lovespirals 39: Hate Wave

More Lovespirals news than you can shake a stick at including our new mobile recording setup including a MacBook Pro, M-Audio Fast Track Pro, MCA SP1 mic and Sennheiser HD 280 Headphones, Ryan loving Facebook but hating MySpace, designing the Long Way From Home digipac artwork, ShowGirls wins PodcastAwards, Lovespirals’ New Media Expo 2007 plans, our inclusion on the Asian Variations and Projekt 200 compilation CDs, forming a street team, Pat Ogle email, a live song clip AND an extra special contest for your chance to win a copy of the Projekt 200 limited edition 3 CD boxed set with an brand new Lovespirals track! The show closes with a clip of us playing an unreleased song live.

New Lovespirals on Projekt 200 comp

Projekt 200 “Empty Universe” from Lovespirals’ upcoming CD, Long Way From Home and “Write in Water” from the upcoming remastered reissue of Love Spirals DownwardsArdor are included on the boxed set compilation, Projekt 200. A celebration of the 200th release for Projekt, the 3 era 3 CD set includes 32 songs from the label’s 24 year history. This limited edition collection will be available in stores Sept 25th, but you can buy it at projekt.com now.

Lovespirals on MoShang's new release

Asian Variations MoShang just released a full length remix compilation entitled, Asian Variations, as a free Creative Commons download via asianvariations.com. The 14 track collection includes his remix of Lovespirals’ new single, “Motherless Child,” from their upcoming October 2007 album. You can also stream or download his remix from myspace.com/anjibee or myspace.com/lovespirals, and podcasters can add it to their playlists via Lovespirals’ Podsafe Music Network Page. Plans are underway to release a digital only EP of “Motherless Child” remixes, so watch for news at lovespirals.com!

[audio:http://chillcuts.com/audio/motherless_child_moshang_mix.mp3]

Listen to “Motherless Child (MoShang’s No Place Like Home Mix)”

Ryan Lum on MySpace

I don’t always do things in the right order. I have pages on facebook, ziki, and linkeIn to name a few. But just today, I created my personal myspace page. I’m not sure exactly what i’m going to do with it as I have myspace pages for Lovespirals and Love Spirals Downwards. But it’s a start and at least I’m the first and only Ryan Lum who has my myspace address www.myspace.com/ryanlum. Anyways, feel free to drop by and add me as a friend. I currently have zero after I deleted the default Tom dude.

"Motherless Child (Hungry Lucy Mix)" on MySpace

Motherless Child Hungry Lucy RemixThere’s a new song streaming in our Lovespirals MySpace player. It’s the brand spanking new Hungry Lucy remix of our “Motherless Child.” 4 bands were invited to remix our rendition of this classic anonymous blues song, including Hungry Lucy, Karmacoda, MoShang, and Beauty’s Confusion. We hope to release a digital single on iTunes with all 4 remixes, plus a special Lovespirals remix, sometime over the next 2 months. Stay tuned to lovespirals.com for more details! Photo by Gregory Aune.

Chillin’ with Lovespirals 38: Pump It Up

Lots of Lovespirals news including mastering Long Way From Home with Robert Rich, photo sessions results, voting for The Chillcast with Anji Bee on PodcastAwards July 28th – Aug 11th, launch of the Anji Bee Music Store, New Media Expo 2007, Ryan’s birthday on July 31st, an LA Times story about the SoundExchange controversy, fan emails, social media sites Pownce, Ziki, Ning, Facebook, MySpace, and more – plus we share the a clip of the Karmacoda Mix of “Motherless Child”. Happy Birthday to Sean Bowley!

Ethereal Chillout Music