Blog

Mixer Blues

February 12, 2006 Anji Leave a comment

So the mixer is in the shop now. Ryan’s been researching alternatives for days now, just in case the mixer can’t be fixed, or the price is really high to fix it. Either way, he’ll have to pay $75 just to have it looked at. 🙁

Ryan did figure out a crude work around, using a tiny mixer he had for his computer, so that he could still create a little jingle for The Chillcast. I think it turned out pretty cool, actually. Didn’t get to use the PCM70 reverb, but we made due. Maybe we can play the jingle in the next Chillin’ with Lovespirals?

Speaking of which, we are waaay behind schedule on our podcast… sorry to the loyal listeners!

Uncategorized

Ooo-ooh that smell

February 9, 2006 ryan Leave a comment

Man! Went into Ryan’s studio to do a little intro song for The Chillcast but the mixer was acting up. I noticed a weird smell, like plastic burning. Ryan said the mixer suddenly rebooted once, and shortly after telling me that, it just shut down completely. Great… We unplugged everything to take it into the shop, and when we pulled it up, the smell was coming from the side where the fuse is located, so I’m hoping that just blew. Cross your fingers for us!

Blog

Chillcast Episode 3 Completed

February 8, 2006 Anji Leave a comment

Put together another episode of Chillcast today featuring music from bands on MySpace. Seems like a lot were also on Garageband. Anyway, you can check it out at chillcuts.com in the “Chillcast” section. Still don’t have my official site and RSS feed setup, but hopefully by the end of the week. Then I’ll start listing on iTunes and all of that fun stuff so it’ll be really easy to subscribe. Now I gotta round up Ryan to do another Chillin’ with Lovespirals!

Uncategorized

Lovespirals Tunes on The Strand: Venice

February 4, 2006 ryan Leave a comment

The new webseries by Dan Myrick (of Blair Witch Project fame), The Strand: Venice includes tracks by Lovespirals in their
first and second episodes. The first season is about to be released on
DVD via strandvenice.com, where you can also check out “Love
Survives” on the site’s built-in audio player. The show features a great soundtrack overall, with a decidedly chill-out flavor.

Uncategorized

Chillcast with Anji Bee

January 26, 2006 ryan Leave a comment

Good things are happening behind the scenes with my new Chillcast, so expect an announcement soon from me. For now, you can check out Chillcast Episode 2 via ourmedia.org. I put a link up on the newly redesigned www.chillcuts.com. Just click on the “chillcast” tab and there ya go!

News, Reviews, Social Media

"Love Survives" Wins Track of the Week

January 23, 2006 Anji Leave a comment

For the 2nd time Lovespirals’ song, “Love Survives,” from Free & Easy, was chosen as ‘Electronica Track of the Week’ on Garageband. This song was also selected twice as the ‘Electronica Track of the Day,’ and has won a whole host of listener-based awards since we first uploaded it 2 years ago:

Track of the Day on 21Sep2004 in Electronic
Track of the Day on 19Nov2004 in Electronica
Track Of The Week on 1Nov2004 in Electronic
Track Of The Week on 23Jan2006 in Electronica
#14 Best Female Vocals in Electronica, all-time
#19 Best Melody in Electronica, all-time
Best Female Vocals in Electronic, week of 13Sep2004
Best Female Vocals in Electronic, week of 11Oct2004
Best Female Vocals in Electronic, week of 18Oct2004
Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 27Dec2004
Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 3Jan2005
Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 16Jan2006
Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 23Jan2006
Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 30Jan2006
Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 6Feb2006
Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 13Feb2006
Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 20Feb2006
Best Drums in Electronic, week of 18Oct2004
Best Bass in Electronic, week of 13Sep2004
Best Bass in Electronic, week of 11Oct2004
Best Keyboards in Electronic, week of 13Sep2004
Best Keyboards in Electronica, week of 3Jan2005
Best Keyboards in Electronica, week of 23Jan2006
Best Production in Electronic, week of 13Sep2004
Best Production in Electronic, week of 20Sep2004
Best Production in Electronica, week of 23Jan2006
Best Lyrics in Electronic, week of 13Sep2004
Best Lyrics in Electronic, week of 20Sep2004
Best Lyrics in Electronic, week of 11Oct2004
Best Lyrics in Electronic, week of 18Oct2004
Best Lyrics in Electronica, week of 13Feb2006
Best Melody in Electronic, week of 20Sep2004
Best Melody in Electronica, week of 23Jan2006
Best Melody in Electronica, week of 6Feb2006
Best Melody in Electronica, week of 20Feb2006
Best Beat in Electronica, week of 20Feb2006
Best Mood in Electronica, week of 27Dec2004
Best Mood in Electronica, week of 23Jan2006
Best Mood in Electronica, week of 30Jan2006
Best Mood in Electronica, week of 6Feb2006
Best Mood in Electronica, week of 13Feb2006
Best Mood in Electronica, week of 20Feb2006
Most Original in Electronica, week of 20Feb2006
Feel Good Track in Electronic, week of 6Sep2004
Feel Good Track in Electronic, week of 25Oct2004
Best Love Song in Electronic, week of 27Sep2004
Chill-Out Track overall, week of 13Sep2004
Chill-Out Track in Electronic, week of 13Sep2004
Chill-Out Track in Electronic, week of 20Sep2004
Chill-Out Track in Electronic, week of 11Oct2004
Chill-Out Track in Electronica, week of 20Dec2004
Best Elevator Song in Electronic, week of 18Oct2004

“Love Survives” is currently rated at 4.7 stars out of 5. The highest it reached on the Electronic charts was #6 of 289 songs on December 28, 2004. Check out “Love Survives” on Garageband for yourself!

Blog

New song #2

January 21, 2006 Anji Leave a comment

We’re really on a roll this year. Finished up another new song last night that we’re both really into. We exercised great control and kept it down to just over 3 minutes. You know us, we’ve been tending to stretch out every song with long meandering outros and solo sections… Most every song on Free and Easy is over 5 minutes. But this latest one is compact, even a bit spare by our standards. No drums or bass, a minimum of electric guitar, and no full keyboard part – just a few notes at the end. Maybe we’ll put a snatch of it on the next podcast? Oh, I should mention it’s called “Empty Universe”…

Podcast

Chillin’ with Lovespirals Episode12

January 17, 2006 Anji Leave a comment

Anji and Ryan talk about the iTunes podcasting issue, listeners enjoying the band’s music during romantic interludes, Lovespirals appearing on the Sonic Spotlight podcast with War-n of Hungy Lucy, launching the Chillcuts Chillcast, and make more jokes about their gnome. Lovespirals also share about a minute of a brand new, unreleased song, making this a “don’t miss” episode.

Blog

Chillin with Lovespirals Episode 12

January 17, 2006 Anji Leave a comment

The new podcast went up late last night. I tried uploading it 3 times, but kept getting some dumb error page, until I finally realized that this is the first time I’ve tried to upload it using Firefox instead of Safari. Once I did it from Safari, everything was cool. Now why would that be? Argh… computers! Can’t live with them, can’t live without ’em.

Anyway, this was one of the easier podcasts to produce. For once, we recorded straight through with no breaks, no redos, and no punch ins. Unfortunately, my volume spiked into distortion 4 or 5 times. I’m always worried about someone listening with earbuds and getting their hearing damaged from my piercing laughs, so I was all anal and dipped the volume down on those or tried to edit them out. Made the process take longer. Oh well. Next time I need to try using compression while I record, rather than just in the post-processing.

This episode is really cool because we share about a minute of a brand new, unreleased song, that we’re just finishing up right now. I guess that makes is a “don’t miss” episode.

Blog

Chillcuts website

January 15, 2006 Anji Leave a comment

Finally had a chance to work a bit on updating the Chillcuts site (www.chillcuts.com). Now the site matches the style of the record label logo, which our current site is also modeled after. The content has been updated to reflect the imminent launch of my new podcast, tentatively titled the “Chillcuts Chillcast.” I even put up a link to my rough draft of the first episode. I haven’t yet worked out where I’ll be hosting the podcast, so this is just a sneak peek, as it were… Also updated the store so that you can see more about the CDs listed for sale. Looks more interesting, too. So this site is an improvement on the last one, but it isn’t totally complete yet. Oh yeah, I also made a banner ad for the site/podcast and put it up on our MySpace page.

Reviews

Pop Stops for The Star reviews Free & Easy

January 12, 2006 ryan Leave a comment

John Evanstan reviews Free & Easy

The Southern California duo of Ryan Lum and Anji Bee bring to mind the cool, sensual jazz of Sade on their nine-track independent CD Free and Easy. They named their record label “Chillcuts” and that’s a perfect definition of their downbeat, sultry late-night sound.

Lum plays a sedate electric guitar and gently jazzy Rhodes piano to back up Bee as she croons and seduces at the microphone. It’s a deliciously soothing combination.

Lovespirals began as an outgrowth of Lum’s former band incarnation, Love Spirals Downwards, which sold more than 50,000 copies of four albums on Projekt Records in the mid-’90s. In 1999, Lum began working with a new lead vocalist in Bee, and changed the band name to Lovespirals to reflect the new sound and direction. The result is a duo that knows how to craft seductive vocal loungey jazz with cooly shifting electronic rhythms.

Ethereal Chillout Music