Lovespirals were interviewed by War-n Harrison, of Hungry Lucy, on his brand new podcast, Sonic Spotlight. Ryan and Anji discuss inspirations, the writing process, their feelings about live performance vs recording, and more in this 25 minute podcast.
Read a news announcement about The Sonic Spotlight debut on AlfaMatrix
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.
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.
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.
Ooh man would I love to get my hands on one of the new iMacs. I could see putting that extra power to use for designing the new album cover, not to mention doing podcasts, and maybe even a special vidcast. Mmm…. drool…
Forgot to mention that Chillin’ with Lovespirals went back onto iTunes a-ok the other day. Guess Apple figured out their problem. Cool. Speaking of Apple, Ryan’s all excited about Steve Job’s keynote today. I asked him not to tell me all the news so that I can be surprised when I watch the video. If they’re putting one up, which I assume they are. Those live events were always a pain in the butt, so I can understand why they didn’t do it this time, but it’s kind of a bummer, all the same.
So I put together my first Chillcast this weekend, but I haven’t actually launched the podcast yet. I realized that I have to do some unfun stuff, like create a proper site for it, get my RSS feed together and all that. Ryan did all the hard stuff for our band podcast, but this one is my baby. I can’t decide if I should call it Chillcuts Chillcast so it’ll make more sense to host it on www.chillcuts.com, or maybe Chillcuts with Anji Bee and host it on www.anjibee.com? But I don’t want to go buy www.chillcast.com, really… Blah, this is the part of creation that I don’t find fun. Anyway, stayed tuned for future developments with my new music podcast!
C.C. Chapman emailed me today to say that his show, Accident Hash, also was not showing up in iTunes searches. He claims iTunes is “hosed” right now. Hopefully they’ll have it fixed soon. It’s cool to know that C.C. was listening to our podcast. I guess he mentioned us on his last night, I’m just checking it out right now. Gee… I think my flirtation with Adam has somehow switched to a flirtation with C.C. (Do you put another period after C.C. to end the sentence, I wonder?) That’s right, I was going to cut in some of C.C.’s comments about me into the last Chillin’, but I forgot. Oh well, just go check out his shows from last month and you’ll hear a few things.
The first Chillin’ with Lovespirals podcast of 2006 announces a new single released on the Podsafe Music Network — but not until after joking extensively about their garden gnome. Ryan and Anji also talk about “Sandcastles” from the new album — even playing a few clips of the song for listeners — and announce Anji Bee’s new podcast project for 2006.
The most recent episode of the Chillin’ with Lovespirals podcast announces a new single released to the Podsafe Music Network, where podcasters can download music freely and legally for use on their shows. The band also announces Anji Bee’s latest project for 2006. You’ll have to download Episode 11 to find out the details!
Hmm… noticed that our podcast isn’t showing up on iTunes today. I wonder how long it’s been down? I wonder what happened? Bummer.
After telling a friend about the Cocteau Twins 4 CD set Lullabies to Violaine earlier this month, they gave me a copy for Christmas. How sweet! Robin did a nice job remastering everything. It’s cool to hear the muddier recordings brought to life with more sparkling guitars and distinct basslines. Comparing just the 320 AAC files I ripped from the original EPs to the ones ripped from the new CDs, the sound is quite improved on some songs.
I was thinking that I wouldn’t get the set because I already have almost everything on it, but now I’m happy that Todd picked one up for me. I’m still comparing the more recent tracks and trying to decide, for instance, if I prefer the original Twinlights or the new Lullabies versions, but on the 80’s stuff it’s really no contest. “Sighs Smells of Farewell” is an exception, though. I thought the original sounded better on that one. That’s why I’m checking everything individually. It’s awesome to get the two Christmas tracks, btw, because I didn’t have Snow and have been wanting those tunes for my holiday playlist!
I’m not sure if this is a secret or not, but Ryan recently digitized the original mixdowns of Ardor from his master DATs and the sound quality was noticeably better on those. The high end of the guitar especially shines. It would be so cool if we could manage to do a 4 CD set of his four Love Spirals Downwards’ studio albums remastered like this Twins set, though I’m pretty sure the cost would be too prohibitive. I’d really love to hear Idylls remastered, though. I imagine he could get it sounding much cleaner and louder with modern equipment.
Speaking of equipment, my friend Todd, and the Cocteau Twins; he showed me a postcard that Robin Guthrie mailed him awhile back thanking Todd for giving him an Acetone drum machine. Apparently Robin used it on some recordings, but I’m not sure which ones. I should ask Todd if he knows which songs use his drum machine.
Daily Source Code followers will likely be familiar with the infamous Comic Strip Blogger, who comments religiously on Adam Curry’s blog. I recently mentioned him in some audio feedback to Adam, and now CSB (as Adam calls him) has mentioned me in his comic strip! Now, that is usually NOT a good thing, but I was somehow spared his wrath and appear in a fairly positive light. Of course, I should remind him that Ryan was the one to the sell the 50,000 CDs, not me…
