Lovespirals will play on Saturday, March 25th, 2006 at Club Dada X in Mexico City, at 9 pm. The first show in support of their new album, Free & Easy – distributed in Mexico by Noise Kontrol – will also commemorate the club’s 7th anniversary. Anji and Ryan will perform a 1 hour set of songs from both albums, highlighting their soft, soulful, jazz and blues influenced material. The band will be available to autograph CDs after their set. CDs will be on sale at the event.
More new music
After finishing up the podcast yesterday, we started recording another new song. We had starting writing this one a few weeks (months?) ago, before the mixer blew… Anyway, it’s always so fun to be working on new music. We’re constantly evolving and finding new ways to express ourselves. Got to be one of the best feelings in the world!
Chillin’ with Lovespirals Episode 14
Ryan and Anji start off the show with a whole new vibe! Lovespirals mixer is back in action, thanks to Digitron, so the band could finish up their pink Floyd cover. The duo talk about booking some shows and preparing a new live set incorporating songs from both Lovespirals albums. They also talk about seeing Robert Cray perform, the delay in Anji’s new podcast launching, and more. They close out the show with “Welcome to the Machine,” from the upcoming Neptune Pink Floyd compilation.
Robert Cray Concert Review
Man, Robert Cray was SMOKIN’ HOT last night. He is like 100 times better in person than on record. Ryan and I were standing right in front of him, getting his monitor feed really loud in the mix so we could hear his guitar and vocals much louder than the keys and rhythm. Holy crap is that man talented. Not a stinker note in the whole set. Not only was his guitar totally fucking amazing, but his vocals were perfect, as well. He has such control, I was in awe. And such presence. I almost burst into tears after the first or second song, it was so beautiful. Wow.
Now the crowd was a whole other story… I really wanted to pop this one guy in the face, he was so fucking rude and annoying the entire set. He was some dufus named “Dave” who apparently is on vacation from Jersey and has spent the last few days at Disneyland. He told these women he was trying to pick up on next to me that he “was all Mickey’d out” hence, he mosied over to the House of Blues for a change of scenery. I know a lot more about his trip, since he kept talking the whole time, only stopping to yell “Woo!” during solos and “Thank YOU!” between songs. Finally, during the encore performance of “Time Takes Two” – which I’d been looking forward to all night – I said “Shut up!” and flipped Dave off to his face, but he was so stupid and drunk, he didn’t seem to notice. The chick he was talking to left, though, so that helped. But then some gross guy in a sparkly red Ruby’s Costume type shirt and a super gross lady in a cheap flame patterned polyester dress lurched over and started dry humping up against me. I pushed the guy’s back away from me, but he didn’t move, so I started elbowing him and kicking his foot, but that just seemed to excite him or something. I had to retreat backwards a foot and move to the other side of Ryan, but by then, my song was over…
Anyway, all the dufi in the world can’t take away the magical feeling songs like “Who’s Been Talking,” “Poor Johnny,” “That Ain’t Love,” “Twenty,” and (the unexpected) “12 Year Old Boy” gave me.
Taylor Hicks
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I watch American Idol. I started watching the second season sporadically and have become more consistent since. This is the first time I’ve watched all of the shows, and the reason is Taylor Hicks. Man, something about that guy is just really compelling! My first thought was, “Hmm… is this one of the crazy people they cast for drama?” But then he let loose with the soul thing and this Ray Charles/Joe Cocker move and Ryan said something like, “He’s an idiot savant!”
Today I looked him up on Google and see that he’s actually a professional musician, so he’s obviously got his thing together. I don’t know what that odd look in his eye is about, but I’m totally suckered in to watch every episode now, just to check out what this guy is up to. I found 3 free downloads of his music and enjoyed them quite a bit. The sound is very familiar and warm. “It’s a Soul Thing” was the real stand out.
I would hate to see him win the competition – or come in second – and be forced to do those crappy hack songs they finish out the show with, and then make a sell-out auto-tuned over-produced Top 40 record… But I’d love to see him stay in the competition long enough that we get to enjoy his performances most of the season and see how he does with the various genre challenges. Why a guy like this enters American Idol kind of perplexes me (I’d never dream of doing it!), but then again, if guys like this didn’t join, the show wouldn’t even be worth watching. Go Taylor Hicks – blue-eyed soul man!
Oh, and on a side note, I’ve been trying to get the hang of playing harmonica recently and was pretty stoked to hear him playing it last night. I have a long way to go…
New Chillin’ with Lovespirals podcast finally up!
At long last, Ryan and I went into studio B to record another podcast. It’s a Valentine’s podcast, I suppose, though it’s pretty much like any other Chillin with Lovespirals podcast. The highlight of the show is a clip from our second brand new song, “Empty Universe.” You can check it out through the “podcast” tab on our site, or via iTunes or any of the other usual podcast listing sites.
Oh, I promised listeners that I’d post a photo of the new and improved worker gnome, Babik Nurn…
Chillin’ with Lovespirals Episode 13
It’s a Valentine’s podcast, I suppose, though it’s pretty much like any other Chillin with Lovespirals podcast. Anji and Ryan discuss their mixer crapping out, a jingle the duo composed for Anji’s new podcast, attending an eating competition with Doron, give an update on the garden gnome and more. The highlight of the show is a clip from another brand new song called, “Empty Universe.”
Mixer Blues
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!
Ooo-ooh that smell
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!
Chillcast Episode 3 Completed
Put together another episode of The 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!
Lovespirals Tunes on The Strand: Venice
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 vibe.
Freaks, Geeks and Muscle Beach. Welcome to Venice Beach, CA. There’s no other city in America quite as colorful, crazy, or content. The Strand takes us into the lives of several characters that inhabit this offbeat, slightly surreal world and shows us that no matter how different we are on the outside, we’re all basically the same animal on the inside. ~ The Strand: Venice
Chillcast with Anji Bee
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!