The contractor came back today to complete work on the house. Between seeing him again and the sunny weather, I feel like I’m timewarped into last year! Hopefully everything will be wrapped up with a minimum of fuss and muss. Last year was a real disaster. I can hardly believe we managed to get out our album with all the shit going on in my live/work space! Its a testament to our iron clad will, to be sure.
The garden is coming up so strong this Spring. Last year at this time, it was all just dirt and pine needles. All my hard work has certainly paid off out there. Now I’m just taking seeds from one area and planting them into another, wherever there happens to be a little blank space. Those are quickly filling in, though! I guess the “cottage garden in a can” seeds worked pretty well. Ha! All the bulbs I put in this Fall have gone nuts, so that I’m actually cutting them and bringing them in to enjoy.
What does this all have to do with music, you ask? Not much perhaps, but our state of mind and circumstances have an awful lot to do with songwriting. I had been writing some pretty sad songs over Fall and Winter, but maybe now I’ll start writing happy ones again?
Check out today’s Daily Source Code #369: Best of Charlie #5 that I put together for Adam. It is basically a collection of all of our conversations over the past year on his show with a bit of added commentary from me. Included are two Lovespirals tracks. It seemed like a good idea at the time I edited it together, but I’m a little bit embarrassed now…
OK it was weird enough to hear my big Best Of Anji Bee feature thingee on Adam Curry’s DSC today but then I was driving around with Ryan listening to the Tom Leykis show on the radio, and I started commenting on the topic to him, and Ryan pulls out his cellphone to dial Tom’s comment line. I told the screener my thoughts and he said I was “the perfect demographic” and put me on next without any wait! I start talking to Leykis, which is already bizarre, but then he keeps me on the line for like 10 minutes! It was so odd to talk to him, because he’s such a radio persona – completely “ON” the whole time. He was going off about how someone should make a Hollywood movie about M.I.L.F.’s, starring an actress that was superhot in the 70’s and a starlet that is superhot now. Pretty good idea. Ryan was way into the Julie Cooper M.I.L.F. storyline on The O.C., as I recall. Anyway, I think I’ve had more than my share of media attention for the day. Right now I’m chillin’ a bottle of French rose to go with some French cheese and a baguette. Maybe if I’m lucky I can enjoy a little sundown moment out on the porch, looking out in the the flowering garden? Mmm…
Tune in this Sunday, April 2nd, for a Lovespirals Artist Profile on the Atmosphere 69 show with DJette Agent 69 on Mix96, 95.9 FM in Montreal, Canada 10 PM EST. This special interview will repeat online via Luxuria Music the following Tuesday, April 4th, and sometime soon after on Switzerland’s Lounge Radio.
I just launched a new podcast on Adam Curry’s Podshow Podcast Network called The Chillcast with Anji Bee. It’s a half hour music show featuring chilled tunes in genres from downtempo to deep house, trip hop to dream pop, electro lounge to old school jazz & blues, and more. The show was inspired by my Live365 radio station, Chillcuts, which was in turn inspired by my older show, The Lovely Ladies of Electronica. Basically, I just keep widening my circle of musical styles as time goes on. Anyway, I’d love to have you come check the show out at http://chillcast.podshow.com.
Feel free to hit me back and let me know what you think!
Yesterday was the first official day of Spring, or so I’m told. It rained last night, but today is nice and sunny, if a bit crisp. Still, the garden really seem to love the weather. I mentioned on the podcast how green the patch surrounding old Babik Nurn is. Here’s a photo for you!
The white heliotrope is looking great, and all the bulbs are starting to flower, plus forget-me-nots are really sprouting up everywhere! Guess that shovel is coming in handy for our little gnome friend.
Anji expresses regret at not making this a St. Patrick’s day episode, alas! Ryan and Anji discuss next weekend’s Lovespirals show in Mexico including their new setlist, how new songs always seem like the most fun to perform, working with Noize Kontrol for distribution in Mexico, share some fan mail, make that announcement Anji has been promising, and more!
Ryan and I been working on our new live set the past week or two. It’s quite a bit different from our last tour! We did one show last year with The Flir, so we had worked up a few songs from Free and Easy and our cover of Floyd’s “Cymbaline.” Now we’ve added 2 of our brand new, unreleased, songs to the set. We’ve also been testing out an old LSD tune to play acoustic, rather than the version of “Ring” we did in 2002. It’s cool to have so many more tracks to choose from when we play! Now we can actually have a few extra tunes tucked away for encores, if we need them. The first time we went to Mexico, we only had one album out and no extra tunes for encores. I ended up doing an acapella Billie Holiday song at one gig, and an acapella LSD song at another. This time we’ll actually be prepared. Should be cool.
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!
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.
