OK, for those of you who have listened to the newest podcast (v.7), this is one of the photos of that guy I was talking about. For those that haven’t, check out the podcast and then you’ll know why I posted this!
Groove Boutique Digs Lovespirals
Got an email from DJ Rafe Gomez today saying he’s diggin’ the album and will be adding “Free & Easy” and “Hand in Hand” into the mix on his show soon. Cool! Actually, his words were “Thx for hipping me to your ultra kewl sounds.” Positive feedback rocks. Makes all the sweat and tears worth it.
Cool stuff coming
It’s been a busy week, and we’ve got a lot of cool stuff in the works. Next week we’ll be launching more site updates. We’re going to start doing the podcast weekly, too, unless things get too crazy. But right now there’s plenty to talk about, so why wait 2 weeks? We’ll be sending out the first email newsletter since our random Santa Monica show. I just don’t think about sending out emails what with the blog, news feed, and podcast, but I guess folks are expecting to get emails when the sign the list, and they do sign the list often…
Chillin’ with Lovespirals 7: The Sucker Is Out
Ryan and Anji have tons of news to share about the launch of their new album, ‘Free & Easy,’ including a specially redesigned website, the CD street date, store distributor, and how to buy the CD online. The duo marvel over how one savvy fan figured out how to order a copy before it was even officially announced!
iTunes screwup
Hmm… Just noticed that our latest podcast (episode 6) hasn’t shown up on iTunes yet. That is really weird. We’ll have to figure out what went wrong with that. Meanwhile, though, you can hear it directly from our site, or on MySpace or Garageband. I wonder if Odeo got it yet? Man, too much stuff to keep track of. Where’s that gnome of ours at?
Website updates
We started changing the site around a bit to reflect the imminent release of Free & Easy, starting with a new home page image featuring a brand new band photo. We also added some splashes of color here and there, which really perks things up, it seems to me. Orange is so full of life. Kinda matches the whole Indian Summer thing going on out here in So Cal. Boy has it been hot! Oh yeah, we’ve also had some new band photos sprinkled throughout the pages. We’ll update the photo album eventually, as well. What else is new? Oh, new lyrics, of course. Got the rest of the album lyrics up this weekend. I think we’ll get some banner ads together soon so folks can link to the site off theirs, if they like. New audio will go up soon. Who knows what else? Keep checking back…
Chillin’ with Lovespirals 6: Gnome Security
Ryan and Anji finally announce the street date of Lovespirals’ new album, Free & Easy, hint at future plans, ask fans for advice, and discuss the pros and cons of using gnomes for security.
New Podcast Announces Street Date
Episode 6 of Chillin’ with Lovespirals is now up and ready for your
listening pleasure. The Lovespirals crew get a bit loopy as they announce the
official street date, talk of promotional plans, and ask fans for their input.
You can check it out through all the usual locations (ie. the website, iTunes,
Odeo, MySpace, Garageband etc…).
Getting loopy
Man, I was pretty exhausted when we recorded the podcast yesterday. After starting over from the top a few times, we got kinda cranky and almost didn’t do one, then we suddenly got really silly, instead. We were like, “How are we going to make a 10 minute show about how we’re about to announce news, but aren’t quite there yet?” Then I forgot to mention that we had just done a new photo shoot yesterday. We’ve had bad luck arranging a shoot for the past year with different photographers. Like 4 different people… Isn’t that kind of weird? But we finally did a quickie yesterday so hopefully something good will come of it. If so, you’ll be seeing it soon, I expect.
Too busy to blog
Now that the end is in sight for our CD release, we are just running around like chickens with our heads cut off! Last night we took some time to actually play music, which was a refreshing change of pace. We played through our set using just electric guitar and a mic through amps, which was a first. The rawness sounded kind of interesting, actually. I could see us maybe doing a quick ‘n dirty show like that sometime. I’ve been talking with a cool LA space about hosting a launch party show, so hopefully we can set up a good time for that. Doing it around the holidays might be a little stressful, but hopefully not overly so. I will be pretty surprised if we’re able to set up some Mexico shows this winter, as we hoped, but you never know. Things can fall together beautifully at the last minute sometimes.
Official 2005 Lovespirals Bio
With the new album comes a new band bio. Check it out:
Lovespirals’ sophomore offering, Free & Easy, is actually band founder Ryan Lum’s 6th album, having released 4 other 10,000+ selling Projekt titles under the extended moniker, Love Spirals Downwards. Since 1991, multi-instrumentalist/producer Lum has been slowly but steadily perfecting his craft, mesmerizing listeners with a dreamy combination of ethereal rock, folk, and electronica, enhanced by female vocals ranging from the sensual to the sublime. 1998’s crossover electronica/rock breakthrough, Flux, possessed a more contemporary appeal than earlier efforts; the drum ‘n’ bass infused “Psyche” was even featured on the WB’s Dawson’s Creek. Enthused by the embrace of both his past fanbase and a newly growing listenership, Lum continued to evolve in a dance-oriented style, creating atmospheric jazz-step club tracks — including a remix of darkwave classic, “Bittersweet,” for Claire Voyant’s Time Again released through Metropolis Records.
By 1999, Lum was closely collaborating with new vocalist/songwriter, Anji Bee, under the condensed name Lovespirals. After a series of singles released on compilations such as Chill Out Lounge Vol. 2 and Chill Out in the City, Lovespirals changed gears and began seriously composing material for their first full-length album. Knowing that the album would be released on Projekt, who are known for darker ambient tinged offerings, Lum and Bee decided to hold back on their more upbeat compositions during song selection for their debut 2002 album, Windblown Kiss, focusing instead on darker, jazz-infused rock and folk tracks more in line with Robin Guthrie’s Violet Indiana and the Twin Peaks soundtracks by Angelo Badalamenti and Julie Cruise.
Fastforwarding to the present, Lovespirals are releasing their second album, Free & Easy, which includes lovingly completed versions of their previously unreleased dance songs, as well as a host of new tracks written between 2002 and 2004. With the freedom of launching their own label, Chillcuts, comes a celebration of high energy electronica tracks sprinkled amongst the moodier fare Lovespirals have come to be known for. From the bittersweet trip hop of the album single, “Love Survives” (featured in new webseries,The Strand), to the catchy deep house of “Trouble” (featured in E!’s Gastineau Girls), to the dark bluesy chill out of “Walk Away” (featured in the WB’s Popular DVD), Free & Easy, truly runs the gamut of downtempo sounds and styles. But Lovespirals could never be content writing only electronica; consider the mood masterpiece of the album, “Habitual,” with it’s soaring ethereal vocal harmonies and organic instrumentation.
Lovespirals’ first truly independent release is sure to surprise and delight their longtime fans, while attracting a new audience with it’s diverse range of genres graced by the smoothly sensual Lovespirals touch.
Lovespirals VS Beauty's Confusion
I mentioned in a podcast last month that we had a collaboration in the works with Philly band, Beauty’s Confusion. They are a great up and coming band so I’m excited to be doing something with them. They just sent us a copy of their recent album, which is really enjoyable. I knew quite a few songs already because they are pretty generous about sharing their music online, but there were a couple sweet tracks I hadn’t heard before, like “City.” Actually, if you haven’t heard BC yet, you should go check out their download page at beautysconfusion.net or visit their myspace page. Anyway, Skip is working on a final mix now, which I’m looking forward to hearing and to sharing with everyone on a future podcast. Oh, I should mention that this is the first time Ryan’s gotten involved in an internet collaboration. I’m really stoked he liked the song enough to take some time out and go into the studio with me to work on it. Depending on how busy we are promoting the new album, I might get him to do an official Lovespirals mix of it, too. Time shall tell…