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Verse of Truth Trash and Beauty
Lots of new posts tonight.
Check back often as we will be keeping this really up to date with all current news for Ledaswan and anything else we find interesting.
So you never know, your Mom may appear here.
The offending flier
I hate Kinkos. Or should I say I don’t like the people that were working there on Saturday evening. I have some great friends that work at Kinkos and I feel very indebted to, but not these employees that night. Let’s just say the level on ineptitude was appalling.
So I email my files to them on Saturday afternoon and advise I would like to pick them up at 8pm. I get the standard automated reply email. I should have called, but I didn’t since I took it for granted they got it. Plus Erica and I were were enjoying some coffee at Casa Chiapas. I call them at 8pm and ask if my fliers and posters are ready. They have no idea what order I had and after 5 mins they tell me they never received it. So I ask if I can resend it and they tell me “yes, but it won’t be ready till 8am.” I ask them if they will just print me one copy of each of the files I am sending then I can just make copies of those. Sure, no problem. I tell them I will be there in 5 mins. I get there in 10 mins and they still had not opened my email. I wait a total of 30 mins for the email to open. Their computers are slow the lady tells me. I notice they are using Netscape Communicator browser. WTF?!!! So it finally opens and for some strange reason she closes it. Then tries to reopen it again and it begins to download again. We had already waited almost 30 mins for it to download 2 files totalling 5mb. Unbelievable. The lady had seen the file and saw it was a jpg and told me there might be trouble printing it because it was a .jpg. I didn’t know what to say. Why is that a problem.. She said it might have to be a .pdf instead. I explain if it is really a problem, then copy the .jpg and paste into Photoshop. She said that that should work ok. But i had been there almost 45 mins by this point. I asked if it would be easier if I brought a thumb drive with the files on it. She said that would be better and she would waive the usual fee to take file off a thumb drive. Ok. Thanks! When i get back to Kinkos with my thumbdrive, the lady is gone and I speak with the other gentleman that was there. He opens up the files and tells me that he can’t and won’t print these files because they have Chuckie on them and I need permission from Warner Bros for that. WTF!!? Then let me know that if I wanted to I could rent a computer and print them myself since he has no control over that. This was after the lady before had seen my files and never mentioned to me that there was any problem with my print. She saw it many times as it was downloading. She could have said something while I was waiting and before I went home to get my thumbdrive to bring the same file. So I rent the computer and print the file. I hate that their printer throws a white border around everything. Looks like shit when you hand out a flier that has a white border on only one side. When i finish, there is another worker there and I explain that I still have money on the Kinkos card I put $20 on and i want to buy some scotch tape but use the money on that card. He tells me he needs to have a manager available to give a refund. At this point the level of customer service that had been provided that night was almost to the point of ridiculous. Never had I had such trouble getting any service at Kinkos. I usually recommend them to everyone for printing. I send my files and then go pick them up. Normally very convenient. So I explain to this employee that I am not upset at him but at what has happend and I explain the events of the evening to him. He tells me Kinkos has strict policy about printing copyrighted material. I understand and can abide by this, but shouldn’t the employee who saw my file have said something. He agreed she should have told me and let me know that this wasn’t the first time she had messed up. He apologized for the events and he made me feel a little more at ease. I had one more file that needed printing and he told me he would do it that night and have it ready for me Sunday morning. In 5 mins he displayed more customer service than anyone else over a course of almsot 2 hrs that I was there. I ended up leaving with my fliers at 1130pm. I had sent them at 3:30pm. On my way home the Kinkos guy called and told me he could have my fliers ready now if I wanted to come back and get them. I thanked him and told him I was already home and would get them Sunday afternoon.
So maybe I don’t really hate Kinkos. I just really disliked them last night!
Here is a 4 song video set from the 3rd night of the Local 782 showcase:
Cancelled. WTF was that about. We get here early. 4:30. Organizers show up at 530pm. They tell us to start setting up around 6pm and keep telling us to move our equipment around. Finally they start complaining that we are 30 mins behind schedule that we need to hurry. I was getting so impatient, but apparently not as much as our drummer Delrick, who told her next time she wants things running on time she should send out an itinerary. Truth is, we never got one as much as we asked. Delrick also told her to “Kiss his ass” and that is when they told us to get off the stage. But they didn’t want us to take off our equipment. Delrick told her to call the cops then cause he was taking his drums off, (which they had also asked us to leave so another band could use). So we stepped off stage and we are now looking for a show o play.
Ledaswan has finished recording a new song that will be on the upcoming compilation Local 782: You are Here, We are Here. We are performing this song live now and here is a clip of our recent show at Tonic. Enjoy!
Ledaswan is currently recording a new song to be on the compilation for Local 782 Music Coalition. The compilation will be a digital release that will be available on iTunes and will have 10 artist from San Antonio. Ledaswan has decided to record a brand new song for this compilation. The working title for this song is “Where Birds Go“. It is very brand new and are still making changes to the actual song as we play and rehearse it. We have finished recording all the instrumentation for the song. Only the vocals are left and I want to tell you, it is probably our best sounding track ever. I can’t wait to get the vocals on there. Due to Erica’s illness we haven’t been able to get started on the vocals, but she is looking a lot better and we might be able to cut them this weekend. We hope so at least, the track is due on Monday in order to make the compilation. We think you will love it once you hear it. Some pics from the recording.
What a shitty week for having the flu. I caught it last week and had it really bad for 1 whole day. Looks like Erica caught it after and has had it over a week. After a whole week of her staying home, she went to the Doctor and of course they said it was almost done, so no meds are required.
Then she turned into a zombie like in the movies and tried to eat my brain.
Just have to wait it out. We unfortunately had to cancel the show for this weekend as she did not feel up to being able to play it. Sorry to anyone that was hoping to catch Ledaswan this weekend.
Here are some pictures from some of the last shows we had at The Mix. Enjoy.
So I have been attending and helping out the newly forming San Antonio Music Coalition. We wanted this to be a forum for musicians to be able to get together and work together to help make our music scene better. I as a musician am tired of dealing with promoters, club owners and other bands that don’t come through with their part of the bargain when we fulfill ours. We have never really had a problem with us getting paid (although a lot of bands do). Every band that I have been in (including Ledaswan) works really hard. We do a lot of promotion and try to get as much press as possible for every show we play. We are not ones to just get on a show and post once on Myspace the day of the show. That is not promotion. I don’t even know what you would call that. It’s even less than laziness, and if thats your band, then you pretty much deserve not getting paid and no one coming to see you. I told someone recently, if you are not willing to work at it and give it over 100% , then maybe you should ask yourself is this really what you want to be doing. That means, not only internet promotion, but handing out flyers, putting up posters, putting out CD singles, etc…You will sleep less because of it and it may affect your day job (staying out till 2am when you have to work at 8am). But they call it paying your dues for a reason.
When you first start your band and play your first show all your friends come out and you have this great crowd. But your friends will only be there for the first couple shows and then they will show up sporadically, so you can’t depend on them. If you do, then you will find yourself playing shows with not many people there. This is why promotion is so important. You can have the best music, but people cannot know to come see you if they have never heard of you. When you win over a music fan and they really like your music, the next time they come they are most likely to bring at least one friend and that’s when you start growing your fan base. I like to say that my band has grown our fan base one person at a time. Most of my friends don’t really come out to our shows that often. They come out when they can, they’ve seen us so many times I guess. Usually we are focused on keeping the crowds we do have and gaining at least one more fan each time.
That was what the weekend for me was all about. Friday night we played at the Rock the Ovaries benefit along with Mira Radar and Kick It! who were all excellent. Ledaswan ended up closing out the evening’s festivities. We had a rowdy group upfront that were slam dancing and stage diving through our set. This was the first time this had ever happend during one of our shows, so it was exciting and funny at the same time. Unfortunately, my sister (who was taking pictures during the show) said the battery on my camera ran out before the stagediving started…so no pictures of that. Dammit!!!
Saturday was our friends birthday.
Oni lives in Austin, so a road trip had been planned earlier in the week. Erica and I leave here about 630pm and make the one hour trek to Austin, TX. At 1030pm we arrived at Oni’s house (which by the way is where they filmed the movie ‘Teeth’, so yes I was partying at that house). The fridge was full of beer and by the end of the night David and I were too. Erica and Lisa stopped drinking a lot earlier, but apparently we don’t know when to stop (or according to David, I don’t).
We left and spent the night at Lisa’s house in her spare bedroom (thanks Lisa!)
Sometime during lunch on Sunday, it was mentioned that there is an Ikea in Round Rock. Now, I knew this but had never given it a second thought. We were going to leave right after lunch, but we decided to go check it out. Why not? Well, we kind of went crazy in there for a bit. You would seriously have to spend an entire day to see everything. and they have everything. Everything you can think of for your home, room, bathroom, kitchen…etc. We were smart enough to leave without spending under $100. But the next trip has already been planned. Erica must have this desk she saw there and I will certainly take advantage of that and get some other things I spied while there. For now I am very happy with our new lamps that we got.
Oh yeah. One more thing. My Chemical Romance is playing Stubb’s in Austin on Monday, April 28th. I am so going, but nobody else seems to want to go. I see these guys twice last year. Both times were at big places. AT&T Center and Verizon. Stubb’s is a small place only holding about 2000 people so it will be even better. Fuck it, I guess I will go alone.
Oh and one more thing. While listening to the radio in austin I heard that you can get writsbands to SXSW soon. You enter your name and billing info into their website and if you’re one of the lucky people drawn then you are charged $139 for each wristband (limit 2). In order to be eligible to buy them you have to have an Austin address. So does that mean they only want Austin people to be able to attend? What about if you want to take the week off to go to SXSW and see lots of bands, but you don’t live there? I wasn’t planning on buying a wristband anyways, but sounds kind of weird to me. I am going to make it up there, but probably for some select shows.
