I’ve been writing for Backbeat Magazine for a couple of months now. For the last 2 months, I’ve had the pleasure of being able to interview some pretty great bands. In the current issue thats out now, I got to interview Beau from Saosin, which is one of my favorite bands. Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with all 6 members of Scary Kids Scaring Kids. That interview will appear in the next issue of Backbeat due out first week of February.
I went to the sold out show that evening and was greeted with a sea of people singing along to every song. I tried to make my way closer to the stage but it was almost impossible due to all the moshpits that kept breaking up. I did manage to get some pretty good video that evening and I’m posting those here. Notice how keyboardist Pouyan decides to just take a walk into the crowd during “Faces”.
Erica and Jaime performed this at Bubblehead last night for the Breaking Barriers event at Bubblehead on Jan 1, 2010. It was a cold evening but a great night for music.
Jeremy Martin, music and screens writer for the SA Current came out to review one of our shows recently. The show happend to be for the Staring at the Sun Vol 5 cd compilation release at Scout Bar, which is a kick ass venue.
LIVE & LOCAL
Steven Gilmore
Ledaswan’s lead vocalist Erica Gutierrez onstage at Scout Bar.
Jeremy Martin
Ears are practically still leaking gray matter from local metal act Water Became Blood’s vicious final notes when Ledaswan’s ready to play.
“We’re going to change it up a bit here,” Ledaswan lead vocalist and sometimes guitarist Erica Gutierrez says, and it’s a huge understatement. Gutierrez addresses the mic on tiptoes, looking less like a rock goddess than a porcelain doll in her small plaid dress. She’s tiny, but opener “Where Birds Go” takes no time proving her voice is huge, and confident enough to repackage guitarists David and (former Current staffer) Jaime Monzon’s Bloody Valentines and pull the audience’s gaze from its shoes. New bassist and backup singer Jackee Flores provides echo-chamber harmony; together their vocals propel a song that might coast on guitar jangle alone. “The New 60s,” which actually finds Gutierrez adopting the jaded sing-speech of late ’70s English-suburb punk, is less exhilarating for the rest of the band’s largely staying the hell out of her way. Gutierrez can carry a song by herself, no doubt, but, considering the number of talented musicians onstage, there’s no reason to.
Dreamy suicide ballad “.357” strikes a better compromise — Gutierrez pauses often enough for the meticulously crafted instrumentals to create a hazy atmosphere, and the rest of the band clears space for her voice to sound lonely and haunted in all the right spots. “Bruised by Default,” on the other hand, finds beauty in the struggle, but Gutierrez refuses to drown beneath the Monzon brothers’ no-wave; she grows defiantly more melodic each time she resurfaces. To put it another way, “Head On,” the Jesus and Mary Chain cover that closes the set, sounds conventionally poppy in comparison.
A new song with the working title “56 Chevy” is something else entirely, fitting Gutierrez’s sock-hop delivery to drummer Delrick Colwell’s relentless pace — nearly frantic yet precise enough to qualify as baggy — upping the tension by never giving the sonorous guitars room to resonate. The penultimate “Class of 88” culminates in the distorted release of the all-out guitar war promised but never fully delivered by the evening’s previously restrained instrumental breaks. The band reveals impressive depth when they let the song open up, but I respect them for making me wait.
Ledaswan
Friday, June 19
Scout Bar
19314 US Hwy 281 N., Suite 110
scoutbarsa.com
Lots of people around SA putting in their 2 cents as well, obviously. Everyone has opinions. Not everyone will like our music, its ok if you dont, but should we really just degrade people to the lowest we can make them just because we dont like their music and someone else did. That is certainly the way a few have acted. If you dont know us, then don’t act like you know anything about us. A particular anonymous is very much convinced I fixed the vote on the Rammy’s. Do you know me enough to actually doubt that I have any integrity? Ledaswan works very hard to make music, play their best, and record the best album they can. If our last cd got voted “Best Album”, it’s because people actually voted for it. We encouraged our fans to vote for us. So, if you’re a little upset because your band didn’t get voted, then maybe you should do a little more promoting. It takes a lot more than posting a bulletin on Myspace. Sorry, if Ledaswan makes you mad because we work hard for where we have gotten. If you don’t want to see us evolve on the pages of a magazine, then don’t read it ( we’ve only ever had one live review in The Current, this one, in the last 2 yrs, so who knows what you are even talking about).
So, since most people are judging what Jeremy saw without having actually attended themselves, here’s your chance to see what he saw. Here’s a clip of 2 songs from the Scout Bar show. If you still don’t like us, then don’t come to our next show and we are all the better for it. If you do, then we’d love to see you. Just don’t think that any words you spew anonymously mean anything to us.
