Verses of Truth Trash and Beauty

I am always looking for new music. Music moves me and inspires me and I am always looking for an album that moves me and blows me away. It has been a while since an artist gave me that feeling. Well, last week I found 2 albums that are just making me listen to them over and over.

United Nations

Glassjaw and Thursday have always been some of my favorite bands ever. Well, when I found out that Daryll (singer of Glassjaw) and Geoff (singer of Thursday) made a band together, my first thought was...when will the new Glassjaw album ever come out? So, I took a listen to it and it was so fucking heavy. Not normally one to really like music that heavy, but there was something about the music that kept me listening. Daryll just screams througout the whole thing and Geoff urgently sings and calls out for action. After the first listen, I listenened to it again and could not stop. The breakdowns, screams, and singing are perfect. This is a hardcore classic album like The Refused, The Shape of Punk to Come. Updated for a new generation. My favorite songs on there are "Filmed in Front of a Live Studio Audience" and "Revolutions in Graphic Design". Also check out "Say Goodbye to General Figment of the USS Imagination" The saxaphone solo at the end is pure music bliss.




Mogwai: The Hawk is Howling


I've loved Mogwai for a while. I saw them at The Cure festival a couple of years ago and were one of the loudest bands I had ever seen. Also the second band I had ever seen with 2 bass players ( other was Ned's Atomic Dustbin). My favorite album from them had been Come on Die young. Well, I managed to get my hands on The Hawk is Howling ( release date is Sept 22) and was just amazed with this album. It is moody as hell. It's like a roller coaster ride of emotion. There is not one vocal on this album, but it really doesn't need it. The song that make me keep rewinding it right now is "The Sun Smells Too Loud". Take Mogwai and throw in a little My Bloody Valentine into the mix and thats what it sounds like. Here's a clip I found on youtube for one of the songs on the new album. This is "BatCat"



Jaime Monzon

Labels: favorite music, jaime, mogwai, united nations

Anthony Green rocking Rock Bottom

Anthony Green and Jaime

The day after Jeremy Enigk played we went and saw Anthony Green at Rock Bottom. This is the first time Rock Bottom has been sold out from what I heard. It was an instant sauna once you walked in. Fire Marshall payed them a visit as well. Lydia made a surprise guest appearance making me very happy as I really love that band. By the time Anthony Green came on the whole floor was wet with what I assume was sweat. I've been a big fan ever since Saosin, now Circa Survive and his solo album. I've met him several times and he is cool as hell. I tried to get close for the closing song, but as you can see from the following video, the crowd was going completely nuts and I couldn't get any closer.

At the moment I'm growing sleepy and thinking about old friends in my life that are going their own path, how the economy sucks right now and I can barely pay my bills (not wanting you to feel sorry for me please - it's my own fault). But maybe I put it out in the universe that if I did not get a full time job teaching this year that it was a sign that I could focus more on writing, playing, music basically, since it's my livelihood, signals are pointing to in that direction. And so maybe the universe heard my wish and well there I have it. and now what. make it work somehow, I can only do what I can and what god empowers me to will myself.... ? If that makes sense. I believe it's healthy to be humbled. Oh did I mention that my personality type is "Idealist." I took an online test and everything.

I had a funny dream that I was having a conversation with Perry Ferrell (Janes Addiction) and we were getting ready to play at the massive outdoor festival (but on a side stage that was in an awkward position). I then had two dreams about water. Murky waters in a lake that I was trying to get out of, and then a swimming pool where there was a party going on underwater. Random.

David, Jeremy Enigk, and David

I just realized I never posted any thing from the Jeremy Enigk show. If you were a Sunny Day Real Estate fan and were not there, you should punch yourself. I'm not going to say anything. Just watch the following video. You will understand. Then go buy and listen to their album "Diary".

We were starting to get a little worried about Hurricane Ike. Threatening to come and hang out right over us. We have a show tomorrow and we thought that we might have to cancel if Ike came along to visit. Looks like we will have rain, but not till Saturday. Wow, I just gave a weather report. So what I am saying is we will be rocking The Blue Bubble Ballroom tomorrow night. We will be doing a semi-acoustic show (if you were at Rock Bottom last week, you know what I mean). It will be David, Erica, and Jaime. Last week we previewed a new song called "Six is Better". We have 3 other new songs. We might decide to preview one of those as well. We will have to see. Blue Bubble is located at 9315 Broadway. Please come out and join us and all the other great bands playing that night. We made some demos the other night of the new songs so we could get a better sense of these new songs and we were pretty blown away. They sound amazing. Our goal is to have a new album out early 2009. We are off to a pretty good start. I do want to say that from Verse of Truth Trash and Beauty, the band seems to have grown a lot. Can't wait for me to hear it. Can't wait for you to hear it as well. Just remember this song title, "What a Way to Drown". We will talk about this again next year.

Since we started playing as a band, even going back when I began doing my first open mics at Casbeers, there were some non-believers, but more believers that have stuck by Ledaswan and that love and believe in our music, and that's what matters most. Being in the public eye, your a target for both good and bad critiques. Sometimes just flat out band bashing - even from so-called friends and familiy. I guess if we weren't playing for ourselves and our fans, that it wouldn't really matter.

It makes me live better that someone out there can relate emotionally to what I have to say and what the rest of the band has to say. And I'm thankful that our band works so well together musically and on a personal level. There is definitley something special brewing when we perform on stage, and when we rehearse in our gasoline induced - mostly hot- practice space. So thank you for being supportive (you know who you are) And for those that pretend to hate, or don't like our music, well then there are plenty of other bands out there to listen to....instead.

Thank you for listening...................... ... .

We just cannot stop writing right now. We worked on the song "Six is Better" and it sounded great. We have another song we completely rearranged. It has a 50's sound mixed with some Swan. This song remains untitled. We were just about through, when I played a riff I had. Erica said it sounded a little like something else, so I played it a little different. Next thing you know, we are throwing this amazing jam. 30 mins later and it sounds like a new song will be born really soon. I am calling this "Absynthe Tea" for now. I don't know why...maybe because it sounds intoxicating. Erica has the most amazing vocal in this song. I will let your hear a snippet. I recorded this on my iPhone, so its not the best sound, but you get the picture.

For those of you that were out there last Friday at Rock Bottom...thank you for supporting us. There were a lot of bands on the bill and due to the closeness of the stages sometimes 2 bands were playing at the same time. We went on a little late due to technical difficulties with the P.A. Nothing new to us of course. These things happen. We went on about 10:20pm or so. We were playing an acoustic show, but we asked the questions "Does playing an acoustic show necessarily mean we have to be mellow?" Well, our answer was no. We threw in the electric and rocked it out. At the last minute before we left to the show, it occurred to us we should try out a new song we have been working on. We had never tried it acoustically, but quickly worked out a version that we could try out for you guys. We are calling it "Six is Better"...for now. It's always a little nerve-racking when you try out a new song, but also a little exciting. It felt good and you guys seemed to like it. We plan on playing that at The Mix on Oct. 3rd so mark your calendars for that. Oh, and you could also maybe hear that at our next acoustic (electric) show this Friday, Sept 12th at The Blue Bubble Ballroom. We go on about 11pm. So, what did everyone think about the CD compilation they gave away that night? Some really good bands on that. We are very proud to be a part of it.

We managed to get most of the band into our rehearsal space in order to keep writing. We have decided really committ to writing more new music this month. We are doubling our rehearsal time and so far we have about 5 new song ideas that we will be working on. One of them in particular is close to being finished (musically at least). For now, we are calling it "Six is Better". Some different influences have been passing through our ears and you can really tell as it doesn't really sound much like anything for the Verse album. A little more moody and as Erica mentioned "Modest Mousish". Our next band show is Fri, Oct 3rd at the Mix. You might hear this one then.

We plan on a new album release early 2009.