"I Just Want My Money or My CDs Back"

"I just want my money or my CDs back."

The owner of a local record label says he was burned by the abrupt closing of a CD store that operated for five months out of an outdoor kiosk at the Fashion Valley mall.

When singer/songwriter Greg Laswell opened All the Rest Records in April of last year, Laswell said the store's inventory would focus on local, unsigned artists. All the Rest provided a listening station so music fans could discover new artists for themselves.

"Usually independent music is on the back shelf in a music store and no one knows about it," he said last May. "We are just about breaking even. Each month is better than the last."

All the Rest closed September 7.

"I gave them 35 CDs," said a record label owner who did not want to be identified. "I know they sold because some of them were reorders.... I've tried to contact Laswell through his e-mail. He never called me. I asked him for a receipt, and he sent a receipt for some other band. I always dealt directly with Dustin Shey. He was the guy who worked the booth. Dustin told me he was sorry and that he would take care of it. He told me he had been trying to get a hold of Greg."

Calls to both Laswell and Shey were not returned.

The label owner said he will go to small claims court for his $280.

"I don't want to make a big scene. I just want to take care of it. All he had to do was call and say, 'Give me a couple months' and give me back the CDs he didn't sell. I think the main reason the kiosk isn't there anymore is because they were paying $3000 a month rent and in October it was going up to $8000."