Episode Transcript
[00:00:13] Speaker A: We get Spotlight with BJ Swinghammer.
Is that his real name? Yes, it is.
Yeah.
We get Spotlight with BJ Swinghammer.
Is that his real name? Yes, it is.
Yeah.
BJ Weekend Spotlight.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: All right, Happy New Year's Eve, everybody. What's going on?
Holy shit. We made it. We made it past 2025. Holy shit. That's crazy. You know, there was. There was more than a few times where I was dealt in the whole process of making it through the entirety of this year.
Anyways, hey, what's going on, everybody? Welcome to another episode of Unsigned 518's Weekend Spotlight. I'm your host, BJ Schwinghammer. And yes, that is my real name. And while we're saying that, thanks again. I'm just gonna. One more thanks for the year to the Sugar hold for making my incredible intro song. I really appreciate it. And you know what?
Thanks to Forensic Polaroids for making my incredible outro song this. It's been a complete and utter honor starting this up this year. This is going to be the end of my first year doing this. It's not a full year, but we'll call it. We'll say it was. It's been 2025. It feels like a full year sometimes.
Anyways, so, yeah, New Year's Eve, here we are. Holy. And this is the first episode that's not coming out on a Thursday. Because on Thursday you've got New Year's Day, and New Year's Day is full of things like brunch and hangovers or maybe work. You know, maybe you lie to yourself and you're like, I'm gonna lose a bunch of weight. And you go and you take a walk or whatever, and, you know, you could. Or you could start losing weight. I mean, who knows? It could work for some people. Doesn't work for me, but whatever. As far as just going out anyways, it might. It might. In 2026, though. I just want to say that it might. I might just start losing more weight.
Nobody cares. And that's okay.
So, yeah, New Year's Eve.
So, yeah, it's a Wednesday. It's a Wednesday. We're not even. We're not even doing the weekend. It's not even like it's the weekend Spotlight. But we're just doing New Year's Eve. It's just New Year's Eve. You can listen to it on the weekend, which. Hi. If you're listening to this on Saturday. Hey, what's going on? Happy Saturday.
But for now, this is almost completely New Year's Eve.
And what a hell of a year it's been. Vilified by many, enjoyed by some.
Yeah. So you know what? We're just gonna go. I'm just gonna go for, like, a nice end of the year kind of vibe, you know, Tomorrow is gonna be a new day of a new year.
And to try to go into it with that positive attitude, and that's, I think, as good of a segue as I can make for now of Schwinghammer's pick of the week.
So I decided to go with jb, AKA Dirty Moses, because that guy's fucking awesome. Are you listening? Because you're awesome. Anyways, and I had actually done this song previously. I've already done this song this year, but I don't give a shit. I'm gonna do it again.
So this one is a Great Day featuring Buggy Jive.
And, you know, sometimes you just have to look down the barrel of a new year and go, it's gonna be, you know. You know what New Year's Day is gonna be. It's gonna be a great day.
And sometimes it's not immediately a great day. You have to make that great day for yourself.
So that being said, this is Great Day featuring Buggy jive off the 2025 album Punctuation.
And here we go.
[00:04:06] Speaker C: Just Because Entertainment.
The guitars from the incredible Mr. George Spriggs, introducing Buggy Josh.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: When you're wide awake the first thing you should proclaim it's gonna be a great day.
While you're sitting there, get your ass out the chair. Come on. It's gonna be a great day let's.
[00:04:35] Speaker C: Go to go of course I am never gonna stop on the rock Used to get it off the block Now I'm trying to buy the block I don't have no time to plot on Down Falls that's why I'm never seen round y' all no more fake friends with ulterior motives While there's twin turbo on the motor interior Explosive me I'm overdosing on dope yeah. So it's gonna be a good day Ice cubes in my box Glass cognac to my face Heavy on the waist with the protection look both directions the devil's in the details the God in me always prevails Everybody's on demon time so I give them hell Then wishing well like ones in the wishing well oh, well, kiss and tell never too clever who better, no one Put myself on the pedestal Pat my own back to my own horn Somebody have to write the story so there's no better person than he My frequency is everything I frequently see between you and me I stop the smell of roses for inner vision Staring in the mirror Standing on business standing deliver salute me Militant minded, criminal minded Looking for a stylist Mind you probably be fine there nothing new ones in the sun but everybody loves the sunshine Even in darkness sun gonna shine Stare too long, you might go blind but solar flares oh yeah Old contrab on Fred, that's a star Here view me with your space X ray vision I'm like Malcolm X Faith based how I'm living this is not thoughts and prayers Passion in action is rare Most of life ain't fair so I' ma lead his right chair don't just stand there, do something make sense that's it.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: When you're wide awake first thing you should be it's gonna be a great day.
While you're standing there, go ahead and grab a chair it's gonna be a great day.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: All right, that was great day. Featuring buggy jive from JB aka Dirty Moses off the 2025 album Punctuation.
Punctuation is of course, very important, especially in the case of jb because if you ever look at any of his stuff, it's not just jb, it's jb because there's two, not one, but two exclamation points after his name. And they're there for a reason. Because JB is a extraordinarily high energy guy and so much fun to watch live. If you haven't yet, well, you missed this year.
So 2026, go, she go go see a Dirty Moses show. Anyways, moving on to actual New Year's Eve events.
Even though I think JB is a great lead in, this is gonna be so. Like the first one is gonna be at the Van Dyke Music Club in Schenectady. This is around 9pm If I recall correctly. And this is the Nolan Knots New Year's Eve party. So if you don't know of the Nolan Knots, they are one of those bands that goes hard and strong for long periods of time.
Like when they start playing, they tend to just get lost in themselves in the moment. And all these incredible, wonderful things happen when they do.
So the Nolan Knotts New Year's Eve party. I've been to one.
They're outstanding. They're so much fun. It's just a constant.
It's just a constant wave of energy. It's amazing.
And so these guys are just gonna be at the Van Dyke Music Club doing their thing. And if you haven't seen it before, tonight's a great night to do it. So if you get a chance, go out and do it and, you know, kind of to just give you a little preview of what you got coming. This is one of my favorite songs that they do. This is one of their singles. This is Early Warning. And once again, in terms of 2026, if 2025 wasn't that great for you, or if you had a tough time, well, just consider 2025 your early warning into 2026, you know, and you hope for the best anyways.
Yeah. Here we go.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Sam.
[00:09:20] Speaker D: Pink sky after dawn really wanted.
No fat cats, just the rats.
Running for cover.
Higher ground can't be found.
Our hopes are smothered.
Cause you got early warning.
Run for cover, early warning.
Run for cover, early warning.
Run for cover, early warning.
Searching for the higher ground.
As the storm begins to swell.
Feels like you're stuck in hell. It's the devil's weather, We all been here before. Got the T shirt on the toe Gotta keep it together.
Is it thoughts, is it prayers? Or a second flight of stairs? Your salvation.
Where the water starts to rise. You realize we prize elevation.
Cause you got early warning.
Run for cover ear they want him Run for cover, girl, they want him.
Run for cover, girl, they want him.
Searching for the higher ground.
Stuff your bags and grab your kids.
The whole ain't got a lid over exposure.
Snatch your mama from the home.
You know she's all alone. Keep your composure.
Find a raft, steal a boat.
Anything that floats on the river.
We've all been here before. And the devil's keeping store. Buck up, deliver cause you got who they wanted.
Run for cover, girl, they want him.
Run for cover, girl, they want him.
Run to cover, woman.
Searching for the higher ground.
Come on, mother, you got early warning.
Run for cover, early warning.
Run for cover, early warning.
Run for cover, early warning.
Run for cover, early warning.
Run for.
[00:14:38] Speaker B: All right, that was Early Morning. That's a single from the Nolanots for their New Year's Eve party.
And, you know, maybe you can't make it to that one. Maybe you can't make it to Schenectady. And that happens, but you know what I mean. They're all over the place. Anyways, it's a New Year's Eve party, but the next one is going to be.
The next one featuring is at Saratoga. So it's near Saratoga. New Year's Eve 2026. It starts at 7pm at the Civic center or at the City Center. Excuse me. It's at the city center.
And it's going to be. It's going to be a lot, man. This is going to be a lot going on. It starts I think, at like 7pm yeah. And the, you know, the headliners are the almond bets, man, which I'm sure many of you have heard of. And so they're gonna be playing and that alone is gonna be fantastic. But you have a lot of local openers. You've got Glass Pony, you've got Doc Horton, you've got Ally the Piper, you got Herd. You got the bell curves. Awesome bell curves. And you've got Maggie Doherty. And Maggie Doherty sings a type of country that I enjoy. I don't really enjoy a whole lot of country like the new country. It's just not my thing. I've always been like a more like classic kind of country. Usually anything after the 70s, I'm like, eh.
But you know, after listening to this song, it's obviously a modern song, but it definitely has that classic country style, which I love so much. It is wonderful. It's.
It's nice. It's like a warm blanket wrapped around you.
So Maggie Dodery, if you didn't get it yet, Maggie's going to be the song I'm playing for for tonight's events in Saratoga.
So this is off the 2025 album Night Words, and the track is Heart of Gold and a black.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: We made one October day when the autumn came on fast we told each other promises we knew we made the last we gave each other parts of us both wonderful and mean a whole lifetime when souls alive can never be so clean.
I told you once I told you you twice to keep me my darling you got to play nice you sh min it cuts deep on more than you know I love you and you got it harder gold than a black soul.
You give me off of my feet and I'll be damned it doesn't land with everyone in me your sweeter sides have always been my favorite thing to see. It's precious for our daughter and it's nice when it's for me.
I told you once, I told you twice to keep me my darling you got to play nice you sh man your cuts deep for more than you know I love you and you got a heart of gold and a black soul.
I told you once I've told you twice to give me my darling you got to play nice you shine it cuts deeper more than you know I love it when you got got it hard to gold in a black soul.
[00:18:58] Speaker B: All right, that Was heart of gold and a black soul from Maggie Doherty off of this year's album Night Words. And, yeah, I'm sure you enjoyed that song. You should enjoy that song. It's a fantastic song. It's a fantastic album. And. Yeah. Oh, Metroland. Metroland. Now it's the hot singles in your area for the week.
The hot signals in your area is a list compiled by T.J. foster every month. And he works his ass off to bring that to you. And this month, actually, he worked his ass off a little too much. And it dropped off completely, apparently, because he. He couldn't do the reviews. He couldn't do the. The reviews for this month. So he decided to tap Andy Scullin of shortwave radio band fame and many other things, of course.
And so Andy Skull did these reviews and I decided to, you know, you go through. You go up and down, you look at this stuff. And I wanted something fun and quirky, just like me to kind of finish off the podcast as far as music goes.
So I decided to go with Shannon Teja Nocturne.
And this is a.
It's a fun song. Like, they just don't give a.
It's telling a story, you know, I love a song that tells a good story. They don't mince words.
And this is the aptly named track.
Sue me Cease and desist Send him.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: A cease and desist Send him a.
[00:20:18] Speaker B: Cease and desist right now.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: So you wanna sue me for criminal harassment.
Party when all I did was tell the world what really happened to me sue me Thinking you're the victim when you're pulling the strange.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: Result of your.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: Deprived the courtroom I'll show you a few things.
With your real big wires and your breath.
Better call your lawyer Cause we're not scared yet Season to sift my ass.
Sue me, sue me, Take my ass to court sue me, sue me Be a real good sport sue me, sue me I know I'm in the right sue me, sue me I'm ready to fight so you wanna sue me for defamation or whatever?
I'm busy like that Shut me up about your exploits and endeavors so lose beyond defamation.
Sue me, sue me, Take my ass to court do it sue me, sue me I'll be a real good score sue me, sue me I know I'm in the right sue me, sue me I'm great me to find sue me, sue me, take my ass to court sue me, sue me, sue me, sue me I know I'm ready Previously issued.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: To you all right, that was sue me off the. That's the 2025 single from Shannon Tejan Nocturne.
And you know what? You got it. You want it and you got it. Well, I want it and you got it. That's a hell of a way to close out the show for the. The last show of the year.
It's been a ton of fun.
And, yeah, let's not forget the Metroland. You know, you can go to Facebook, Instagram, you go to themtroland.com which just lets you know all sorts of stuff that's going on in your local area. So if you're just like. If you just fall short of making plans for the week, the month, the evening, the weekend, you know, just go to the metroland.com it will give you so many different directions to go into with so many fulfilling experiences by local creatives.
You should do that as often as possible. I mean, why the hell wouldn't you? Jesus Christ.
Jesus.
Oh, yeah. And Jesus Christ. Physical copies. Physical copies of the Metroland. The Metroland is back. It was there, and we all loved it. You know, I was wearing vans and I was wearing baggy pants and stuff like that, and it was really cool. And then it went away and I was just like, well, I'm still wearing vans and baggy pants, but now it just sucks a lot more. And all of a sudden, it was resurrected. It was resurrected by this handful of incredible people.
And, you know, if you don't know who it is, you should. You should ask around, because there's a really good chance you've either met a bunch of them or know a bunch of them. Anyways, so the physical copies are back, and there's blood, sweat, and tears in every single issue that comes out. You have a lot of amazing things happening in those pages. So, you know, go to wherever. They're all over the place at this point. You know, go check it out and just have fun reading. And if you're sitting there reading this, if you're listening to this and you're going to. Swinghammer. God damn it. I can't find one near me. You selfish asshole. What are you even doing? Well, holy. All right, climb out of my ass. I'm sorry. You can just go to the metroland.com go to contact us and reach out and we can let you know.
You know, where is the closest place that carries Metroland for you? God, give me a second. Don't just jump down my throat. Shit. And if you're listening to this and you go, hey, Swinghammer, why don't you kind of just Chill out for a second. I would love to carry the Metroland at my business and. Yeah, of course you would. Who wouldn't? It's an outstanding publication and it lets people know that you give a shit about your local area and the things going on in it and blah blah, blah, all this incredible stuff. So you know, just go to Once again the metroland.com, scroll to the bottom and I'll just say, you know, start carrying the Metroland here, you click on here, you fill in your information, it starts getting delivered to your business. And you know what? Nature starts to heal itself that way through incredible publications of local music.
Yeah, sure.
Either way, it's a good read, it's awesome, it's a lot of fun every month. And yeah, a lot of people I knew do some incredible work in that.
And you know what, maybe you're like not into physical copies of stuff. I don't know what your friggin problem is, but maybe you're, you're more into just listening to stuff, which I get because you're listening to this and you're being like, dude, I'm listening to you, you jackass. And yeah, I'm a jackass. You know, what are you gonna do? But also as a jackass, I do have to let you know it's not just me doing the podcasts for, you know, planet Earth. I know it seems like it sometimes, cuz I'm just so amazing at it. Eh, sometimes. Sometimes I kind of fall flat anyways.
But there's others, there's other people that do podcasts and I happen to know three of them right off the bat that you should start goddamn listening to. First of all, you have Angelina Valente with two normal people.
That one's taken off like crazy because it is goddamn amazing.
You've got unsigned 518, I can't remember. What's the name of that guy?
There's a guy. Who's the guy that does that?
Andy. Who's the guy that does that? Who's the guy that does that? Andy Sculling.
And then you've got, you know, Aaron Harks doing Mistress, Mistress of None.
You've got right there, boom, there's three. You can just go to the metroland.com to no one's surprise and you can listen to these amazing podcasts. If you want to go someplace else for your streaming and listen to them, I guess go ahead. But to you go to the metrolent.com and do that.
Ah yeah. And there we go.
We're at the end, 2025 is in the rear view mirror. Maybe not by the time you listen to this, but it's close. Maybe you're putting on, like, your stockings and your makeup and your bustiers and, you know, your whatever kind of spiky Mad Max outfit you've got going on, that'd be awesome to see around town. Anyways, you know, it's been a pleasure. 2025 has been a mixed bag for me, but it's been a lot of good.
And it's. It's been because a lot of amazing people. I mean, I've got my family. My family's incredible. But even outside of that, I know some amazing people that have made this year just about as amazing as they are.
And I'm so thankful for that, and I really am. Like, 2026 is going to be a bear for a lot of us, but as long as we know that we have each other to make each other smile and help each other when we're sad and stuff like that, as long as we have that, you know, 2026 should be a breeze in a lot of ways.
So there you go. There's a little heartfelt thing from BJ Swinghammer.
Fuck, yeah.
All right. Anyways, happy New Year's Eve. Enjoy your night. Whether you're getting drunk, not getting drunk, hanging out, working, falling asleep on the couch early, because whatever, you don't feel like doing it, enjoy yourselves and enjoy your New Year's Day.
Just enjoy it.
You know, we all deserve it. And as usual, you stay cool. 518.
All right, friends of Polaroids, take me out.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: Woo.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: For the last time of the year, I'm calling shotgun.
[00:30:01] Speaker D: Where's the party tonight?
[00:30:04] Speaker A: Let's take a ride Been swinging my driving.
The Weekend Spotlight.
Get ready.
[00:30:20] Speaker C: The Weekend Spotlight is a production of.
[00:30:22] Speaker B: Unsigned 518 and part of the Metroland now network of podcasts. Unsigned 518's Weekend Spotlight is produced by Andy Scullin and hosted by BJ Schwinghammer. Look for new episodes every week at.
[00:30:35] Speaker C: Themetroland.Com and everywhere you stream podcasts.
[00:30:42] Speaker A: Sam.
