Episode Transcript
[00:00:13] Speaker A: We get spotlight with BJ Swinghammer.
Is that his real name? Yes, it is.
Yeah, we can spotlight with BJ Swinghammer.
Is that his real name? Yes, it is.
Yeah.
BJ Weekend Spotlight.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: All right.
[00:00:44] Speaker C: Hey, what's going on, everybody? How you doing? Happy Thursday. Welcome to another episode of Unsigned 518's Weekend Spotlight. I'm your host, BJ Swinghammer. That's my real name.
Speaking of which, little shout out to the Sugar Hole for the the killer opening song once again and for always. Thanks, guys. At fucking rocks.
Hey, what's going on, everybody? I hope the week is starting to wrap up good for you. You know, it's gonna be a warmer week out, so we all enjoy that and there's gonna be a lot of stuff going on. And, you know, in the coming weeks and months, there's just. Just gonna be more and more people out there playing some good music for you to listen to.
And speaking of which, I'm bringing this up again. I brought it up last week. I'm gonna bring it up again because God damned if I wouldn't, because they are two incredible people.
You've got Lucas Garrett and Sharon Tea at the strand on the 20th at 7:30.
And it's going to be an incredible show. It's not just a show, it's a whole experience.
It's going to be this incredibly special thing. But you know what?
They can explain it way better than I can, so. Hey, guys, what's going on?
Hi, I'm Lucas Garand.
And I'm Shannon Tea. And we are getting really excited for our release show at the strand Theater on February 20th at 7:30pm the show serves to unveil brand new work from both Lucas and myself in an evening.
[00:02:11] Speaker D: Built around discovery, connection and live performance.
And here's a snippet of my song, Renegades.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: She's a building she's an artifact.
[00:02:27] Speaker C: To.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Be true soon she'll see she is far too good for me.
[00:02:38] Speaker C: Tickets are $15 for the balcony and $20 for general admission. And you can find more information about the show at www.mystrandtheater.org.
all right. Yeah. See, it's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be a whole thing. So Once again, the 20th at the Strand Theater, 7:30.
It is $15 for the balcony and $20 for general admission. So keep that in mind because that's a hell of a thing.
And yeah, there you go. It's gonna be amazing. So have at it. And speaking of having that, I'm about to have at my swing hammers. Pick of the week. I'm doing two again today for no other reason. Really? Then I kind of want to, so I'm super going to.
So let's see. Architrave has been putting out remixes of their single Unconditional Love.
So they've got a whole thing out. It's got. I think it's got like five different remixes of it. And it is.
If you're into Architrave, and I know a lot of you are, yeah, this is definitely something you want to listen to. If you haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, get on it. All right, so this is Unconditional Love. And this is the Snow Beasts remix.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Unconditional love.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
When they said the love was right now did you figure that they might you in the air?
Will they like the things they don't see?
You're not a real me My fair will.
[00:04:49] Speaker C: I feel weather.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: And after our so we have reason.
Sam.
When you said your love was lifelong I wondered if you might wrong me in the end.
Do you love the things you don't see?
You know the real me?
Can you feel it?
Unconditional love.
Unconditional.
Do you love the things you don't see?
You know the real me?
Can you feel it's unconditional love?
Unconditional love.
Sam.
[00:08:36] Speaker C: All right, that was the Snow Beast remix of Unconditional Love by Architrave.
Like I said, just get on the album there. There's a few of them on there. It's definitely worth listening to.
And yeah, if you enjoy Architrave, you'll enjoy that immensely. Second, the second Swing Hammer pick of the week. This is jb, AKA Dirty Moses.
You know, I love jb. He's one of my favorite people and he is one of my favorite artists in the 518. And there's so many of out there. But he definitely sticks out a lot. And he had his new album Punctuation come out last year and it is absolutely fantastic. If for some reason. Reason. And I've played him several times, I've played a couple things from the album. If you haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, do it. Go. Do it. Just go. I mean, just wherever you street music, just go on it. Listen to it. It's a fantastic album. And this one is featuring DJ Nate the Great.
And this is superhero theme.
[00:09:33] Speaker E: Look up in the sky.
This is, this is, this is this is not a plane. This is, this is, this is, this is this is Black Jesus pain.
This is, this is this Is this is stain devil on my right shoulder, investing in my peace. Angel on my left telling me carry my piece. You think he's on demon time, but this is the God what happens within me. Witness the star power. I just want to make sure my mic works. Spit a couple bars. This, this is light work. I hope my gun don't jam. That shit might work. Gotta be ready for everything. So this knife hurts. My spider sense tingles. It alerts me. Nothing you can do possibly hurts me. Arriva dirgi. One Thinging's for sure, two is a certainty. This is how feelings are made when the government's working against humanity. They marvel at me like Stan Lee. But they can't stand me and we won't stand up now. We fought for anything and it's a damn shame we ain't doing anything. A woman denied health care CEO shot in his damn face. Black woman in the White House. Police shot another in her damn face. Boiling water. I'm afraid of what they doing to our daughters.
[00:10:38] Speaker F: God.
[00:10:38] Speaker E: This is, this is, this is, this is, this is.
Our villains are made. This is, this is, this is, this is, this is how criminals behave. This is, this is, this is, this is, this is how they want us to vibrate. This is, this is, this is, this is, this is what makes us irate. Superhero, super negro, super villain or superstar, super ego, super evil. We know who you are. You're trying to blend in. Infiltrated every part of society from within. But you can't hide from us. Y' all wear hoods, we wear hoodies. We do good, we're not would be criminals. You do bad, there's a mental illness. We take matters in our hands, they killing us. Hyper vigilance is termed vigilantes. You should mind your damn business. I'm minding my own damn black business. Come on. Can I get a witness now? We sell drugs and you use drugs and we use drugs. But the government's the plug. The fuck if. We got guns and you got guns and they sell guns. But the only one dying is us. This is the this is, this is, this is how villains are made. This is, this is, this is, this is, this is how criminals behave. This is, this is, this is, this is, this is how they want us to vibrate. This is, this is, this is, this is, this is what makes us irate.
Nobody's coming to save you.
Nobody's coming to save you.
Nobody's coming to save you. You can only save yourself.
Nobody's coming to save you.
Nobody's coming to save you.
Nobody's coming to save you can only save yourself.
[00:12:18] Speaker F: In the way Cuz I don't play clown Cuz I don't play clown up, up, up in the way Cuz I don't play clown.
[00:12:48] Speaker C: All right, that was the superhero theme featuring DJ Nate the Great by JB AKA Dirty Moses.
His album is Punctuation. It came out last year. Just listen to it. That's all I'm gonna say about it until the next time I play a song off it. Then you're gonna hear this whole freaking thing again. And for good reason. It's a fantastic album. And you know what? Tonight, Tonight. This is the one thing. This is like the one thing I'm doing on this podcast as far as like local music going around. I'm doing this one because it's once again one of my favorite bands. It's the Jagaloons.
They are gonna be at, you guessed it, no Fun in Troy at 7pm they took the time to do a fantastic instrumental of I Touch Myself. I'm sure anybody who grew up in the 80s or 90s has heard this song so many times and they really do a fantastic job of putting that like Jagaloons kind of kiss on it and it's, it's amazing. So they are going to be releasing that and playing it at no Fun and they actually, they're gonna release it on. So you can buy them. I don't know how many they've made. So if you're gonna, if you're gonna be there, definitely pick one up.
It's gonna be on a heart shaped flexi, which is, it's so cool and so apropos for, you know, Valentine's Day. As is the song.
So anyways, moving forward on this, this is Jagaloons. I Touch Myself.
All right, that was I Touch Myself. That is from the Jagaloons. It's in the. One of the. My favorite instrumentals to come out in recent memory. And once again, if you're going to be at the show, which you should be, it's coming out on a heart shaped flexi for you to listen to. And like I said, I don't know how many they've made, but if you can get one, get one. And yeah, have at or maybe have to order it. I honestly don't remember. You know what, either way, get on it. All right, here we go. And moving on to our band show. It's like one of my favorite segments on this entire show, our band show, taking people that you haven't had a chance to listen to. Yet or taking people that you already love and giving them the rockstar treatment. Whether it be, you know, in the purely audio sense or you know, if you go on like YouTube or something like that and see their videos, they give them. Just they give them exactly what they deserve. Because people in this industry, in this area are working their ads off, are working their asses off. And yeah, they deserve it. So our band show always doing great stuff. We like to check in with them every week. So guys, what is going on this week with our band show?
[00:18:29] Speaker G: Thank you very much BJ and welcome in to our band show.
Patrick W. Huber here, producer and director for an amazing team of recording artists aimed to film musicians in the Hudson Valley area and beyond.
I don't know about you, but these winter months have left me distracted as of late. Handling single digit weather has never been my strong suit and I've been staying inside in front of the TV more often than I would like to admit. What has caught my attention recently is euphoria on hbo.
The show has been hyped by film students of mine about college age for its amazing visuals and storylines that they can relate to. I never found the time to check out the series like they suggested until now. If you've seen the show, you know it's jam packed with drugs, sex and rock star characters that create a heightened reality of high school college life in the modern world. First of all, every episode is visual eye candy.
And if this wasn't a music segment, I'd talk on and on about the cinematographer of the series.
Probably the writing too, specifically that masterclass episode between Roo and Ali discussing addiction over pancakes.
Despite my recent awe to this program, it got me thinking about the band Wickham Falls, that rock four piece led by a powerful female singer.
You may recall that this group's musical tastes are all over the place. They dig the Beatles, Beck, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Steely Dan, and they even mention some video game soundtracks.
They describe themselves as a youthful, high energy band from the Hudson Valley. They love writing cool guitar riffs and they have songs about anxiety, parties and asthma. Their storytelling may be totally different from a major studio TV show, but I appreciate just as much the interpersonal dynamics they craft within their songs.
When they joined us on the show, they discussed their creative process.
[00:20:25] Speaker D: Sometimes I write the full thing and have like a concept like all figured out and tell them like this is my ideas and you write your parts for it.
But sometimes it is just like a small thing like we when we wrote Baby Tooth it wasn't all there yet. It was just a riff and lyrics, probably. I think usually I do start off with the lyrics, and then I. Since I play mostly rhythm guitar, I have, like, a progression in mind, and I bring them and we jam on it, figure it out. Yeah, I usually. So I usually have a story written out, and then I write it kind of poetically. I write it line by line and try to, like, make them sound good together. And then once I have, like, a clear, cohesive story, then I think about a melody that might work with it, and I try things, and then I find a melody that I like. And then I edit the sentences a little bit so that they fit into the melody.
Because you want the sentences to make sense still, but you also want a good melody. So I just try to find ways to fit them in with each other. But, yeah, I typically do start with the words.
[00:21:41] Speaker C: I don't know.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: I just kind of mess around. I hear a riff from Nigel or they'll have a song. That was a lot of songs that we play now. Since I'm pretty newly added to the band, I've kind of reworked a little bit, Taking some inspiration from the last drummer, Some of my own inspiration from, I would say more into, like, the heavy side of music and take some inspiration from, like, drummers in that genre, as well as some classic rock, some jazz.
Hard to really name exact people, but, yeah, I guess that's my approach. Getting back to what I'm trying to answer for you.
Yeah, I don't know. I just kind of, like, sit down and do something and figure it out. Sometimes it sounds incredibly bad. And, like, I guess this sounds pretty good.
[00:22:23] Speaker H: Well, I think what is nice. The very next song we're gonna play is one of our newest ones, when that was written with Joey.
So that would be a good, you know, way to get a sense of our newer stuff. I think we're. We're writing, like, some maybe heavier stuff, but still, like, keeping it in the Wickham Falls sound per se, which still has this rock vibe. It still has these Nigel guitar riffs and stuff like that.
Yeah, we have a lot of stuff just go back on this that are still older songs but still haven't been recorded. So even some of our stuff that I feel like is a bit older, that we've been playing for a while is still being changed and still being evolved just by playing them and writing them more and more.
[00:23:03] Speaker G: Besides crafting some solid lyrics, I wanted to discuss Wickham Falls this week because they are releasing their own recording of their song babytooth on Friday, February 20th. If you want to support a cool band, definitely follow them on social media and get ready to listen to their song.
Overall, I'm happy to spotlight the craft of character development, something I feel Wickham Falls is really good at.
That is why this week I have chosen their song Low down recorded live on our band show.
[00:23:57] Speaker D: Looking forward to it.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: No give or take I know you're lying Wide awake Attempt at defamation Revealing all your cards Insulting my name the only way that you'll get home hard Way down low Lay it on me Face down coward weak mind disgust me.
Hold down night Looking forward to it Give yourself a reason to breathe Keep me in your mind to see Using your a brain the wrong way Creating mental decay.
Way down low Wait on me Face down coward weak My disgusting.
Sam.
[00:26:21] Speaker G: Another amazing week of fantastic music.
I hope you'll check out the the full videos of this week's spotlighted artist on the YouTube channel and check out some clips from our past guests on the Instagram, both at our band show.
Also, for a catalog of our full sessions, check out our website ourband show.com with another fantastic weekend ahead. That's all the music I have to share with you and bj. I just want to send it back to you.
[00:26:51] Speaker C: All right man, awesome. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. That is outstanding. See, I'm not lying. That is our band show and if case you haven't had a chance to check them out yet, you can find them on Facebook, Instagram, our bandshow.com they have my new tube. That's my personal favorite. So definitely check out what they've been doing. There's so much for you to dig into and once you start, it's really hard to stop. So you know, you've been warned. But, you know, enjoy.
And in, you know, Metroland now, we love Metroland. That's the whole point of all this.
And every month, TJ Foster, one of the people that helped resurrect the Metroland, takes time out of his busy, busy, busy schedule to put together hot singles in your area. And anybody who, you know, remember the old Metroland, it was like a whole thing. It's like, ooh, hot singles in your area. Oh, it's like a, you know, like a help wanted love thing, whatever. If you remember, you remember it. And if you don't, then you're probably too young to remember it. It was a thing. But.
But now he's got hot singles in your area for music and he puts out a list every Month. It's fantastic. He gets some great bands on there, some great acts with some of their best music, and I love it so much. And, you know, I get that. I get to pick out whatever I want from it, which is so much fun. And I decided to go with Red Lennon off the list. So that's Josh Morris and Zayn Agnew.
A lot of you know. You know who I'm talking about. It's like a little super group. It's fantastic. And they've got this song called welcome Home, and it's amazing, and I love it. And now you're gonna love it. And here we go.
[00:28:41] Speaker A: Sam.
[00:29:07] Speaker F: What do we do when all the love is gone?
You said that we were wrong for trying but now we're dying I tell her things aren't always what they seem why would she believe me? I'm a liar, a gun for hire why's I wrong?
I don't know Use my number.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: Check.
[00:29:39] Speaker F: My phone do you still love me when you're alone?
The ride is over welcome home.
I never thought I'd live to see the day Everyone around me was a martyr, a silent partner so many times I tried to get away it's getting so much harder to remember where I started Run in circles around my apartment wise I ride I don't know.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: Here'S.
[00:30:42] Speaker F: My number.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: Check my phone do you.
[00:30:48] Speaker F: Still love me when you're alone?
The ride is over.
[00:30:57] Speaker A: Welcome home.
[00:31:00] Speaker F: Welcome back to the place you thought you know where everybody knows what you're running from Couldn't make a home out on the road. You're dancing on your bar now what do you know, Jamie? That girl was an animal. She put me on hold when she went to Glasgow. Nearly two years. And I let her go I told her I'd never crawl all the wives I rose, I don't know Lose my number, check my phone do you still love me when you're alone?
The ride is over welcome home.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Sa.
[00:32:18] Speaker C: All right, that was. Was welcome Home by Red Lennon. One of the best hot singles in your area to come along in a bit. And I enjoy that song so much. It's just. It's got such. It's got such a great feel about it. So well done, guys. If you're listening to this, well done. And don't forget Metroland. Now you can, you know, Metro Land, you can find on Facebook, Instagram, themetroland.com, any one of these, you know, outlets can give you so much information on what to do in your local area and what's going on and you know, see what the creatives are up to. It's always amazing. And you get to find some really fun stuff and meet some new people. I love it. That's what I've been doing. And, you know, I'm gonna keep doing it. And don't forget physical copies. The Metroland is back. It was there. We were young, it was gone, we were middle aged. And now it's back and we're old. But nobody gives a because it's still awesome. In those pages are some great reviews and just the blood, sweat and tears of everybody. That works on, you know, it just works on it. You know, everybody pours themselves into it and it shows. It's a great publication. It's got a bunch of stuff going on there. It gives you a list of what's going on, where it is, you know, how's it gonna be, you know, things like that. And one thing it also lists is podcasts. I know you listen to me and you go swinghammer you. And this podcast thing, it's really taken off. I think there should be more of them. And you know what, you're welcome. There's already a ton of them out there and I'm gonna give you some to listen to right now. You've got Angelina Valente, you've. That's two normal people. You've got Andy Scullin, unsigned 518. You've got Aaron Harks, mistress of none. Those are three right there. And you know what, if you look in the pages, you might see, you might see that I have a podcast on here too. It's this podcast.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: You know, there you go.
[00:34:03] Speaker C: And now your part, part of it. Now you're a part of the whole process.
And speaking of part of the process, you know, there is, there's a lot of places to get the Metroland, which I love. It's really starting to grow. It's. It's getting exactly what it deserves. It's getting a lot, a lot of notice. A lot of people are starting to carry it. And if you're listening to this and you can't find it, go to contact us on themetroland.com. we'll let you know where you can get it. And if you're listening to this and you're like, swinghammer, you bonehead, I want to start carrying this at my business.
A, why would you call me a bonehead, you jerk? And B, you know, no problem. Go to the metroland.com, scroll to the bottom and it just says, you know, carry the Metroland here. Click on here Send up, set up your information, and there you go, you'll start getting it. And, you know, the world starts to make a little bit of sense with every page flipped in every edition, and there you go.
I'm so full of shit sometimes. But. No, seriously, it's a but, man.
And you know what? That's it. That's it for me. I'll see you next week. Well, you'll hear me next week, and if I see it next week, I'm gonna be out and about at a show.
And you know what?
It's been great. Thanks for letting me do this. I say this all the time. Thanks for letting me just get in your ears a little bit every week. I really appreciate it. I know some people that have started listening to this, including my daughter's teacher. You know who you are, Mr. A. Awesome man. Thanks for listening. I really appreciate it. And you know what? I will. I will talk to you next week. I'll talk to you all next week. All right? Enjoy your Thursday. Enjoy your weekend. We all deserve it. And as usual, you stay cool. 5, 1, 8.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: I'm calling shotgun.
Where's the party tonight?
Let's take a ride with swinging. We're driving.
It's the weekend spotlight.
Get ready.
[00:36:05] Speaker F: The Weekend Spotlight is a production of Unsigned518 and part of the Metroland now network of podcasts. Unsigned518's Weekend Spotlight is produced produced by Andy Scullen and hosted by BJ Schwinghammer.
[00:36:17] Speaker C: Look for new episodes every week at.
[00:36:20] Speaker F: The metroland.com and everywhere you stream podcast.
