Episode Transcript
[00:00:13] Speaker A: We get Spotlight with BJ Swinghammer.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: Is that his real name? Yes, it is.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
We get Spotlight with BJ Swinghammer.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Is that his real name? Yes, it is.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
BJ Weekend Spotlight.
[00:00:43] Speaker C: All right. Hey, what's going on, everybody? Welcome to another episode of Unsigned 518's Weekend Spotlight. I'm your host, BJ Swinghammer. That's my real name. What up? What's going on? Quick shout out to the sugar hold for my incredible opening song.
I'm gonna be doing that consistently. Then I won't let it rest for a little bit. Then I'm gonna thank him again, and it's just gonna keep going on like that, hopefully for many, many moons.
So, yeah, we are back in the busy season again of music going on locally. I know it's been a little bit of a lull here and there, and, you know, sometimes you don't exactly see what show's going on until you know you've already recorded the episode. I'm not saying me exactly, but it's been me anyways. All right, so welcome back. You know, it's going to be a great show. We got a lot going on. We've got some big things going on. Not really a whole lot of little things going on, oddly enough, which I'm fine with.
And, yeah, we are just going to start off. We're just heading into it. You ready? Are you ready? Oh, you're not too freaking bad. Anyways, we are going to start with Swinghammer's pick of the week.
This is something that I've named it, and I'm gonna keep it like this for a while. I might find something more clever or whatever, kitschy, you know, to name it. But you know what? For now, we're just gonna keep it like this. All right? So I am gonna do Durio. So Durio, if anybody who listens to this song listens to this podcast, Rather remembers, Durio is a band that I came across during the.
I believe it was the last show at Single Cut.
Rip.
Miss. Miss you guys already. I know you're making more beer, and that's great, but you know what? Missed the video anyway, so Durio was there, and, you know, it was such a great breakup for a lot of heavier music going on. And Durio just coming in with that smooth, smooth style just broke everything up. And it was amazing. And they're amazing, and I like to play them as much as possible. So I do. I'm doing something off of their 2022 album, Something Real. And if you're gonna pick One of their albums to listen to. Listen to that one.
And you know, this is a song that I've enjoyed because I've been. I've listened to this album so many times and now I'm gonna. I played, I think, a couple songs off it, but I'm gonna play another one. And if you haven't listened to it before, well, now here's your chance. So this is off their album Something Real.
And the track is Always pretending.
[00:03:25] Speaker D: Wasting time as if it doesn't cost a thing Constantly losing myself in daydreams I just don't know where to go Sometimes standing still is all I know and I'm trying to break the habit
[00:03:47] Speaker B: they say I don't give myself the time of day I spent it on beating myself down Some try to show me how to live another way But I'm too proud to take the hand out now Am I strong for being this way Always pretending just to get through the day
[00:04:31] Speaker D: I don't know where I'm going I don't know where I'm going.
Wasting time thinking of a mess I made
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Instead of thinking of ways to
[00:04:54] Speaker D: change I just don't know how to be with conflict right in front of me this anxiety drives me into madness
[00:05:07] Speaker B: they say I don't give myself the time of day I spent it all beating myself down
[00:05:18] Speaker A: Some try to show
[00:05:20] Speaker B: me how to live another way But I'm too proud to take the hand out now Am I strong for being this way Always pretending just to get through the day?
[00:05:52] Speaker A: No.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: Am I strong for being this way Always pretending just to get through the day
[00:06:15] Speaker D: I don't know where I'm going I don't know where I'm going
[00:06:26] Speaker C: All right, that was Always Pretending from durio off their 2022 album Something Real.
And you know what? Now it's one of those weeks, finally where we actually have things going on that I can talk about for the week. And we're skipping over today. Today's got stuff going on, but I can only fit in so much.
So this time I'm gonna start with tomorrow. Alright, so you've got the. And we've been talking about this and I've been talking about this. People have been talking about this and for good reason. It's gonna be an amazing show. It's gonna be at the Strands Theater in Hudson Falls at 7:30.
It's a show featuring Lucas, Garrett and Shantaya. This is under the Lights, a double release show. It's going to be not just music. It's going to be this Collective creative experience.
It's going to be amazing. I've been talking about it, and I've been pushing it for a reason, because you got two extremely talented people doing something that is really not done a whole lot, if at all in this area. So it's going to be something special.
I think General admission is 20 bucks, but if you get to, like, the balcony, that is going to be like 15 bucks. It's awesome. Anyways, so I decided to play a show, play a song from each one of the people. So first one is going to be from Lucas Garrett. I actually played this song once already, but it's such a badass song, and I'm going to play it again. And he did such a good job on it. I love it immensely. So this is Lucas Garrett with Michigan.
[00:08:07] Speaker E: Staring through a window pain and little while saying I say your name.
Now you're in a state with mm1 of Minnesota or myth again.
You said you might wind and drew I never leave of my life enjoying you.
Okay then my friend will have you away now the time to swallow in the hand space.
Keep the strange way I can.
So wondering what we want you
[00:09:21] Speaker A: all
[00:09:21] Speaker E: the voices I live.
Tell me how you never mind all the problems that we will find.
Okay then I guess I will try giving you loving your eyes.
In the strange reaction.
Oh, I wondering what we want you all the places I live.
Without you the skies are behind their blue without you my heart can relearn what you do in my strange reaction.
Always wondering what we want to do Almost wasted my name it won't ever happen we love you
[00:11:31] Speaker A: there's no point
[00:11:32] Speaker E: in my end and all I never happened.
Without you without you without you.
[00:12:05] Speaker C: All right, that was Michigan from Lucas Garrett. That's his latest song, and it's a good one. And you're gonna hear that plus more on Friday, so go get them. And the next one is from Shannon Tea. This is her 2025 single, Take it slow.
[00:12:40] Speaker F: Take it easy on me baby
[00:12:45] Speaker A: I don't know where to go
[00:12:49] Speaker G: don't go
[00:12:50] Speaker F: too fast don't live in the past take it slow this world turns to queen quickly I surrender to the flow Hang on tight up it's all right Just take it slow
[00:13:18] Speaker A: no one's watching
[00:13:22] Speaker H: no one really cares how long it'll take or if you hesitate no, no really cares so you can take your
[00:13:37] Speaker A: time
[00:13:40] Speaker H: you will be just by high take the long road just take it
[00:13:51] Speaker A: slow
[00:13:54] Speaker F: Everybody's always learning everybody gets to grow, grow, grow, grow Little seed from a big oak tree well, it grows up slow?
Everybody's got these deadlines.
I'm just letting all that go.
I can wait, I can acclimatin? I can take.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: No one's watching?
[00:14:36] Speaker H: No one's listening to the voice in your head? They hear your voice and said so no one's listening now?
You can take your time?
You will be just fine?
Take the long road, just take it slow?
You can take your time?
You can take your time?
No need to race to an imaginary finish line?
You can take your time?
You will be just fine?
Take the long road, just take it slow?
Take the long road?
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Just
[00:16:12] Speaker H: take it slow.
[00:16:14] Speaker C: All right, that was Take It Slow from Shannon Tea. And it's gonna be a great show. It's gonna be a fantastic show. Get there. You know, the money is well worth it, especially for the seating. And it's the Strand Theater, and the Strand's amazing, and they're amazing. It's gonna be an amazing show, so go enjoy it. And I think it's gonna be something that people are gonna be talking about for quite some time and moving forward to Saturday.
So this is something that I've been keeping track of for a while.
This is Neck Fest 2026 at the Van Dyke Music Club in Schenectady. It's going on, I believe, at 7pm it's got a great, great lineup. It's got just one of those lineups of local music that you love. It's got the sugar hold. It's got Precious Metals, not Chinese takeout, and Zepler. And every band is.
Is.
Is so much fun to watch. Gonna be such a great show. Because I love the shirt hold so much for so many reasons, I decided to do a song off their album Sesh, which actually is like the.
A live album at Mike's Hot Dogs, or apparently it's known as First Prize Mike's, which I had no idea. I've just known as Mike's Hot Dogs. My grandfather went there, you know, after World War II when he worked at, you know, General Electric and stuff like that. It's been open forever. And it's got amazing food. It's got a really good hot dogs. You go in and order one, like, all the way, and it's just got a bunch of delicious stuff on it. You can get breakfast there still for, like, four bucks. Like, a good breakfast. It's crazy. Anyways, we're not talking. We're not talking about the food. I know I do that. But we're not talking about the food.
We're talking about the sugar hold so this is author album Sesh, and this is Olga.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: Concentration.
If I miss out on my medication if you want to give me your information leave a message at the be probably too busy with the recreation oh, I never been as strong as with the organization All I really can't say in this situation maybe it's some sort of combination.
If you want to give me your information Leave a message at the beat I know I told you it's no slide I will call you back tonight and I wanna start a fight.
I will call you back tonight Leave a message at the be.
I know I told you it's no slide I will call you back tonight and I don't wanna start a.
Now we'll call you back to leave a message at the beat we will message you at the beat we will message you at the beat Leave a message at the beat if you want to give me your information leave a message at the beat if you want to start up a conversation, don't message me about the.
[00:21:08] Speaker C: All right, that was Olga off the album Sesh.
Taken at First Prize Mics, or as I know it, Mike's Hot Dogs. And it's. I mean, it's a great album anyways, if you haven't had a chance to listen to it, listen to. It's so good. It's taken at a place that's. It's played at a place that's close to my heart. Go check it out. Go check them out. And honestly, seriously, check out Zephyr because you're gonna love them. They're so awesome. And speaking of awesome, we're going into one of my favorite parts of this, this show. This is our band show.
So this episode, and as many episodes as we can, we can fit into, you know, a month there. It happens most of the time, but not all the time. Sometimes they're actually, like, you know, busy doing other things, which I get. So. But this week, our band show. All right, Our band show. Doing the stuff that not a lot of people do. I don't think it might just be them. They take the people that you love or the people you haven't had a chance to listen to yet, and they give them the rockstar treatment, and it's what they deserve. People work their asses off, you know, People work their asses off, and they deserve the recognition. And our band show makes sure make sure they get it.
So we like to check in with them every week. So, guys, what is going on with our band show this week?
[00:22:20] 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.
This week we are highlighting a band from Kingston, New York called Tiny Blue Ghost.
This five piece is comprised of Marissa, Kristoff, Joey, Andy and Kyle, who first joined us on our episode with King in Yellow, another project in the Kingston area. We've had a lot of guests from this city and find it's a great community with resources like that Instagram account DIY Kingston, a place where resources for the local music scene are shared amongst the artists. Definitely a hotbed of music activity and Tiny Blue coast is a part of that.
They've been lovingly coined ethereal indie rock by their fans.
They seamlessly blend the best parts of dream pop, shoegaze, punk, emo to make a sound that's purely their own.
When on the show, Marissa described the origin of the band's name.
[00:23:28] Speaker I: So I had been writing a lot of songs like towards the tail end of high school and just, you know, when you're done with doing like theater and like acapella, that was what I was like involved in. I'm like I'm gonna start a band. So it just kind of was like a solo dream pop project that I had just with, you know, my first MacBook Pro and GarageBand and using the tools that I had to just kind of write songs.
I met Joey my sophomore year of college and we became like really fast friends and wrote the first Tanya Blugo song together, which was Supernova in the second floor lounge of Scudder hall at SUNY New Paul's. I don't know if it's still called Scudder. Is it still called Scudder?
[00:24:08] Speaker C: Yeah, it is still.
[00:24:09] Speaker I: Alright, Shout out. Second floor lounge, Scudder Hall.
And it's seen many forms over the years, but it just kind of felt like it always wanted to be something bigger.
And as the years have gone by, we've had many friends come and go, just graduate college, people move away and we just started collecting more people. Now we're up to five and we're all here. I came up with the band name.
It was actually. So I'm a graphic designer and it was part of a project that we had for like self branding.
It sounds really stupid, but Tiny came from me physically being small. That's like the first thing people. I'm 4 foot 11, so it's like the first thing that people comment on. Blue because of my eyes, which is another thing that people just My whole life, you know when something's just like, like ingrained into your brain. Tiny and blue. And then ghost was a few reasons. So my friend group at the time was kind of mean to me on a few different ways in college. So they would play like a mean like ghost prank on me where, you know, they're using a Ouija board and, you know, someone, some relative is haunting me. But also just like in the group chat, kind of always being talked over. The one friend that's kind of French, the brunt of the joke and everything. So ghost in that regard. And then kind of smush that all together and you get tiny, blue ghost.
[00:25:33] Speaker C: It's.
[00:25:33] Speaker I: It's a noun. It's marketable. So it kind of stuck.
[00:25:37] Speaker G: A very enjoyable band to interview and overall I am happy to spotlight them and the Kingston area they belong to.
That is why this week I have chosen a pretty rad song of theirs, the Plunge, recorded live on our band show,
[00:25:55] Speaker A: Sam.
[00:26:42] Speaker H: But now it's a turning how can this happen?
[00:26:52] Speaker A: Water so cold
[00:26:57] Speaker H: no growing smile My vantage point I swear I fall
[00:27:11] Speaker A: with
[00:27:11] Speaker H: you at the helmet begetting Always excludes the unprecedented
[00:27:22] Speaker F: I pay the price
[00:27:26] Speaker H: Losing
[00:27:27] Speaker A: my sight
[00:27:31] Speaker H: losing my mind and there's a day that passes each year Secretly telling when I'll expire and that day
[00:27:49] Speaker A: might be here
[00:27:55] Speaker H: Harder I swim the heavier I feel as you come closer the distance seems better.
Then finally I break through this earth face Body feeling like lead I turn towards a plunge and I saw who's laughing now?
Thank you guys so much.
[00:30:46] Speaker G: Another amazing week of fantastic music.
I hope you'll check out 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, rbandshow.com Additionally, don't forget about Wickham Falls, who we spotlighted last week and we told you about their upcoming release this weekend for Baby Tooth. It will be available in all streaming services. So go ahead and search them up and check it out and see what they're all about.
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.
[00:31:32] Speaker C: All right, thanks a lot, guys. That's freaking awesome as usual. Thank you so much. Our band show doing some of the most important work in the 518. Don't forget, you can find them on Facebook. You can find them on instagram.
Our bandshow.com. youTube is my personal favorite because you can just do a deep dive and just start consuming everything they've done as far as videos.
And it's. It's a lot. There's a lot to see and it's always fun. You see exactly what they do for these bands that work their asses off to bring. Bring you good music. And it's amazing. So, guys, thank you. I appreciate it. And now we are getting into Metroland now. One of the last segments before, you know. Well, it's probably. It's the last segment. The hell am I talking? I've been doing this for long enough now. It's the last second of the show. It's metro land now. Hot singles in your area. And that is a list compiled by T.J. foster every month. He, you know, gets some great music from some great artists and just does really nice reviews on them. Makes everything look good, you know, on the. On the metroland dot com and you get to listen to some awesome music. So who doesn't love that? And this week I decided to go with Margot Massero, who did a outstanding cover of Ozzy Osbourne's Mama, I'm Coming Home. And this is something that she put out late last year. Anyways, doesn't matter. Here we go.
Mama, I'm coming home. From Margot Massera.
[00:32:56] Speaker H: Times have changed. Times are strange?
Here I come But I ain't the same.
Mama, I'm coming home?
Time's gone by, it seems to be you could have been a better friend to me.
Mama, I'm coming home?
You took me in, you drove me out? You had me hypnotized?
Lost and found and turned around by the fire in your eyes?
You made me cry, told me lies?
I can't stand to say goodbye?
Mama, I'm coming home?
Could be right, I could be wrong? It hurts so bad and it's been so long?
Mama, I'm coming home?
Selfish love?
[00:34:10] Speaker C: We're both alone?
[00:34:12] Speaker H: The ride before the fall?
I'm gonna take this hardest tone? I just gotta have it all?
I've seen your face a hundred times.
Every day we've been on p.
[00:34:39] Speaker A: But
[00:34:39] Speaker H: I don't care about the sunshine? Yeah, yeah.
Cause mama, Mama, I'm coming home?
I'm coming home.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: Sa.
[00:35:34] Speaker H: You took me in, you drove me out? You had me hypnotized?
Lost and found and turned around by the fire in your eyes?
I've seen your face a thousand times.
Every day we've been apart?
But I don't care about the sunshine? Yeah, yeah.
Cause mama, mama, I'm coming home,
[00:36:20] Speaker A: home
[00:36:22] Speaker H: I'm coming home.
I'm coming home.
I'm coming home.
[00:36:56] Speaker C: All right. Holy. That's awesome. That is.
[00:36:58] Speaker A: Mom.
[00:36:59] Speaker C: I'm coming home. That's the new single from Margo Macero. And well done on such an amazing adaptation of an amazing song from an amazing artist.
Rest in peace, Ozzy. And obviously you're gonna, your legacy is gonna be living on for many, many moons to come.
And as far as things to come, physical copies of the Metroland. Is that a good segue? We'll take it. Yeah, yeah, it's in the middle.
So it's physical copies. The Metroland is back. It was here, we were happy, we were young and it was gone and we were like middle aged and we're like, this is. And now it's back and we're all kind of old and it's like, yay, I can still read a little bit with glasses, so.
And yeah, they're back and there's so much, you know, it was, it was resurrected by the triumvirate of amazing people and you already know who it is. And if you don't, for God's sakes, get out from under your friggin rock.
And.
And if you're listening, going, hey Schwinghammer, there's no Metroland near me because it's in a lot of places. No problem. Go the metroland.com, go to contact us and we'll let you know what the closest place is to you. And maybe you want to like, ooh, you know what, I'm going to ask this place, I'm going to talk to them about, you know, carrying the Metro land so I don't have to walk as far, drive as far. And that's a good idea. So you tell them to go to the metroland.com, scroll all the way to the bottom where it says, you know, start carrying the Metroland here, click on here. They fill out their information, they start getting it. You don't have to walk as far, drive as far, skip as far or you know, whatever you use jump rope around, you know, maybe a pogo stick. Doesn't matter. You cut down on the time and don't we all love that anyways, so yeah, metroland.com, get on it. Those pages are filled with the blood, sweat and tears of a lot of people doing amazing work. And just keep that in mind.
And that's it. That's it for me.
That's it. Thank you so much for listening to me blather on again about locum music and all these amazing people for which I am very grateful to know and to be able to listen to.
I really appreciate it. You know, I get. I get people being like, oh, man, listen to your show. And I. I guess it's like an abstract concept to me, you know, that people actually listen to this. You know, I record it. It's fun. I have a lot of fun. I go, blah, blah, blah. But people will come and go, hey, man, I like your blah, blah. And I'm like, that's crazy. You listen to this. All right, that's fun. Awesome. Thanks, guys. And, oh, yeah, and don't forget, like, if you have a show coming up, because sometimes people post their show information late or it just gets lost in the ether because there's so much going on, you know, on Instagram these days, give me a shout out, you know, just go to Weekend Spotlight with no ease. So WKND Spotlight and let me know when your show is. You know, I'll gladly put up a song of your choice. You know, feature the show. Feature you feature your song. If you want to record a little blur about this show that's coming up, maybe it's a show that you're very excited about. You know, record a little blurb about it. I will put it in. I'll, you know, put it into the podcast and yeah, that's it for me. Oh, and don't forget the other podcast. You know, you have Mistress of none. You've got two normal people. You've got unsigned 518. There's a few things going around and yeah, there's so much to do on the metroland.com. there's so much to do in the local area and there's a lot of people that will let know, you know, where everything's at. And hopefully I can be one of the one. One of the more fun ones. Anyways. All right, I'm talking too long. I'm talking too long. All right. Anyways, I will talk to you next week. You guys take care.
Enjoy your week. Enjoy your weekend. We all deserve it. And as usual, you stay cool. 518.
[00:40:38] Speaker H: I'm calling shotgun.
[00:40:43] Speaker A: Where's the party tonight?
[00:40:46] Speaker H: Let's take a ride with swing and we're driving.
[00:40:54] Speaker A: It's the weekend spotlight.
Get ready.
[00:41:02] Speaker J: The Weekend Spotlight is a production of Unsigned518 and part of the Metroland now network of podcasts. Unsigned5,518's Weekend Spotlight is produced by Andy Scullen and hosted by DJ Swinghammer. Look for new episodes every week at the metroland.com and everywhere you stream podcast.
