Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Weekend Spotlight the weekend.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: All right.
[00:00:03] Speaker A: The weekend Spotlight the weekend. All right. Andy Sculling is such a good dude. The kind of guy that it's easy to talk to. He's got some cool stuff he'd like to share with you. Yeah, you. It's the weekend. You know what you should do? It's the weekend Spotlight. The weekend. Alright. The weekend spotlight on sign 51 8.
[00:00:23] Speaker C: Welcome to unsigned 5 and 8's weekend spotlights. This episode is a bit of a torch passing, I guess you could say. I'm here with BJ Swinghammer. Bj, say hello to the folks.
[00:00:37] Speaker D: Hey everybody. Happy Thursday.
[00:00:39] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, Happy Thursday indeed. And. And I'd been teasing for like a couple weeks that, you know, due to my, my busy schedule and, you know, obligations with Metroland and the band and all that shit, doing two podcasts a week was getting to be a little much. And I was like, you know, this show has like a template. If I could just find somebody that I trust who knows about local music, who I trust as a human being and, and that. That human being is you, bj. So I guess welcome to your. Your new position because we'll do, I guess maybe an episode or two together.
[00:01:16] Speaker D: Right? Yeah, I mean, yeah, that sounds good. I mean, you're. Your local music knowledge is far. It exceeds mine so far. But I think I will get there quickly.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: Yeah, very quickly. And plus, I'll still be producing the show, so we'll still be. We'll be doing this together.
Oh, you got an alarm going off. Look at you see, we're doing it raw, just uncut, just happening.
So going forward, like I said, you'll be doing the show.
I'll be still doing unsigned 5 and 8. I'll still be producing this show. It'll still be, you know, I'll still fucking pop in every once in a while or whatever, but.
[00:01:54] Speaker D: Yeah, and I'll just be rounding off the weekends.
[00:01:56] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:57] Speaker D: You know.
[00:01:57] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:57] Speaker D: And that's a little accoutrement.
[00:01:58] Speaker C: Accoutrement. But I guess, you know, let's just, let's just get started and, and talk about our first event. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna hand it right over to you, dude.
[00:02:09] Speaker D: All right, well, we're gonna start with Stockade a Palooza happening tonight.
[00:02:13] Speaker C: It's Stockhed of Palooza Fest.
[00:02:16] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:02:16] Speaker C: Yeah, I like that they took all the, all the things and put them, put them all together. Yeah, sorry.
[00:02:23] Speaker D: Yeah, no, it's. It's great. They put the name. It's like Stockade of Blues. A fest. It's all these dashes. It's a very long, wonderful name.
And not. It's so it's how many nights with the four.
[00:02:31] Speaker C: I think. Yeah, it looks like it was like four Thursdays starting tonight.
[00:02:36] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:02:36] Speaker C: And then happening every Thursday at. At Stella's over there in Schenectady. But yeah, go ahead.
[00:02:42] Speaker D: Yeah, so yeah, night one. So tonight's night one is gonna be Canela, Peter Anello Band and Bad Monk. So this is gonna be from 4:30 to 9 at Stella's Pasta Bar and Bistro and Schenectady. What's a 237 Union Street.
[00:02:57] Speaker C: 237 Union street in Schenectady.
[00:03:00] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. So it's gonna be. It's got a nice length of time before Thursday. You can still kind of get home if you have to work on Friday.
[00:03:07] Speaker C: Yeah, I like the early, the early shows.
[00:03:10] Speaker D: Oh yeah.
[00:03:10] Speaker C: You know, because you could just like you said, you can get home in time. And, and when it's summer like this is still daylight out when you get.
[00:03:17] Speaker D: Home at 9 o' clock and you read fest. And I was like, man, how early are they going to start if it's a fest? But it starts at the perfect time for grown ups who have to, you know, go to work. That being said, we decide to pick out a song from Canela Groomer off their latest episode the Snake.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:32] Speaker D: And yeah, let's, let's, let's show that to everybody real quick.
[00:03:37] Speaker C: All right.
[00:03:37] Speaker D: All right, here we go. Here is Groomer from Canelo.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: Baby waiting for me with AR Every.
And you better be dragging me down. You tell me about. And you stand at this, Sam.
[00:06:43] Speaker D: All right. That was Groomer from Canela off their latest CP the Snake.
And let's not forget tonight. Yeah. Tonight, food trucks.
[00:06:53] Speaker C: The official name is the Thursday Night Market and Food Truck Corral.
I didn't know that practice.
[00:06:59] Speaker D: It was just a few trucks. You go, up you go. It's a Food trucks.
[00:07:02] Speaker C: That's what we call it too. That's what like you know, you're going to the food trucks, you know. But it's the, the Thursday night market and food truck corral.
[00:07:11] Speaker D: Yeah. And that is going to be at the shirt factory. And that's a house. That's a house of them thing as runs the music and who better?
[00:07:18] Speaker C: Yeah. The Rock Hill Bakehouse stage. Because there's multiple stages, isn't there?
[00:07:23] Speaker D: There are, there are two to three I think at any given time. Yeah. All right, fair enough.
[00:07:27] Speaker C: So it's just the one stage.
[00:07:28] Speaker D: Just the one stage you can't miss it. It's the one with the big old Metroland banner out. That's an awesome banner.
But instead of us just going on about it, I think better to hear it from James himself. So, James, why don't you give everybody info on the upcoming food truck shows?
[00:07:45] Speaker E: Hey, bj. Great to talk to you, man. It's awesome to see that you're the new host of the weekend Spotlight. Congratulations. We took last week off for the fourth of July holiday over at the Thursday night market and food truck corral at the shirt factory, but we're firing things right back up this week. And on the Metroland stage in the parking lot of the Rock Hill Bakehouse, we've got High Peaks bluegrass band bringing you some nice bluegrass folk music for your listening pleasure. As we get ready to kick off the second half of the food truck season, we've got a lot coming your way. Find us on Instagram at House of Mentertainment at House of M518. You'll be able to see the entire July lineup coming soon as we post weekly with what's coming up.
All right, bj, Back to you, man.
[00:08:25] Speaker D: All right, James. Thank you so much. See, he explains it much better than I do, honestly.
All right, into Friday. Friday, it's. It's the day. It's one of, like, the days it leads into the weekend. We all love it.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: And I always think of Thursday as, like, the appetizer. You know what I mean? It is, like, you go out Thursday to get juiced for the weekend.
[00:08:44] Speaker D: Yeah. And then Friday you go all in.
Saturday is kind of trepidatious, and Sunday, you just kind of lay there going, why? Yeah, I'm gonna do it again next weekend anyways.
But that being said. All right, so Friday, there's gonna be a.
A show at the Cock and Bowl in galway. So it's five three. 5342 Parkus Mills Road in Galway is the Cock and Bowl. And that is gonna be Drink the gold at 6pm and that is.
That is our good friend James Gascoigne. That's right.
[00:09:14] Speaker C: That's right. Who. You didn't even realize that, like, as we were putting the show together, I'm like, you know, drank the gold, you know, James Gascoigne. And they're like, yeah, I totally do that. James and Una.
[00:09:25] Speaker D: I already know somebody already that I didn't know that I know in this whole thing. It's wonderful, if that makes any sense.
[00:09:29] Speaker C: Yeah, they've. They've performed in the dazzle then it was super cool. Like, it was one of those moments where I was like, man, my life is kind of cool sometimes. Like to just hear like some traditional Irish music being played live at my house.
[00:09:41] Speaker D: Yeah, awesome. Yeah, absolutely. And with that in mind. Yeah, considering it's an, you know, traditional Irish music on a Friday, we decided to play a little ditty from them called Drunk at night and dry in the morning, which is just.
[00:09:56] Speaker C: Yeah, you can probably relate. You know, I'm. I'm dry all the time now, like a boring old man.
[00:10:00] Speaker D: But, you know, Yes, I still get quite wet depending on the weekends, so. All right, here we go. We're gonna play this for you. It's drunken night and dry in the morning by Drink the gold.
Enjoy.
All right. That was drunk at night and dry in the morning by Drink the gold.
And I believe you enjoy it as much as we do.
[00:14:02] Speaker C: Totally.
[00:14:06] Speaker D: Thank you.
So now we're gonna check in with the gentleman at our band show and that's what we're doing. So taking away Christian and Patrick. There you go.
[00:14:15] Speaker F: Thank you very much, bj. And congratulations on becoming the host of the weekend spotlight for on sign 518.
It's going to be fantastic to work with you going forward. And welcome into our band show. We've been very busy the last month including a live stream with a three piece rock band called of the Atlas. You can check out that live stream now on our YouTube channel. At our band show, we also stepped outside the studio for the first time and filmed a show at Reason and Ruckus in Poughkeepsie, New York. Ben Basilli invited us to record his album release show for Ben Ergy.
We sat down with Ben for a few minutes to talk about what it means to him to perform a live show in his hometown in front of his friends and family.
[00:15:09] Speaker G: Hey everybody, thanks for coming out to my album release show at Reason and Ruckus. Playing a show in my hometown is really special for me because I kind of feel like I rarely get to do it anymore in the Hudson Valley. I actually, you know, travel a lot.
[00:15:22] Speaker D: All over the world.
[00:15:24] Speaker G: And so to be able to do a hometown show where my family and my friends and people I grew up with can finally come and see what I do, it's really special. I ended up having the album release show at Reason and Ruckus because the venue was recommended to me by some friends who also play in bands and have played there before. And they said it's the. It's the spot in Poughkeepsie and so I went there to go see a show a couple months ago, and I just loved the vibe. I love that it was like downtown in Poughkeepsie proper.
Myself and a lot of people I know grew up going to shows right there in Poughkeepsie at the chance. And reason Ruckus is just like, right around the corner from the chants.
Yeah. So very happy to have my show right in Poughkeepsie downtown on Main Street. Let me talk a little bit about my awesome band that I have on stage.
So Alex and Alex are the guitar player and drummer. They play in Big D and the kids table with me, and I've been playing with them for years now, and we've traveled all over the world together.
You may have recognized my identical twin brother, Anthony on the trombone.
We don't get to play music together that often anymore, so these shows have been really special.
On saxophone is my best bud, John Deegan, who actually produced the whole record, Ben Ergy alongside with me. So thank you to John, trumpet player, longtime friend of mine. We went to college together, Vince Tampio. And on the keyboards is my new friend, Kayleigh. This is actually our first time playing music together this weekend.
You may or may not know, but I have been a musician for well over 15 years. I started when I was in college and I have mostly been a member or a side person or side member of any other various bands. So this is my first solo debut record where I'm finally like, hey, this is Ben Basili. It's not Big D and the kids table. It's not in the pocket. It's not Poughkeepsie jazz project.
This is what Ben Basili is and who and what he sounds like.
And because of that, you hear it's a wonderful mix of ska, reggae and jazz just all mashed up together.
[00:17:25] Speaker F: I just want to say getting out of the studio and into a live venue was an amazing experience.
For the first time, we were shoulder to shoulder with the crowd as we filmed and recorded all the music that evening of Ben Basili and his awesome band.
Just feeling the energy coming off the fans and just enjoying the mix of jazz and ska and reggae was just an intense vibe that you don't necessarily get in the studio. It was a lot of fun, Definitely worth doing again, and I'm so happy that our band show could be a part of it all. We want to spotlight one of the songs from that evening. A great set.
This song is 87 to 90 by Ben Basilli on his Album Ben Ergy.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: Again.
[00:21:51] Speaker F: That's an evening I'm never going to forget. A lot of energy from the crowd, a lot of energy from the band. This is definitely one of the highlights of 2025 so far. And if you want to check out an article of of the Atlas our Ben Basile, check out our website rbandshow.com for more details. Now that we've talked about what we have been doing, let's talk about what we're going to do.
The next episode on Jul 19, 2025 at 8:00pm is a special episode number 30 of our band show co hosted by andy of on Sign 518.
Andy has curated four fantastic acts from the Albany music scene. They're going to come down to the Poughkeepsie studio and they're going to perform for us live.
We anticipate a fantastic evening of eclectic music from hip hop, acoustic to rock. We're all going to have a great time and it's going to be one of the best episodes that our band show has ever put on. More information to come this week so keep an eye on the our band show and on Sign518 social media channels.
Can't wait for the show to take place. With all that said bj, back to you.
[00:23:16] Speaker D: All right, thanks man. All right. That was our band show. One of the best things about music in the 518.
[00:23:22] Speaker C: Yeah. And actually you know we didn't discuss this just before we went on but I do have a showcase coming up with them in a couple weeks on July 19th. It'll be on their YouTube. I am bringing four artists from the five on eight. I'm bringing Camtron 5000 Little Saints Arrow through Me and New Monarchy and we're gonna do like a fucking.
Like a full on television talk show style show. It's gonna be like a three hour long show. We're gonna have all the bands performing songs and being interviewed by Christian and Patrick at our band show. Being interviewed, reviewed by me. And it's gonna be a full live production. I'm actually going down there for the. I'm staying down there the whole weekend.
[00:24:11] Speaker D: Oh no.
[00:24:12] Speaker C: To. Because there's a bunch of.
[00:24:14] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah dude that's awesome.
[00:24:16] Speaker C: So yeah, that's happening July 19th. It'll be on on streamed live on YouTube and then I'm sure when it's done there'll be content from it for all the artists.
[00:24:26] Speaker D: Whatever.
[00:24:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm bringing, bringing the 518 down there to. Yeah, I love the guys at our bancho. They're Fucking awesome.
[00:24:32] Speaker D: Oh yeah. Yeah. Those guys rock. Yeah. That's gonna be awesome, man. I can't wait. Jesus. All right, Saturday.
There we go. Now we're on a Saturday. They've got some music going on. The Universal preservation hall at 7:30. Have you been.
[00:24:45] Speaker C: Have you been there yet?
[00:24:46] Speaker D: I actually. Okay, so funny story. I was. I was just about to segue into this. I remember the Universal Preservation hall before it was even remotely done.
Years and years ago. And I was.
I went there for a wine tasting and it was just bare bones. It was just like wood and brick and nothing. There were no decorations. There were just tables up. It was all.
Because they were just in the middle of trying to figure out what to do with it kind of thing. So it was all kind of slapdash and it was great, but you were essentially just drinking inside, like an old empty out. And I think I was at a. I think I was at a wedding there.
[00:25:20] Speaker C: Yeah. Cuz I've been there a few times for like the. The Eddie's hall of Fame Awards. They have like the dinner there or whatever. But it's a really nice place, it's really cool and like, I don't know, I. I dig it. And it's. It's like a hidden gem. It's like right there.
[00:25:38] Speaker D: I've got Exactly. It's right there. I've got to get there because I just haven't seen it finished yet, you know? And honestly, you know, sophistic. Tops of trees. That's. That's good. A really reason to go right there.
[00:25:46] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, you should go check it out, you know.
[00:25:48] Speaker D: Yeah. With that in mind, we're going to be doing Tops Trees Light on.
[00:25:53] Speaker C: Yeah, let's play Tops, Trees Light on and go check them out. What, Saturday?
[00:25:58] Speaker D: Yeah, let's do that. Let's do that for the people so they know what they're getting into.
[00:26:01] Speaker C: Totally. You know.
[00:26:02] Speaker D: All right, so here it is. Light on from tops of trees.
[00:26:29] Speaker B: All my life I've been sitting now on a fence Believing I was the victim of circumstance the fear of projection kept me against that wall.
But tonight's the night I'm gonna let and I'm gonna heed that call.
Cause I've been waiting so long this could be my chance no time to wait I gotta dance, I gotta dance.
The clock on the wall says it's just about quitting time to play or the fold I gotta make up Gotta take a chance right now and get out on the floor.
Oh, I might as well hang on my hat and coat and Walk right out that door?
Cause I've been waiting so long?
This is my chance, don't hesitate? I gotta dance, I gotta dance?
I gotta dance, I gotta dance. Hand well, the world can be so hard now?
Knock you down sideways?
Knock it right down on your knee? Girl, you hang your head and you pray?
I need a little it alive now?
I need just one more chance?
So help me, Lord. Help me, Lord. Help me, Lord. Help me, Lord?
I gotta dance, I gotta dance?
I gotta dance?
I gotta dance?
All my life I want be somebody besides me?
I was always looking outside myself for that golden key?
But the light was shining inside y' all all along.
All I had to do was find some faith and love and trust in my own songs? The voices tell me this might be your last chance?
No time to wait? I gotta dance, I gotta dance?
I gotta dance, I gotta dance?
Cause when it gets dark, turn your light on?
When it gets dark, turn your light on?
When it gets dark, turn your light on.
When it gets dark, turn your light on.
Light on.
[00:30:28] Speaker A: Light on.
[00:30:29] Speaker B: Light on.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: Light on.
[00:30:30] Speaker B: Light on.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: Light on.
[00:30:32] Speaker B: Light on.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: Ram.
[00:31:27] Speaker D: All right.
I love that. Yeah, that was light on. From tops of trees.
[00:31:31] Speaker C: And, you know, bj, before we go, like, obviously, I, you know, I'm gonna. Gonna hand it over to you. I want to say, first of all, killer job with. Just like, I.
I texted you a couple weeks ago and was just like, hey, dude, you want to take over the weekend spotlight for me? And you went, yeah.
And there was no details. There was no anything. And. And you've just been a champ the whole time.
[00:31:57] Speaker D: Time.
[00:31:57] Speaker C: Just.
It's been a lot of behind the scenes stuff. Like, people may think that it's just, you know, this is just a handoff we've been doing for. For weeks, getting you ready, and I'm. I'm very excited to have you do this because I trust. Like I said, I trust you. You know, and another fun thing that people may not know and you may not even remember is the very first, like, because I've done a couple. A couple different podcasts. Like, going back to, like, 2011, I think was the first one I ever did, and it was just a. A conversation podcast. And actually James Gascoigne, when he was in that band with Mary. Mary Lee and Ben Garrett called Party Boat.
[00:32:45] Speaker D: Oh, Jesus Christ.
[00:32:46] Speaker C: Yeah, they were. They were. Yeah, they were. Because, you know, Saratoga.
[00:32:51] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:32:51] Speaker C: And they were on my podcast. Podcast. And they were the first musical guests that I had. They did a live performance and. And whatnot. But the first ever podcast that I ever did. The first episode of ever, any podcast was me, you and John Wren.
And so you literally were on.
And that's lost. Like, I've not. That's nowhere to be heard. That's completely lost. But the first podcast I ever did was this guy sitting next to me. So I trust bj.
I think that he's gonna do a killer job. I. I almost want to do like one of those videos where it's like, my friend BJ is doing a podcast and you better be nice.
[00:33:29] Speaker D: Oh, Jesus.
[00:33:32] Speaker C: But anyway, before we go, one of the things that we're gonna do on the show and I'll get you up to speed with it, you know, is pick a hot single every month for Metroland. Now to TJ does this list, you know, so for. We're in July now, so it's June's list. Like once the month ends, TJ compiles all the singles released in the area and puts them out in one place. So we're gonna pick a song from the Hot singles to play every week and that'll be something again that bj, you'll. You'll be doing Once, once. Once I push you out of the nest and you. And you fly high.
[00:34:10] Speaker D: Yeah, once, once I settle into this.
[00:34:13] Speaker C: And I'll never leave it alone either. Like, you know, I'm gonna be popping in on this. On this.
[00:34:17] Speaker D: I mean, you kind of have to, you know, you're Andy Skull.
[00:34:20] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's. And it's here and we're at my house. So. Yeah, there is that too. But anyway, it will be amazing. So the song that we're gonna play this week off Hot Singles is from Kat McKenzie. It's called how to Disappear.
[00:34:35] Speaker A: And.
[00:34:36] Speaker C: And I've done, as you know, a couple of films with Frank Pani.
[00:34:40] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:34:41] Speaker C: And Cat was in one or maybe even two of the three that I've done. So she's done stuff and Frank produces her work. He produces or makes her videos and she's really great songwriter, really, really great songs and a really cool person. So we're going to check out how to Disappear here from Kat McKenzie and I. I do suggest that you look it up and, and give her some streams and give her some love on online and get those, get those songs out there to the world.
[00:35:37] Speaker A: This is how you disappear this is how you disappear.
You let this world.
Second, it's a start Second it's a fuck together of blind.
This is how you disappear this is how you disappear.
I want to find in reward beauty fall become the sea this is how you disappear this is how you disappear I'll dance underneath this every night Till my soul comes back to my bones I want to.
Sam.
How you disappear.
[00:40:29] Speaker D: All right, everybody, that was how to disappear by Cat McKenzie. You know what? And I just want to say thanks for having me. 518. And thanks to all the people that. The handful of people that knew I was coming into this and that were genuinely excited.
Makes me feel like I can just step into this with a degree of confidence. And Andy makes this look so easy. And I'm still going to be getting into this. So in the coming days, you know, you're gonna see me develop, and I'm gonna hear myself develop, and it's gonna be a lot of fun. So, guys, guys, thank you so much. Thanks to everybody. Thanks to everybody in the past and thanks to everybody in the future for this. I'm BJ Swinghammer, and this is unsigned 518's weekend spotlight. Stay cool, 518.
[00:41:16] Speaker A: I'm calling shotgun.
Where's the party tonight?
Let's take a ride. Been swinging, we're driving.
It's the weekend spotlight.
Get ready, Sam.
