After braving a Sunday of storms in eastern Iowa, Hold For Swank made their way to Des Moines with a stack of vinyl. The sun was shining and the toffee lattes were flowing at Mars Café, which made for a great Memorial Day; I only wish I had the Rocky IV soundtrack to help celebrate, although we did have the soundtracks to Beverly Hills Cop 2 and 3.
Once again we met at the café early so we could head to Sonic Factory Studios and record a couple of live acoustic tunes. It’s always great when we have a rock band on the show and in the studio to record acoustic songs, the end result is always something completely unique and different from anything else the band does. Both of the songs Hold For Swank played can be found on their debut album, but not like this.
The records of the evening were kind of all over the place, but centered mostly around the 80’s. The highlight for me was hearing a record by a local band that I had never heard of, The Hawks from Otho Iowa. They are no longer around, but the self-titled album they released in 1981 sounds fantastic, at least the couple of songs I heard. Here is some of the rest of what we played…
Journey – Captured Reggie and the Full Effect – Greatest Hits Uriah Heep – Demons and Wizards Michael Jackson – Thriller Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell John Denver – Rocky Mountain High Weezer – Make Believe Smashing Pumpkins – Adore Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road The Hawks – S/T Rolling Stones – Goats Head Soup The Strokes – First Impressions of Earth Animal Collective – Feels Huey Lewis and the News – Sports
If you watch much MTV, chances are you’ve heard Hold For Swank and may not even realize it, they have songs on multiple MTV shows like True Life and Real World/Road Rules Challenge. Hold For Swank released their debut album “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” in 2006 and have been pretty much playing live since. We talk all about the past two years and their plans for the rest of this year during the interview…
