Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 28

The quality might be crap since it's done all on the Palm directly from the van, let me know how it sounds and see ya 2006...

60 degrees on New Year's

60 degrees on New Year's
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

at least 60 and sunny in Austin this morning.



We're contemplating driving the 12 hours straight to Phoenix today. We'll see how long we can go, but we gain an hour in Mountain Time and we could be partying by Midnight ans be able to spend the whole day tomorrow relaxing in the Arizona desert.



I tied a fair one on last night at The Dirty Dog. We played well (though I lost my bass cord momentarily on two songs) and I still didn't get that "Keep Austin Weird" sticker for the back of the van. You'll hafta keep on reminding me, Dario.



We're at our buddy, Swami's house, right now and I'm just hanging outside alone and enjoying the sunshine.

Scorpio Rising

Scorpio Rising
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

is playing at the Flamingo Cantina tonight. We won't be able to check them out, but I bought their CD used on my 18th birthday because I thought they had a kickass name. It was good mid-90's alt-rock.



Our friends, Doodle from Austin band, American Graveyard, and his wife, just showed up too. Chances of tonight being a great party are at 110% right now.

The Dirty Dog

The Dirty Dog
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

We're up at 10:30, we just loaded in and every time we come back to 6th St. in Austin, I realize how much I love this town.

I'm an idiot

I got so excited about finding a .wav editor for the Palm, that I was playing with it and doing noise reduction on the file and then accidentally deleted the podcast we did from the van. Yeah, I know.

We're just relaxing with some friends in Houston today and getting ready to tie one on in Austin on the Eve of the Eve tonight!

To see Wendy's Photo Blog Posts....

I'm having trouble with the new Google Blogger, so when I post photos from my phone they are now going to

http://sunspotwendy.blogspot.com/

Hopefully we'll get this fixed sometime soon, but in the meantime please visit the link above to see my pics from the tour!

~Wendy.

Houston!

The drive today was terrifying from Dallas to here. It was a torrential downpour and we had our hazards on for most of the roll, but now we're at the Last Concert Cafe and it's fantastic- palm trees, outdoor stage (but we'll be playing inside because it might rain later), and you don't need a jacket outside. I'd take a picture by a palm tree but my Treo doesn't have a flash. We'll have to send one in tomorrow.

The Aardvark in Ft. Worth was a lot of fun and we got to hang with old friends and met some great new bands and people (more about that on the podcast that I'll upload as soon as I can convert the .wav to an .mp3.) And I'm working on something now where we can podcast directly from the van without needing a laptop, so more updates will be forthcoming.

Parked and resting in Ft. Worth

Parked and resting in Ft. Worth
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

It's not sunny, but it's certainly pleasant enjoying the 66-degree high today in Tejas.



We got to the hotel a little before 10 last night and now it's just lazing around and taking care of loose ends before loading in to The Aardvark tonight. It's fantastic to have the time to be comfortable for a little while and appreciate it.

Definitely not the crack of noon

Before 7 and I'm already up and ready to go. we got to the hotel from the venue at one last night but it's four hours to Oklahoma City and we gotta be there for a lunchtime show at 11:30.

It gets light so late these days it feels a lot earlier than it is. we'll try to stick a podcast up later about yesterday.

Scott Holt Was Here

Scott Holt Was Here
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Our man in Wausau goes out on tour with Scott Holt and we thought it was cool that he's been through Springfield at the same place we have too!

Eve of the Tour

Just finishing up packing for the tour...

Here's the route, please spread the word!

Wendy's DrummerCam: Saturday 12/23/06 @ BBC Upper Level, Milwaukee, WI

Loads of fun at the BBC last night.... Thanks so much to everyone who was there to make it a great night!

Also - If you're looking for the DrummerCams from Cincinnati and Eau Claire, unfortunately my camera has gone MIA. I think it is in the van, but I don't know for sure (haven't seen it yet). Hopefully we'll discover it on tour so I can get those files uploaded for you... And, if anyone happens to have found a wayward Olympus SP-310 PLEASE let me know!

Xmas Party Tonight!

Xmas Party Tonight!
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Shooting Blanks can't make it, but it's time to party at the BBC.

Mastermind

Mastermind
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

We're winding down the mastering session with Trevor Sadler from Mastermind in Milwaukee. Two more songs to go and the music section of the album is complete. We were at Smart Studios until after two last night with our man, Mark Haines, finishing the mixes..



*ALERT* SHOWTIMES FOR TONIGHT HAVE CHANGED *ALERT*

Shooting Blanks cancelled, so it's only us and Revolush tonight. We'll be starting a little after 11 tonight instead of Midnight. Don't be late or you'll miss us!

Giant squid footage!

No time to elaborate today, but my inner cryptozoologist was piqued when I saw that they finally had video footage of a giant squid.

Cool Show Tonight (12.21) at The King Club

I don't know if we'll be there because we're busy in the studio finishing mixing of the new record, but if we can, we'll be at The King Club to check out The Optimistic. They'll be playing the middle slot (probably around 11 o'clock) between The Dorothy Heralds and Reason For Leaving.

The other bands are jam-rock, but The Optimistic is more straight-ahead, I saw them at the Tammy Baldwin benefit at The Union a coupla months back and they're great, Spoon-ish rock. Their drummer was born and bred in Mukwonago (already up on the cool list), who also plays in Mama Digdown's Brass Band.

Anyway, check it out if you can. It's easily worth the five bucks.

FM 102.1 Finally Streaming

I got what I wanted for Christmas and that's FM 102.1 in Milwaukee is streaming online.

It just went from Green Day to Death Cab to Alice in Chains ("Got Me Wrong" from Sap and the Clerks soundtrack, I've been meaning to download that one forever!)

Life is hard, kid.

I hate to spoil Christmas magic or whatever but it's kind of funny that this English school let the toy out of the bag to their students about "Father Christmas".

Isn't Santa just a microcosm of how we used to use religion and the bogeyman of hell to make sure that people behave on the idea that if there's no all-seeing judge, then people will just behave however they want to, regardless of the consequences? The whole thing is insulting.

Best. Mugshot. Ever.

My man, Rip Torn, making Nick Nolte's shot look like a Sears portrait.

The Trojan Rabbit

...and the party continues with yet more exceptional rock!

Pike

We are in Cincy at the Poison Room, getting ready to rock. We just took some press photos and our friends in Pike are totally kicking ass right now!

More on The Haunchies!

Someone took some photos of Mystic Road and it looks like someone wrote a song about The Haunchies! Here's another article where they get mentioned.

And for the best, you can join the Myspace group, I Believe In Haunchyville. Will wonders never cease?

Green Lantern Creator Died in Muskego

The creator of The Green Lantern, died in Muskego (just a hop, skip, and a jump from the thriving metropolis of Big Bend, Wisconsin) a few days ago. He was my favorite Superfriend. Martin Nodell was 81. If you're wondering who Green Lantern is, there's an excellent profile of him here.

Muskego also contains "Haunchyville" (look to the bottom of the link to find where Dennis McCann of the Journal-Sentinal references my article from Weird Wisconsin with, alas, no credit) an area where it is fabled that murderous little people live. I've gone exploring there, but didn't see anything too weird. There's more on the Haunchies on this discussion board. Haha, someone even used Haunchyville in their geocaching game! That sounds like an awesome place to have an outdoor show. Haunchyville could become our Woodstock.

Making the switch

No, it's not about my sexual orientation (sorry, boys) but about my email service.

I've been using Yahoo! Mail Plus faithfully for the past two years and while it was a good application, I've decided to move to Gmail. If you've been emailing me at mike at sunspotmusic [dot] com, then you probably didn't even notice, but just in case you were wondering why I would do such a thing, here's my reasons:

#1 - As I need to use Outlook at Epic, I was syncing my Treo with the calendar and contacts there, the Outlook -> Yahoo synchronization is several years old and fairly unreliable, so I was wasting time every few days syncing back and forth between the two and having to manually check each item changed. Timewaster and I hardly even check the Yahoo calendar because of the Treo.

#2 - The Yahoo PIM(p!) applications have been slow as fuck lately, so it takes me forever to change something simple in the calendar or the address book.

#3 - Yahoo Mail Beta is cool but buggy and is slow as Hell on Firefox. If you think I'd go back to IE, in the words of the mighty Priest, you've got another thing coming.

#4 - Yahoo was coming out with special applications for every mobile phone out there, except for the California-born and bred, ass-kicking, simple to use yet unbelievably powerful Palm OS. Fuck Nokia. Symbian is crap. Google hasn't made a Treo-specific application yet, but they did make a Java Gmail app which I can use on my phone. They're making an attempt and I appreciate that.

#5 - Gmail has a ridiculous amount of space that I don't have to pay $20 a year for.

#6 - Yahoo's tech support is non-existent. I'm paying for a computerized support system that has no idea of what my problem is? Horseshit.

#7 - They both sold out to the Totalitarian Chinese government by volunteering to censor their search engines, so that's a non-issue.

#8 - Yahoo Groups, which made it useful to stay on there, hasn't been updated since Windows 98 came out. I feel like I'm burning whale blubber for light when I'm working in it.

Anyway, I'm paid up on Yahoo until May, so I'll still be receiving messages to that account until at least then and I can always go back if Gmail turns out to be lame (lack of folders is a tough one for me, we'll see how this label shit works.) I'm working on my systems here, I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for the final convincing, Dino, if you're wrong I'll have your head.

And if you found this blogpost boring, I'll be available for balls-sucking in either Chicago tomorrow or Cincinnati on Saturday.

RIP Young Frankenstein

Peter Boyle died today. :(

Didn't I already make a "Fuck Wells Fargo" post?

Probably, but I'm doing it again. Their customer support is a fucking joke, they don't know who the fuck I am in their system even though I have a mortgage with them and their reps don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. They must hate their jobs, they really must hate them, because they fucking suck at them. Why else would you be so fucking stupid in your line of work? Is this your job? You couldn't find anything you were good at, so you joined the ranks of customer service? Well you should find different work because your obviously out of your motherfucking league.

These jerkoffs keep on calling me saying that they have information about my issues with them, they leave a message for me to call back, I do and then no one knows why I'm calling. Like it's a great big mystery... "I'm sorry this is an inbound call center". Okay, then why the fuck did you call me and tell me to call back at that number if we had no reason for conversation. Plus, I waited on hold for ten minutes while you assholes were "assisting" other customers. Fuck off. Eat shit and die.

There is no oversight of these companies that suck ass. It's caveat emptor, I know it's my fault for not investigating mortage companies enough to find one with decent service, but I can't handle the ineptitude. As financial instititutions, these assholes own us, they own all of us because of debt, housing, loans, etc... and they're fucking idiots. It's like being owned by a bunch of monkeys. We let the goddamn inmates run the asylum. I hope that they all have horrible Christmases and that they die of something nasty like the Hanta virus.

Jaggernauts

Jaggernauts
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

will crush your head with a crowbar!

A fruit I actually like!?

Clementines.

That's right... As part of my recent attempt at a healthier diet, I've been trying some different fruit. I rediscovered the wonderfully delicious clementine, which looks like a mini orange. It's citrussy and sweet like an orange, but it doesn't have all that nasty membrane crap found in an orange. Plus it's WAY easier to peel.

Are these things even good for me? They taste way too good to be healthy.

WIBands Bus Tour Pics

We saw a bunch of bands on Saturday night as part of the second WI Bands Bus Tour. We started out at The Klinic, but also hit The Zuzu, Hody, Club Tavern, and Warehouse Stage. Saw some fun bands and had a great time. For proof, here's Animalien's pics from the night and here's Joe's pics from the bus tour as well. There's some classics in there, plus some ones that should have never seen the light of day, but whateva...

Here's some of my favorites:






Ben looks fuckin' wasted there.

Russian UFO Story

Looks like Ben got it to load, but I still can't. Here's what it said:

Russian news agencies reported that an identified flying object has fell from the sky in to Siberia district.

Russian news agency RIA-Novosoti has reported that an unidentified flying object has crashed on Krasnayarsk area of Siberia this morning. The crash caused a small forest fire.

The object crashed on an area exactly between Yeniseisk and Lesosibirsk towns in Krasnayarks. Authorities were informed by the residents of the area immediately. Russian Air Force authorities said there were no registered flights detected in the area at the time when the object was crashed.
Siberia Emergency Team sent a helicopter to the crash scene for further investigation.

UFO Crash News Story

I saw this link to a Russian news story about a UFO crash in Siberia on Drudge this morning but I can't get the story to load for me.

Has anyone else heard anything about this?

allofmp3.com is shutting down

It's curtains for everyone's favorite yeah-totally-isn't-legal-but-we-use-it-anyway-because-it-makes-us-feel-better-than-just-stealing Russian MP3 site.

Looks like it's back to BitTorrent.

Blackbird

So, as I was walking through the desolate cubicle wasteland this morning on my way in, I saw a black bird on a tree looking at me through the window of the 2nd floor. I don't know if it was a raven or a crow or something else, but I did see The Omen and I know what happens when a black bird comes rapping on your chamber door and it's a HARBINGER OF DOOM. Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know in case something horrible happens to me today (I don't think it will, but those are famous last words)that I did see a HARBINGER OF DOOM, so I was forewarned but I decided to walk around like nothing happened.

Blackberry Thumb

Yeah, it's for real and my thumbs are kinda hurting today (I did a lot of writing the past two days on my Treo.) I guess it's a lot more common in people that play video games, but I can definitely feel a tenderness in my thumbs today (the word tenderness makes me sound like I'm menstruating all over the Lifetime Network.) Repetitive stress injuries are pretty lame (I just hope you can't get carpal tunnel from jerking off.) But since I love my fingers and I'm not gonna stop writing or using my superphone, I'll probably have to get one of the portable Palm keyboards now. If anyone sees a good deal on one, shoot one my way, yo.

Monsters of Rawk at The King Club Tonight!

If you're in Madison tonight, it's Priest and AC/DC at The King Club.

Doors are at 9pm and it's a chance to listen to some hard rock Thanksgiving-style!

Presents from a friend

Thanks to our talented friend Joshua for this awesome artwork!

...and now it's Ben's turn

More Smart Fun

Mike's laying down the bass tracks now.... Weeeeee!

We escaped without incident

Mike got his picture with Chuck E. tonight and the 20 ounces flowed a little slower than last nights 40 ouncers. No authorities were called this evening and Mike had enough tickets to purchase a plastic hook.

Still at it!

We're almost done with the drum tracks. This is a pic of the tape that contains half of the album! Mark's doing a bit of editing. Incidentally, today marks the 1 year anniversary of the release of
"Cynical"! Alright.... Back to work now....

Playstation

Sweet. A Wal Mart manager in West Bend put 10 chairs outside the store and said the 10 people in chairs would be allowed to purchase a new playstation system. One man went to the hospital after running into a pole in his excitement to obtain the new toy. I can't wait for you guys to hear Neanderthal.

Let the fun begin!

Drums are all set up and ready to go. Mike and Ben are getting ready and then it's time to begin with the rhythm tracks!

Sampling

This article by a Columbia University professor talks about a company that goes around suing rap acts for unlicensed sampling and then talks about how that company is lame.

I call bullshit on this article, even though I see the writer's point about the amorality of the company in question. That's not the legal point, though. If someone takes a recording that you made and puts it in their own work without asking, they stole it from you. It's your creation and you own it, so it's your choice what happens to it. The best known (and cliched, I know I missed the accent mark, sue me) example- Vanilla Ice couldn't just steal from Queen (who just got the title of the best-selling album in England ever, yeah!) He had to recognize and pay for what he used. I love rap but I don't care if the genre's based on sampling, they're making plenty of money using someone else's creation, on someone else's work repurposed, so they should pay to use their recordings.

Sampling is a fun and interesting part of rap (I always found the term "hip-hop" kinda goofy), but if someone doesn't want to pay or even ask to use another person's music, then they should get their own fucking band and make the sound themselves.

Baby Rocket at the Dry Bean

Fun stuff!

Bigfoot in Waukesha County

It's Harry and the Hendersons for real by Merton! That's the coolest thing I've heard about all week. I don't know where the hell it is but I looked Merton up on Google Maps and it's only a few miles from Hartland. Anyway, that's close enough to get a search party going.

Our big abominable friend better watch out because wabbit season starts this weekend, doesn't it? It's time for some true conservationists (who are completely assured of their manhood and don't need it reaffirmed, thank God for these brave hunter-gatherers who will bring dearly needed food to our starving, waif-ish Wisconsin villages) to get plastered and shoot at each other. I'm not sure, but with all the billboard ads for male strippers at the Warehouse Stage and Club Majestic (another place where people used to like to get drunk and shoot each other) lately, you figure that Widows' Weekend is coming up. So, I hope Harry doesn't get killed before we have a chance to check him out.

Alright, that last paragraph makes me sound like a snooty vegetarian. I'm just not interested in hearing people say that hunting is for the animals' benefit. It's an excuse to get drunk and kill things. Don't pretend you're doing evolution a favor by using a high-powered rifle and special scope to destroy the strongest animal in a herd. Admit that it's just fun to drink beer with your friends and shoot at stuff. I can understand that it can fill some kind of male empowerment need and there is a killer instinct and it's helped humanity survive. Let's be real about why we do things.

Stop rationalizing and live consciously.

Bitches.

On the iPod right now:
"Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Iron Maiden (13 minutes of Coleridge-inspired rock n' roll, baby. Someone bring me some laudanum, stat!)

Today's person that I'd like to see burn in Hell

This drunken piece of shit killed his ex-girlfriend's four kittens by burning them to death. It looks like the rest of his sentence is suspended and he's already served four months so he's going free. Bullshit. He deserves to serve the full year and a half. He's a real class act that thinks girlfriends are punching bags, too.

I hope that he has a shitty day.

Wendy's DrummerCam: Friday 11/10/06 @ King Club, Madison, WI

Smart

I'm totally stoked about going into Smart Studios on thursday. Everytime we go there, it feels like being a piece of history. It's so comfortable to hang out there too. If I could afford it, I think I'd live there full time.

Loaded Like a Freight Train

Axl cancels a show in Maine because there's a law prohibiting drinking on stage. A band spokesman said that the law made it "impossible for the band to perform their show to the usual high standards that their fans deserve."

I want to say something witty, but I've got nothing. Axl Rose is my hero.

Alien invasion? We're boned.

So says a former UK Ministry of Defence (it's so cute the way they spell, isn't it?) chief who was in charge of their UFO project in the 90's. That sounds like the most kickass job in the world.

Let's party hard tonight.

Madison on Friday Night!

Tomorrow's my birthday show at The King Club and it's gonna be a big one. This is our last Madison show before our CD release party next year so #1- it's going to be your last chance to hear the new material before we record them and #2- it's gonna be your last shot to party with me before I need a cane.

It'd be awesome to see everybody at this show. A free drink for virgins and their friends, too.

Don't Forget to Vote

Democracy, bitches!

Aultimate Ozzy Tribute

Aultimate Ozzy Tribute
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

These guys are note perfect! a lot of fun to open up for in Evansville.

We're The Martians Now

Great television and film writer Nigel Kneale died over last weekend and I didn't see it covered anywhere this week, I learned about it in a Doctor Who talkback on Ain't It Cool News (which I would definitely click on because there's a very cool banner to see MUSE's new video for "Knights of Cydonia".)

It's funny because I was just thinking of him last week. I watched some of Halloween 3 when I was in Minneapolis (he wrote the original screenplay and later asked his name to be removed after seeing how they bastardized his script into a total crapfest.) Nigel Kneale is best known for creating Dr. Bernard Quatermass, who was a popular character on British television in the fifties. Hammer Studios (who made all the Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing horror movies) remade the TV series as films and the first one I saw (and it absolutely terrified me when I was little) was Quatermass and the Pit. It was called Five Million Years to Earth in the US.

It's also one of the biggest influences on Doctor Who, The X-Files, and the works of John Carpenter, all of which I can't get enough of.

This makes me sound like a codger, but sci-fi and horror are so special effects-based now, that's it's just not as much fun. I love f/x as much as the next guy, but I don't want it to be the star of the show (didn't the SW prequels show us that?). I realize that film and TV are explicitly visual mediums, but I love it when my head does the heavy lifting instead. With zero budget and no computers, that's what these guys in the Fifties and Sixties had to make do with and that's why their work still stands up fifty years later (the BBC just remade the original Quatermass Experiment a coupla years back.) Is anyone going to remake a Sci-Fi original like Mansquito or Alien Lockdown? Technology has made the means of production much less expensive, but it hasn't done anything to help people write better stories. Kneale didn't need that help.

Thanks for the great work, Nigel, and RIP.

Anyone see this on Halloween?

Night of The Living Dead: Live From Wisconsin
*Mark and Mike from "American Movie" fame will be hosting Halloween from
their lawn in Menomonee Falls, WI! They will be grilling out polish
sausages, talking with locals, dealing with zombies, and at the same time,
trying to create the first ever 5 minute live horror film!*

Make sure you check out the Undead & Unplugged video on that site where Mike Schank performs two original zombie-themed songs with his bride.

Here's Wendy and I with Mark from American Movie at the WAMI Christmas party a couple of years ago.

I've got a feeling that Ben saw this and told me about it (my sister just sent me the details asking if I saw it.) They put the address up on the site where they would be taping and it would have been fun to go, why doesn't anyone tell me these things in advance?

Death By Sexy

Death By Sexy
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

No bassplayer, but tightass riff rock from the nation's capital.

Rough Draft Mixing and Hip-Hop Caucasians

I just left Aquamunkee Studios where Aquaman and I were mixing down rough drafts of the new material. I love listening to the music in its raw form, stripped down, full of fuck ups as the songs form around them (or instead of them.) We've played a lot of the tunes live but we'll still have a bunch of never before heard songs. That's the worrying part because until an audience has a chance to digest it you don't know which ones are the keepers and which ones need more work. We can love it, but I'm not the best about being objecctive about our own stuff. Plus, it's difficult for me at least to think outside of the live setting, where it's just us. Anything different instrumentation sometimes feels like cheating. That's a limitation we're trying to rid ourselves of. Writing for a record is different than writing for the kind of venues we usually find ourselves in. Plus, you don't wanna be stuck repeating yourself just playing the same templates of songs with different words.

Okay, I'm just bitching now and I shouldn't. The studio is fucking great and the freedom to make things as big or as small as you want is cool. Maybe we'll learn to actually rein it in sometime. Ha, can you imagine us lo-fi? Maybe, but not right now. I never say never, though.

I just sat down with a beer at The King Club and am waiting for Schäffer The Dark Lord to start up (that's where the STD shirt you can see me wearing in about 100 different Sunspot show pics came from.) When it comes to white rappers: I don't think there's anyone that can match him. He's ridiculous but he's clever and not too precious.

The Last Hope is up right now. I don't know them but one of them just asked if the crowd "was feelin' it" and I am, baby, I am.

Happy Halloween!

I was just recalling some of the fun shows we've had at Halloween... Looking (way) back, there are some photos from our Halloween shows of past years:

2000 at the GridIron (Madison, WI)



2000 at Dudley's (Madison, WI)


2001 at Point's East (Milwaukee, WI)


2003 at Quarters (Milwaukee, WI)
This was the night that Andrew W. K. called Mike on his cell phone right before our show! There are pictures somewhere, we dressed up as The Matrix.... I can't find the pics, though.

2004 at The Annex (Madison, WI)


And, let's not forget the holiday we spent with our good friend Dirty, who was hanging out at Laura's in Chicago, when we stopped there on our way back from somewhere (Almanac Mike, can you help me remember where we were returning from that tour?)

Bat Out Of Hell 3

The new Meat Loaf record comes out tomorrow.

Hot.

State Street Halloween 2006

State Street Halloween 2005
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Listening to Plucket outside Pizzeria Uno.

Grinder tonight!

Madison's favorite Judas Priest Tribute band, Grinder, is playing tonight at The High Noon Saloon for the Fourth Annual Maximum Ink Halloween Spooktacular.

Also playing will be a tribute to The Misfits and Danzig featuring members of Droids Attack! and Way Off The Horse, a Suicidal Tendencies tribute band, and Yarrrrr! which is gonna be throwing down 80's style.

My windshield...

...needed to be scraped this morning.

:(

Recording at AquaMunkee

We spent the weekend recording all of our new songs at AquaMunkee Studio... We'll use this to help decide and work on which ones will go on the next album!

Also, stay tuned for the video Podcast, recorded live at AquaMunkee's!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE TIMMY!

The Screech Tape Is Real

God help us all.

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 27

Drinkin' with the cops!

Join us as we run through field sobriety tests with Madison's finest.

WARNING: The audio's not great, but it's fun. I just threw all the .WAV files together. Featuring guest commentaries by Captain Caveman and Devious.

Listen closely as our condition deteriorates through the evening.

Download Sunspot Road Mania Episode 27 directly.

Blurb in Whitewater Campus Paper

We talk a little bit about MySpace in this article. Our friends in The MAHP from Racine are mentioned as well.

Speaking of, your last chance to see them for awhile is going to be at The Brat Stop in Kenosha this Saturday, 10/21. Mark says he wants to take some time off to write new material and I'm looking forward to hearing it. I really enjoyed, their last CD, Stories (produced by Dammithead Steve Hawkins), and I'm looking forward to hearing more.

On the iPod this morning:

Transceiver by The Nadas

Red Dawn

Yeah, it's 3:00 and I'm still up. I forgot how sweet this movie is.

I wouldn't give it points for realism mostly because C. Thomas Howell will never ever be a badass. But it's got Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Harry Dean Stanton, Powers Boothe, Caroline in the City, and even Baby herself (and nobody puts her in a corner.)

I guess I can see why people don't like some of the jingoism of the film (which isn't as gung-ho as you'd expect in a film about the Soviet invasion of the Midwest) and I know the Russkies aren't the bad guys anymore (and their treatment is relatively fair, have you seen Missing in Action lately? The Russians get a lot more respect than the VC.) but the film is one of the best I've ever seen that illustrates the ricockulousness of foreign occupation (sample line as the Swayz is about to execute a traitor: "What makes us different from them? Because we live here.") That's the whole point, not that the Commies are a bunch of godless bastards, but that it's impossible to control a population that doesn't want to be controlled. There's also a ton of hand grenades being thrown into tank cockpits and that goes a long way for my enjoyment of a film.

John Milius gave us this classic, Apocalypse Now, and Conan The Barbarian (indeed, Conan's dad, the giver of the Riddle of Steel has a big role.) Anyway, good flick, I feel like executing a Rosenberg now.

More Reasons Why YouTube Rules

A little love for the DW fans out there...

Sweet Doctor Who vid to a great Carbon Leaf song

And someone put the whole second episode of Series Two,"Tooth and Claw", up as well. I've gotta got some psychic paper.

Oh yeah, and a video of my man, Captain Jack, set to "Sex Is Not The Enemy" by Garbage!

Or how about "Mr. Brightside" to Rose with Mickey vs. The Doctor vs. Captain Jack!

WARNING: If you haven't seen all of Series One, there's some spoilers in there. And be careful surfing around YouTube because it's spoilerific for Series Two.

If you're not reading Lifehacker...

...every single day, then why not? Today, they link to how to make a great Halloween zombie costume, which should be on everyone's to-do list for next week.

Anyway, Liferhacker has consistently great tips on making your life easier and I appreciate anything that helps me make more time for partying.

Cool WI Book Festival Events

Click here to see the official schedule of book festival events. There's a bunch of cool stuff this year.

First of all, on Sunday at 2pm, there's going to be an event that covers The Beast of Bray Road, which I talked about on here a few weeks ago. The presenter, Linda Godfrey, co-authored a book with Richard Hendricks, who used to run Weird Wisconsin, where my sister and I both contributed stories to. That's at the Wisconsin Historical Museum which is on the Capital Square.

Then, there's a shit-hot panel discussion with the Sandman, himself, Neil Gaiman (I forgot that he lives in Menomonie, WI where the monkey house of a live music venue, Mr. Heavy's, is as well (if you're looking for context, that's the one that's decorated with a huge mural of Satan smoking a joint and half a real police car behind a steel fence in the basement)) and Milwaukeean Stephen King-collaborator, Peter Straub. If you haven't read The Talisman, then maybe you read or saw Ghost Story, which is not only notable for being dances-with-vacuums Fred Astaire's last film, but also for featuring the Borg Queen's snoobs. Anyway, that movie scared the crap out of me and I didn't know it was written by a Wisconsin guy, so extra points. If anyone is going to any of these events, let me know, they sound like a lot of fun.

PROG at the High Noon

Check out our buddy Joe rockin the guitar!

CBGB's Finally Closes

It's a sad day for a club that ended up being a living museum. Sunspot always wanted to play at CBGB's, but the only date that would've worked out would have been Easter Sunday a couple of years ago and we couldn't make time for it on that particular tour.

I hate to be one of those guys that says once they got big, they sold out, but c'mon. And they're planning to relocate to Las Vegas? It closes on October 31st, but it hasn't been an epicenter of culture for a long time. It's kind of just a marketing thing now more than anything else. Hey, I love Blondie. I read the weirdass "alternate theory of consciousness" book that their bassist wrote and I didn't even hate the duet Debbie did with Coolio (no shit) on No Exit, but CBGB's lost some of its specialness when you could buy their t-shirts at Target. I'm not sad that the club is closing because that time is over (thank you, Sarah Jane, for teaching me that lesson on Doctor Who this past weekend), I wish I could've seen it during its heyday, though.

Wendy's DrummerCam: Saturday 10/14/06 @ BBC, Milwaukee, WI

Wendy's DrummerCam: Friday 10/13/06 @ ELB, Rockford, IL

Superphone in action!

The Treo broadcasts live video of a breaking news story on Wednesday. Awesome.

Rockford and Milwaukee This Weekend!

Two chances to party with us this weekend. The first is tonight in ROCKford, Illinois where we return to the ELB. The last two times there were awesome and we can't wait for a repeat tonight! I checked eventful.com and looks like there's not a lot of rock shows in Rockford for today, but there is a instrumental strings Asian three-piece playing at the Methodist Church, so well, I guess that sounds sweet if you wanna go to that instead.

Also, tomorrow we'll be at G-Daddy's BBC in Milwaukee. Get a preview of our November show in Madison, because our friends in Road Agent Spin (former Sin City Injectors) will be there tomorrow as well as the King Club show coming up.

Also, I found something that Caveman Dan and Supercop can do if they're looking for a charity to participate in.

On the iPod right now:


Yeah, so what, I'm in a disco mood.

May the force be with you...

...always.

Mike Huberty has left the geometry center

That's right, click on this link and see what it says at the top of your browser. I think the D. as his middle initial stands for dirty.

Random band finding of the day:
The Dutch Ovens. I find all these cool band names as I'm looking up clubs in different states. Last week it was the pubes and last year I found Dirty Sanchez.

God, Who'd Wanna Be Such An Asshole?

I saw the Born Into This, the documentary on Charles Bukowski, the other night and it's pretty good, I wish I could have seen him perform live. Just an ugly dude sitting at a table, drinking heavily, chain smoking, and reading.

I haven't seen Barfly with Mickey Rourke as Hank, but if anybody wants to watch it soon, let me know. I'm sure it's a downer, but those are okay every once in awhile.

You have new Picture Mail!

Wpooooooooop

Drinkin' with the cops!

Drinkin' with the cops!
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

The whole band's here and we're doing an alcohol workshop so officers can test field sobriety!



Serving the community is hard but we love our town.

The Optimistic

The Optimistic
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

It's chilly at The Terrace tonight. Last show outside for the year and it's always great!



http://www.myspace.com/areyouoptimistic

Wow. Here's a relationship that's going to end badly.

She discovers that her boyfriend is into kiddie porn. And not perfectly acceptable and often magical publications like Barely Legal or 18 and Busty either.

I don't think I'd write to an online Dear Abby about this, I think I'd poison his fuckin' Cheerios before he turns into somebody like the piece of shit who killed those poor Amish girls this week. What do you think his wife knew? Ten years of marriage and she didn't catch any hint of this? The death of their infant daughter must have been a grueling trigger (I was going to make a Nabokov comment too, but I'm trying to down the kitchen sink-ness of my posts) but there wasn't any sign at all in the ensuing 9 years? No one's on the lookout for these things, right, but when you think about the chick who wrote into Prudence wondering what she should do about her boyfriend when she found that picture CD, it makes you realize that a lot of these tragedies might be avoided by facing reality, no matter how sad it is, now instead of later.

Wendy's DrummerCam: Thursday 10/05/06 @ Bobby Rockets, Lyons, WI