Returning a favor

My boat was stranded on two of Madison's lakes last year and each time I had to get a tow and once had to ask a friend to transport me back to my truck 3 towns away. Today I got the chance to pay it forward. I towed someone whose prop had fallen off out of Mud lake to the Yahara and then a few hours later, some guy needed a ride to a different landing because his boat died while he was trying to sell it to some girls.

Vegetarians Will Never Be Looked At As Normal

if they don't even fuck carnivores. This story may just be about New Zealanders, I don't know, but I can see people I've met who might have said it. Isn't the idea to set an example of a lifestyle that doesn't harm other creatures? I feel like cutting off the hippity-dippity not only harms other living (horny) creatures but doesn't set the tolerant and loving example you're looking to set in the first place. Plus, small communities are an incestuous bunch, I think you'd want to breed outside of them. It's just another way for people to insulate themselves and not venture outside their belief systems. Plus, it's your opportunity to convince someone that you're attracted to enough to exchange fluids with why your worldview is the best way to go. We're all some kind of graveyard, whether it's animal or vegetable (or emotional). There is no no-impact way to do things. We all have to murder something living to live, it's just the level of murder that you're comfortable with.

Winnie Cooper

is on a mission to tell girls that they don't have to grow up to be vapid wastoids like well, most celebrities under the age of 30. Tell em, Winnie. Sorry about your brother in 'Nam and you're lucky you didn't marry Fred Savage, he grew up ugly.

In sad news, Tom Snyder, died yesterday. When I was little he used to host his show from Summerfest and we used to go see him.

The Sunspot Truck is gone.

Well, that's it for the original Sunspot truck
It saw several east coast and Texas tours as well as tons of midwest action from 2000-2003 and treated us well (except when I tried to install the new CD player and rendered the headlights inoperable right before a long drive).
Last night, I sold it and now it is gone.

Cool Site

Video lessons on how to dance. Sweet, all I can do is churn the butter and I've got a salt shaker move that I copied from Uncle Brett but otherwise I need some new moves.

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 60

Action from Memory Lanes and hanging out in the van on the way to our show at Hoowies in Edgerton today.

Direct download link: http://www.sunspotmusic.com/roadmania/sunspot_rm_60.m4v

Thanks to Cary Aria for hooking us up with the show!

Aquafina is tap water?

Holy shit, Dasani and Aquafina are just like if you ran your water bottle under the tap. So, it's the same flouride and chlorine you'd get anyway. I'm not a water snob by any means (regular water is fine with me, but sometimes there's no bubbler or you don't have a bottle and you need something cold.) I'm just surprised that they're being honest about it now.

Psychic Cat: Harbinger of Death

I don't think this cat that predicts people's deaths is going to turn Ben or Wendy into cat-lovers anytime soon. But it's an interesting story nonetheless.

Speaking of psychic animals, here's a true story. A friend of mine who shall remain nameless (HINT: His nickname rhymes with Crapper) called a pet psychic for his dog and she couldn't make it out for an appointment so she had him put his dog ON THE PHONE and diagnosed his problem on the line. My friend swears that his dog started behaving better afterwards, but I think that business gives Miss Cleo a run for her money. Mon.

This weekend in Minneapolis and Edgerton!

We have an exciting weekend ahead of us!

Friday night we return to Minneapolis for some ROCK AND BOWL with our good friend Cary Aria, The Delaminators, and Synchrocyclontros (did I spell that right?!)!

Memory Lanes is the venue, and they set up the stage right on top of the middle bowling lanes so people can continue bowling on the outer lanes while the band rocks!



Then, Saturday, we head to Edgerton for a Grand Opening bash at the brand-spankin-new HOOWIES! The party will feature a live broadcast from WJJO, door prizes, and 3 hours of Sunspot... So come on down! Hope to see YOU this weekend.

Even baseball is getting more violent

First this ,
then this last night.
I think we should move the plate back a few feet to give the hitters more of a chance to hit and it would make it farther to the fence so it isn't just a game of strike outs and home runs. Might be more fun to watch. Like raising the basketball hoop a foot or two. Modern sports has to keep up with modern nutrition (natural and artificial).
Well, at least the brew crew has a chance at the series for the first time since 1982. Ask Mike how he feels about the cardinals sometime. I'll be going to Miller Park next Wednesday to use my free tickets from 18 fill ups at BP.

Lights Out in Stratford

Looks like even aliens love Shakespeare as UFOs descended on Stratford-Upon-Avon (his birthplace) last night.

Maybe it's got something to do with the "Shakespeare Code" that was just on Doctor Who. Anyway, it's a cool story and who knows what it was.

Wendy's DrummerCam: Friday 7/20/07 @ ELB, Rockford, IL

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 59

Hanging out in Madison and Rockford the weekend of 7/19 - 7/21.

Direct download link for the high quality version:
http://www.sunspotmusic.com/roadmania/sunspot_rm_59.m4v

If... she... weighs... the same as a duck,... she's made of wood.

This poor woman was stripped and beaten with HOT IRON FUCKING RODS because her fellow villagers thought she was a witch.



You can't make this shit up.

Damn Righteous Hoot!

Here's the actual review of Neanderthal from Blogcritics, who we posted an interview with on Saturday.

My favorite line: "In short, it's a damn righteous hoot!"

Stay tuned for a podcast from this weekend coming down the pike tonight as well.

The Guppy Effect

The Guppy Effect
Originally uploaded by Wendy Lynn

Congratulations to our friends in The Guppy Effect on a ROCKIN first show!

Interview about Neanderthal

We're the band of the week on blogcritics.org this week. Special thanks to Michael Jones for doing the interview and his kind words like: "Take some great vocals, add a generous portion of musicianship, kick it up a notch with a combination of smart and wonderfully witty wordplay".

Thanks for a great article, man.

And now everyone's onstage!

And now everyone's onstage!
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike

Socks are being rocked off.

Here's to the End

Here's to the End
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike

It's their CD release party at the ELB. They've got a new stage here, the people are jumping, and it's been an awesome night.

Wendy's DrummerCam: Thursday 7/19/07 @ Bowlavard Bike Night, Madison WI

I hope the girls that burned this kitten...

...burn in Hell. Click on the link to see what a couple of twisted whores did to this poor 3 month old kitten. He had to have the tips of his ears amputated as well as his tail.

I hope the judge sentences them to death.

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 58

This episode of Road Mania includes a montage of a lot of the bands we played with over the weekend. You get to see what a wide variety of acts we work with, from the metal massacre at The Reptile Palace to the ska-splosion at Barn Bash!

Unfortunately, I didn't have footage of all the bands. But at Barn Bash, in addition to the bands shown, Warriorette and The Buskers rocked!

Special thanks to all our "camera crew" (Andy in Oshkosh and Ricky at Barn Bash) for taking some of the footage!

Watch it on YouTube below or Download the better quality version here!

August 3rd show mention in today's Capital Times

The Cap Times today talks about mixing music and art and near the bottom of the article talks about our August 3rd show at Madison Music Foundry. It puts a specific focus on the free beer from Capital that night too.

That's gonna be a great show especially because we'll be back in action with Uncle Tim from BoRd...

...but don't forget about the party at Bowl-A-Vard tomorrow for Bike Night. Perfect for after work, we start right at 6pm and it's free!

I didn't see this before, but here's a little bit of Tim doing his song about Firefly...

New Bad Religion

Has anyone gotten New Maps of Hell yet? I'll probably pick it up, but I was just wondering if it's any good. Don't get me wrong, I love Bad Religion, but sometimes they get a little preachy and I was wondering what the new one's like.

Paul Stanley

This reviewer says that I sound like Paul Stanley from KISS and that we sound like we're influenced by Cheap Trick. Schweet. Three stars for Neanderthal from Read Junk.

Here's Paul Stanley.



Here's me.

Wendy's DrummerCam: Saturday 7/14/07 @ Barn Bash (Van Dyne, WI)

Dimebag Revisited

Another performer shot dead onstage, but this shot came from outside the venue.

Something is Missing.

Something is Missing.
Originally uploaded by Wendy Lynn

To whomever took our Coca-Cola bottle opener (my favorite feature and one of the few WORKING things left on the van):



YOU'RE GONNA PAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Metal on the bar!

Metal on the bar!
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike

Seven Plagues

Blogging from the bathroom

Blogging from the bathroom
Originally uploaded by Wendy Lynn

C'mon, you gotta admit, that's some cool graffiti!

Metal Madness in Oshkosh

Metal Madness in Oshkosh
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike

We're having a great time at the Reptile Palace. Everyone's cool and this is our kind of bar.

Mutt Meets Jeff

The world's tallest man meets the world's shortest man.

Also on that site is a link to a story about the Children of God cult. I did my sociology paper in high school on cults and they were featured in it. The only remarkable thing about that paper was that I cited an article from Hustler for it that was on that particular cult (because River Phoenix was a former member and he was big news at the time having recently died. My sister got to meet him at some vegan convention and she said he was super cool and he passed away outside the Viper Room where I was kicked out of in January AND he was in Even Cowgirls Get The Blues which I was just talking about on Monday, so I feel like he's all up in my guts right now.) Anyway, I just thought that picture of super tall man and mini-me was awesome.

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 57

Here is a quick recap of last weekend, including a live recording of us performing a BRAND NEW SONG!

Watch it on YouTube below or Download the better quality version here!



Working on converting it to M4V, but I have yet to find a good program that will let me do that in Windows Vista!

Sweet

HBO is financing a US version of Little Britain for broadcast. It'll probably be similar to when they imported a version of Ali G a couple of years ago, but I really hope they keep Tom Baker (Everybody's favorite Doctor) as the narrator.

Oshkosh

We're at the Reptile Palace tomorrow night on Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh Street in Oshkosh at 9 o'clock. We've never played in that town before so it should be fun, but if you guys know anybody who you think might like to check us out and lives anywhere in the vicinity, it's a free show and we're on early, so there's nothing to lose except their Sunspot cherries!

We appreciate it!

Godfather

I finally saw the Godfather movies. I had to go to 3 different video stores to rent them, but it was worth it. What happened to the third one? For the first half of the movie, I thought it had to be a different director than the first two and then the actors seemed to settle down and the last half was great. It seemed they tried to make it too modern, too, with the music and clothes and everything. I'm glad they came to their senses after the first hour, because I almost turned it off. Totally worth my 9 hours overall, though.
Great, now I have to enter those stupid letters at the bottom of the page to make sure people don't post about penis enlargement on the blog.

More Giant Squid Fun

Alright, since our blog seems to have a running obsession with the formerly elusive giant squid, I thought I would do my part and post this new article about yet another huge squid washed up on the beach.

Even though the title of the article says the squid is "bus-sized", look at the picture... It's not that big. Maybe mini-bus-sized? I'm not convinced.



But I do like how they refer to it as a "colossus". hehehe

Cool Paranormal Timewaster

Paranormality is a great way to waste your day. Try the ESP tests, they're pretty sweet.

It also has all of Gustavus Miller's 1901 Dream Dictionary that they used to sell at every Waldenbooks. I dreamed of committing a crime (I really don't remember what, but I think I accidentally killed somebody) and running from the police last night (there was even an awesome RV jump over a bridge) and here's what it means:

To see a criminal fleeing from justice, denotes that you will come into the possession of the secrets of others, and will therefore be in danger, for they will fear that you will betray them, and consequently will seek your removal.

So which one of you can't I trust?

PS. Does anyone else hate Blogger's "word verification" system? I know there's a problem with spam in the comments section, but we need it in the main posting section as well?

Murder in Fitchburg

Looks like they found Kelly Nolan and it wasn't a happy ending. Police are treating it as a homicide.

Neanderthal review from Recoil Magazine

Michigan comedy magazine, Recoil, published a review of Neanderthal this week.

Thanks to Ryan Cunningham for the write-up and if you don't have your copy of Neanderthal, what are you waiting for?

Wendy's DrummerCam: Saturday 7/7/07 @ Capital Brewery, Middleton, WI

Huge thanks to everyone who made it out for Radiate Hope!

Free show tomorrow at Capital Brewery

For those of you not on the e-mail list (click here to sign up!), here's some information about tomorrow's benefit show:

We're back in action for a very special event at Capital Brewery this Saturday, July 7th. It's a benefit for the Radiate Hope foundation and the proceeds are going to the Ronald McDonald House and Gilda's Club.

This is going to be a kickass party AND a family-friendly event, so you can have your cake and eat it too. Get wild for a good cause. There's gonna be games, a dunk tank, plenty of beer, etc... It's gonna be a gigantic party. It all starts at 1pm, but we're playing at 5:30. So, don't worry if you can't make it til the later afternoon. And there's no cover for this show. We'd love for all of our friends to come out and share this with us because we feel like it's something important we can get behind as far as contributing to a worthy charity and we can all get buck nasty at the same time.

We hope you join us.

Sunspot in Touring Feature in The Isthmus

The Isthmus has our pic and a cool article about touring bands on the front page today!

Check it out at http://www.thedailypage.com

Direct link to the article

Thanks to Tim Thompson for bringing light to what local bands are up to these days!

New Phone

Well, it took me a few years, but I finally completed the Sunspot superphone triumvirate. It is a significant upgrade from my old phone, whose earpiece stopped working this week. Mike likes to say that it's so old it's a rotary cell phone.
I really like my Q so far and I think it will do everything I need it to.

Guts for Real

This little Minnesota girl had a living nightmare happen to her yesterday by being disemboweled by a pool drain. Similar to a certain Palahniuk story that you can read here (not for the faint of heart.) Unbelievable. She'll have to be fed intravenously for the rest of her life which is depressing considering how much human experience is based around eating. Anyway, she's lucky to be alive and I didn't think that pool drains could exert that much pressure, but they do.

Neanderthal Review from Denver

Our man in the mile-high state (and hopefully club!), Russ, has some words to say about Neanderthal. Thanks, Russ, I can't believe I didn't find it for three months!

Doing It Makes You Smarter

Well, at least doing it with mice does, but who cares! In a study conducted by the sexually frustrated intellectuals at a university in Calgary, they discovered that even the whiff of sexual pheromone created new neurons in the brains of female mice. Hot!

Lindsay Lohan Finally Turns 21!

I know how long she's been waiting to party and today's her day, yay!