Find more about the band at sunspotmusic.com
Monday, July 08, 2013
Sunspot Blog Has Moved
All future blogposts will now be located at http://www.sunspotmusic.com/blog - see you there!
Monday, June 24, 2013
Sunspot Road Mania 199
Mike and Wendy visit The Madison Area Music Awards 2013, with a glimpse of all the performers and some backstage action as well.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Sunspot Road Mania 198
Mike and Wendy hit the music industry panel of Monroe's Wisconsin Music Arts Festival and watch Tom Jackson work on making over a song with Emily Gatzke, Broadjam's Roy Elkins give some advice, and a funny story from PiL's Martin Atkins!
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Sunspot Road Mania 197
Rockfest in Delavan, the van turns 100,000 miles, special appearances by The Guppy Effect and The Dots!
Sunday, June 09, 2013
Saturday, June 08, 2013
Friday, June 07, 2013
Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 194
Night one of our June Midwest Run!
A little bit of Kill Jr and One Last Run from The Wisco. Some "Wasted Years" from Iron Maiden and Mike and Wendy talk about McAuliffe's Pub and World War Z tonight (June 6th!)
Wednesday, June 05, 2013
Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 193
Mike and Wendy talk about this weekend's rock shows in Madison, Racine, and Cincinnati!
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Brat Fest Greatest Hits
As we gear up for our show on Friday at Brat Fest 2013, it's time to look over a little bit some of our favorite Brat Fest moments. It's usually the drunkest I gets all year (like the one time we started out at Brat Fest and ended up at Woof's - well, I guess from one sausage party to another...)
Here's the Road Mania from 2007, which was our first performance at the festival.
In 2008, they featured us in the ad for the show!
And a picture of Ben looking like a champion from the stage that year! (thanks Watson for the sweet shot!)
Wendy's Drummercam in 2009
And bringing the flask was a hugely bad idea that year...
I spent most of that fest in the van finishing up the videos for the Singularity DVD, even after we were done playing (we had to ship it out that day or we wouldn't have made the release party deadline two weeks later!) But when it was done, it was time to party.
2010 we played in a trailer in an area where there was no beer. Let's just forget that one ever happened. In 2011, we took the year off...
2012, however, was our best one yet, and here's some action from the Road Mania.
And we're planning something bigger and better for this Friday at 7pm!
(Click here for details and directions)
(Click here for details and directions)
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
May 2013 Newsletter - Send Us Your Craziest Pictures and Short Videos
We Need Your Craziest Face Pics
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Hey guys, we need your help. We're looking for the scariest craziest pics of your faces that we can get for our live show next Friday. Take it with your camera phone or webcam, scan an old favorite, whatever you like - but send them to our email address - we want your nastiest faces!
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Also looking for video introductions from YOU!
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If you can get yourself on video introducing yourself and the city you're in (preferably with some kind of shot of the city in the background, but not necessary) and say "Hi, this is <your name> from <your city> and I just wanted to say hello to Madison, Wisconsin and Brat Fest 2013." That would be the coolest thing ever. We're going to be using them for our show next week and we'd love to have you involved. If you have any ideas for anything else you want to say (or a Sunspot dedication or request), just send us an e-mai
l and let us know what you want to do. We're powering this summer's rock shows with content from our favorite people and that's you guys, who keep us going every day. So, if you have any ideas, send 'em in!
Also, thanks for voting in our Sunspot Cover Poll. It was a close call (the winning song literally pulled through by one vote.) You picked the song and now we're going to remake it. We'll have a live video of the track up in June and we can't wait to see what you think!
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Upcoming Shows
FRIDAY JUNE 7TH MCAULIFFE'S RACINE, WI
SATURDAY JUNE 8TH MOXY FEST, CINCINNATI, OH
SATURDAY JUNE 15TH
PHOENIX PARK, DELAVAN, WI
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Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Brat Fest 2013 - We're Crowdsourcing The Show!
We love you. Very deeply and grossly. And we always had an awesome time at Brat Fest.
So this year we wanted to combine our love of you and our love of the show by finding more ways to make our peeps part of it. If you check our social networks or your email over the next couple of weeks, you're going to have several opportunities to join in the show with us. Here's a press release that we're sending out about the show and remember to contact us if you have any more awesome ideas!
Madison rock band, Sunspot, has always been close with their audience. Whether it's the video blogging from their van with the "Sunspot Road Mania" podcast, hanging out every week with a webcast on Google+, or letting people in to a 24-hour live feed from their 2013 SXSW tour, Sunspot has never been afraid of their crowd. And this year for their special Brat Fest show, Sunspot is going back to their audience by not only getting them involved during the concert, but making them part of the show!
Sunspot has already approached their audience about picking a brand new request for a cover song for the show, but they're also making video requests and video introductions from their fans part of the show as well. Sunspot will be broadcasting a live stream of the concert on their website so that their fans and friends can enjoy it as well from wherever they're from. They'll be interviewing Brat Fest attendees during the day and taking live texts to the band phone number (608-561-2263) as well as their Twitter feed (@sunspotmusic) for anyone who wants to join in with something witty or clever. When you combine that with the band's tendency to improv songs on the spot, it's going to be a "crowdsourced show" where the audience is just as big a part of the concert as the band.
Friday May 24th, 2013 7PM
SUNSPOT
BRAT FEST
WILLOW ISLAND
QUANN-OLIN STAGE
All-Ages
Free
Sunspot has racked up a few awards and a lot of recognition during the past decade, including winning Rock Album of the Year in the Madison Area Music Association Awards for "The Slingshot Effect" (2012),"Singularity" (2010), "Loser of the Year" (2004). They're a symphony of guitars and voices, soaring melodies wrapped around hyper literate poetry and wicked rhythms. Male and female harmonies collide with expert guitar work and pop sensibility. Sunspot is rock music that's smart, fun, and powerful. The band has shared the stage with Death Cab for Cutie, The Flaming Lips, Sponge, SevenMaryThree, Hot Hot Heat, Crash Test Dummies and Sick Puppies. Also, Sunspot licensed their song, “Go, Pack!” to FOX Sports for their Super Bowl coverage, with some residual coverage for the song on NPR as well as numerous Wisconsin radio stations.
Monday, May 06, 2013
New Sunspot Live Acoustic Videos
Here's some live performance videos from Mike and Wendy Lynn's show in Los Angeles in April...
My guitar strap falls off in the middle of the song on this one and it was a severe pain in the ass to try to play the rest of the song and sing, but I still think I pulled it off!
There's also a little gallery of photos of this show right here!
My guitar strap falls off in the middle of the song on this one and it was a severe pain in the ass to try to play the rest of the song and sing, but I still think I pulled it off!
There's also a little gallery of photos of this show right here!
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
March Drummercams
Direct from Wendy's camera onstage...
Big V's in St. Paul, you know how to party!
It was time for some afternoon drinking at The Thirsy Nickel in Austin.
Still out on a Tuesday night, pretty good Springfield, Illinois!
Hitting it hard during SXSW at Aussie's in Austin!
Friday, April 05, 2013
RIP Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert meant a lot to me when I was younger because I would get excited when his show came on Channel 10 on Saturdays. We were a movie-going family and that’s the show that would get me excited about what I wanted to see (and also they’d review the R-rated movies that I’d have to beg my parents to let me see.) Plus, they were in Chicago, right down the road.
As I got older, I would read his reviews to compare them to my own opinions. Out of all of the film critics, he was probably the most geek-friendly (though he could be hard on some of my favorites) and that combined with his presence in my living room on weekends made him someone who was very much a part of my life. Interestingly enough, once he was on Twitter, I probably read him more than ever because even after he lost his voice, it seemed like he was writing constantly. I followed and admired him and whatever happened, if I would read just one review of a film, I’d read his.
Sometimes to see if my opinion was right, sometimes just to see what he thought of it. I’m often still a movie-obsessed little boy and he was a big part of that. In his passing, he was a model of dignity so that it feels more triumphant than sad. He lived well, wrote well, made a big impact, and left while he was still relevant. I’m sure he would have said it could have been longer, but definitely have given it a thumbs-up.
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Ogre Mage
Ha, my buddy Jim just turned me onto this band, Ogre Mage, this week and I gotta say, I love their style.
I'm insanely jealous of taking the idea of a Dungeons & Dragons game and turning it into a video (I think this would have been awesome for "Power Word, Kill", our most obviously D&D-influenced track.) They even get it right, that the girls look bored during the game (I wonder if they also thought about when the girlfriend of the DM who's usually there because she's trying to spend more time with him, gets "special bonus rolls" during the game.) Plus, they keyboard riff on the chorus is frickin' killer.
They also get a +4 bonus for covering "Surrender" (which we're known to bust out on occasion as well!) Plus, the dude chugging a beer while wearing an American flag cape is about as good as it gets.
I hope they can make it to Wisconsin sometime or we meet them out on the road!
I'm insanely jealous of taking the idea of a Dungeons & Dragons game and turning it into a video (I think this would have been awesome for "Power Word, Kill", our most obviously D&D-influenced track.) They even get it right, that the girls look bored during the game (I wonder if they also thought about when the girlfriend of the DM who's usually there because she's trying to spend more time with him, gets "special bonus rolls" during the game.) Plus, they keyboard riff on the chorus is frickin' killer.
They also get a +4 bonus for covering "Surrender" (which we're known to bust out on occasion as well!) Plus, the dude chugging a beer while wearing an American flag cape is about as good as it gets.
I hope they can make it to Wisconsin sometime or we meet them out on the road!
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Some fun shots from SXSW 2013
There's not always time to take photos, but we tried to get some of our trip down to Austin this year. Here's some of my favorites...
The stage setup at Aussie's.
Celebrating Ben's B-day!
Getting stupid in the van!
Wendy with the live Road Mania cam on 6th Street
Looks like the birthday boy won this round!
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Mike's 3 Favorite Acts at SXSW 2013
I was just thinking about some of the many many many bands we saw in Austin this past weekend and one of the great things about a festival with so many other acts that are absolutely in it to win it, you hear incredible music and you learn a lot. You see good moves, gimmicks, and sheer talent (or course that makes me wild with jealousy) that you just want to steal a little bit for yourself. Here's my 3 favorites and what I felt like I learned from them.
I hope they come through Madison sometime soon because I would love to play with them again.
¡Oh Antonio! and His Imaginary Friends- "Kiss Me Like A Robot"
Just sheer joy at playing and being onstage. That's the magic of live music, he really brought the crowd up with his energy and enthusiasm . There was a lot to learn from his raw honesty onstage. He was so appreciative of the audience. He’s a guy I’d genuinely like to spend time with. Plus, he talked about geeky stuff without pandering, it just felt natural.
Anyway, Austin during SXSW has so many famous musicians and "buzz" bands, that it's easy to forget that there is so much talent out there and we're all in this thing together, trying to make awesome music and believe in its power.
And sometimes it feels like we're fighting a losing battle against a world of apathy and commodified art, but for a few days in Texas Hill Country every year, thousands of bands come together to create something incredible.
Golden State - World On Fire
These guys were a seriously awesome band and completely inspiring. They were solid veteran musicians all the way through, but this track was a killer. It was beautiful. Great music comes through. It made me realize that when you have a GREAT song that moves people emotionally, they pay attention and I was enraptured.
I hope they come through Madison sometime soon because I would love to play with them again.
The Noise FM - Best Mistake
Really excellent stage presence and working with the crowd, plus they handled samples and a footswitch without them being “showy”. They even covered "Let's Dance" by Bowie and had the best version of "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" since The Revolting Cocks. My personal favorite was that the singer had a boat captain's hat on for much of the show and would hand it out to the crowd for someone to be "The Party Captain" for the song. Totes Brills!
Really excellent stage presence and working with the crowd, plus they handled samples and a footswitch without them being “showy”. They even covered "Let's Dance" by Bowie and had the best version of "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" since The Revolting Cocks. My personal favorite was that the singer had a boat captain's hat on for much of the show and would hand it out to the crowd for someone to be "The Party Captain" for the song. Totes Brills!
¡Oh Antonio! and His Imaginary Friends- "Kiss Me Like A Robot"
Just sheer joy at playing and being onstage. That's the magic of live music, he really brought the crowd up with his energy and enthusiasm . There was a lot to learn from his raw honesty onstage. He was so appreciative of the audience. He’s a guy I’d genuinely like to spend time with. Plus, he talked about geeky stuff without pandering, it just felt natural.
Anyway, Austin during SXSW has so many famous musicians and "buzz" bands, that it's easy to forget that there is so much talent out there and we're all in this thing together, trying to make awesome music and believe in its power.
And sometimes it feels like we're fighting a losing battle against a world of apathy and commodified art, but for a few days in Texas Hill Country every year, thousands of bands come together to create something incredible.
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 190
We bring the party to Route 20 Outhouse, a gorgeous club near Racine, and play with the excellent power-pop band, The Pulltops, outta MIlwaukee.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Addiction (Porn and Otherwise) and Why You Totally Can Get Addicted To Pot
Hat tip to io9 for featuring this video today in one of their posts. This little movie is probably the best and simplest description of addiction I've seen outside of "Master of Puppets". A non too subtle song, but extremely to the point nonetheless. Sure, it uses Internet Porn as the vehicle to describe addiction. I'm sure all of our browsing histories have been "cleared" at one point or another. There's a reason we talk about the porno buffet and D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner" in our track about the love/hate relationship we all have with the Internet, "Deus Ex Machina".
What I like about this video though is that it explains simply how we can become addicted to anything.
Alcoholics and junkies. as well as annoying marathon runners, kind of give addiction a bad name. Yes, I saw that 26.2 on your fucking rear window. We are biologically adapted to become addicted to things and this drives us up the goddamn wall. It's push/pull, nobody becomes addicted because what they're doing is not fun. Your body is rewarding you for something that gives you pleasure. Can the word "pleasure' never not sound dirty or is that just the relapsed Catholic in me talking? And, just in case you're too lazy to watch the fucking video, Dopamine is what's released when that pleasure happens and your brain wants more of it. You'll change your behavior in order to achieve that pleasure again.
Dopamine is a helluva drug. Hell, I think about it enough that we tackled it in our song about love and death, "The Price". It's the shit that makes loving the ladies so awesome and partying so much fun. But because it's so powerful it can fuel our addiction to anything that we enjoy.
Internet Porn is one thing. Well, it's not one thing, it's about a million different things. All wonderful naked things. But how many times have your friends told you that they're not "addicted to pot", they just like to smoke it all the time? Well, truth is, they are addicted at some level. Look, I don't think there's anything wrong with pot or that it should be illegal, I'm just using it as an example of something that people say they're not addicted to. And they say it constantly, usually while bogarting the j.
I'm sure I've addicted to a bunch of things at one time or another in my life. I can't say my relationship with alcohol has been the healthiest, one listen to "My Own Worst Enemy" will tell you that one. But I've probably been more damaged by my addictions to people than any particular substance or website. But can you believe The Hun is still around after all these years? Wow, that guy is a champ.
I guess I'm just blown away that the mind is so awesome that our predilection for addiction is an evolutionary advantage. Of course, musicians love to sing about this. It's one of the most basic facts of the human condition. A great way to start a cheerful day staring into the abyss is this song list from Pearl Jam to Depeche Mode to Amy Winehouse.
I guess my point is, whether it's cocaine, latvianmilfs.com, Jack Daniels, or cheese (search your feelings, you know it to be true), I need to be thinking what actions I take that I wouldn't rationally do in search of some kind of pleasure. I'll do irrational things to make sure that I get to perform, that I don't run out of beer, that I get enough protein on workout day, etc... I'll do things that are dumb or dangerous in order to get some kind of reward that might not be commensurate to the risk.
I don't know if that realization is good enough to warrant any kind of behavior change, but it certainly makes me more conscious of some of my actions. And also it helps me realize that a lot of the people I have judged and considered weak aren't just a little sick, but just predisposed to the same things I am. We're all still ultimately responsible for our behavior, but in the end, I'm not that different than the homeless guy begging for his fix or a binge eater desperate for a waffle cone.
Hey, I just think I found my first shreds of human compassion. All it took was a video on Internet porn!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 189
Mike and Wendy visit the Gallifrey One Doctor Who Convention in Los Angeles, California on Valentine's Day 2013 to see their good friend get married. There's Doctor Who cupcakes, cosplay galore, and a robot bartender!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 188
It's picture time! A new year means new photos so it's time for us to get dressed up in our best new clothes and do some sexy shots. So, here's us looking gorgeous.
Mary's website is http://www.sweeneysphotography.com and it's a great place to get photos done for any reason. If you're in Wisconsin, check it out because she'll make you look AWESOME.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Sunspot - FAWM 2013 2 - Arthuriana
Here comes the second Sunspot demo from February Album Writing Month 2013 - this one is a little bit of Anglophilia - it's called "Arthuriana".
Thursday, February 07, 2013
FAWM 2013 is here!
One of the most fun things that I did last year was complete the February Album Writing Month (FAWM), that's where you try to write 14 songs in 28 days. It's a fun way to push your creativity in a safe community (no one's ever that harsh on you, which is nice) and you'll find yourself trying some things that you never would have attempted before (like recording an entire track in bed on your iPhone, writing a song from the perspective of the La Crosse serial killer, or trying to do an electronic tribute to Big Trouble In Little China.)
Anyway, you can listen to all the songs that I finished right here, if you've got 40 minutes of your life to waste, but before working on tonight's track, I thought it'd be good to go over a little bit of my favorites from last year because most of them won't see the light of day with Sunspot probably and it's nice to revisit all of the hard work and late nights.)
Archeaopteryx
My personal favorite, mostly because I love the mean-ass synth sound that I got for the bass. But also because it uses dinosaurs as an analogy and fuck, who doesn't love dinosaurs? We all feel like we were born in the wrong time sometimes. My Kindergarten mind always thought the archaeopteryx was the missing link between modern birds and dinos (this was before we thought that the T-Rex had feathers) a creature stuck between two times.
Necrophiliac
My tribute to mid-90's alternative rock ballads. It's a little Big Head Todd and The Monsters, but it's for every time you were in a relationship and competing with a memory.
Cutter
My harmonies on this one are a little wonky, but I like the way it builds. And nobody's written an anthem for self-harming yet, so what the Hell?
Live Like Your Life Depends On It
I was a cubicle slave for a long time. I felt like this every time I walked out of work.
And there's even a couple of tracks that I worked that have eventually made it into the Sunspot live show. Here's the original demo versions of songs we'll eventually probably record.
Turn on the Hi-Fi
We don't write a lot of songs about how much fun it is to be the band. But I've gotta admit, it's awesome to be in a band, especially when you TURN THAT SHIT UP.
The Bottom
What would it sound like if I tried to be Trent Reznor for the night?
Anyway, check some of the stuff out and if you're curious, you can check out my FAWM page to see what stupid shit I come up with this year!
Anyway, you can listen to all the songs that I finished right here, if you've got 40 minutes of your life to waste, but before working on tonight's track, I thought it'd be good to go over a little bit of my favorites from last year because most of them won't see the light of day with Sunspot probably and it's nice to revisit all of the hard work and late nights.)
Archeaopteryx
My personal favorite, mostly because I love the mean-ass synth sound that I got for the bass. But also because it uses dinosaurs as an analogy and fuck, who doesn't love dinosaurs? We all feel like we were born in the wrong time sometimes. My Kindergarten mind always thought the archaeopteryx was the missing link between modern birds and dinos (this was before we thought that the T-Rex had feathers) a creature stuck between two times.
Necrophiliac
My tribute to mid-90's alternative rock ballads. It's a little Big Head Todd and The Monsters, but it's for every time you were in a relationship and competing with a memory.
Cutter
My harmonies on this one are a little wonky, but I like the way it builds. And nobody's written an anthem for self-harming yet, so what the Hell?
Live Like Your Life Depends On It
I was a cubicle slave for a long time. I felt like this every time I walked out of work.
And there's even a couple of tracks that I worked that have eventually made it into the Sunspot live show. Here's the original demo versions of songs we'll eventually probably record.
Turn on the Hi-Fi
We don't write a lot of songs about how much fun it is to be the band. But I've gotta admit, it's awesome to be in a band, especially when you TURN THAT SHIT UP.
The Bottom
What would it sound like if I tried to be Trent Reznor for the night?
Anyway, check some of the stuff out and if you're curious, you can check out my FAWM page to see what stupid shit I come up with this year!
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
Sunday, February 03, 2013
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Holy $h!t, I've written a lot of Maximum Ink stories
Hey guys, Mike here. As I was up late finishing up an interview (with the awesome pop-punk band, Masked Intruder) for Maximum Ink tonight and thinking on our appearance on Max Ink Radio last night, I just realized how long I'd been writing for the paper. Damn, it's been almost 13 years of writing stories for the magazine and I'm having a hard time believing the time has gone so fast.
Rewind back to the Spring of 2000 and I'd done a few stories for my college newspaper, The Badger Herald (I innocently answered a couple of trivia questions they had about John W. Campbell (the author of the story that inspired The Thing and Gordon Parks (the director of Shaft, can you dig it?) and found out that they were looking for writers...) which lead to a couple of stories in the album collector magazine, Goldmine, which lead me to be on a bunch of rock publicist's mailing lists. So, I get a notice that Glenn Danzig was doing interviews and Hell, who wouldn't want to talk to the Evil Elvis himself? I wanted to do it, but I didn't know any magazines that were interested. I met Rökker, Max Ink's publisher, a short time earlier at his first Bomblastica party (which incidentally was the first time I got to see Rockford's cowpunk-metal gods, The Goodyear Pimps, and we've played with them a dozen times since) and I thought, hell, he's gotta want to have a little Danzig in his magazine, right?
Well, I was wrong on that account, because he wasn't interested at all. But, he was looking for some stories anyway and that meant I could probably get some ad space in for Sunspot and then (as now) we could use all of the promotion that we could get. So, he floated some stories at me that summer and I started writing and never really stopped. So, looking back, I've gotten to cover almost all of my favorite local Madison acts, but there are some big articles that I'm pretty proud of (I'm definitely not proud of all of them, ha, there's a ton where I hacked my way through, including two go-rounds with Buckcherry, but we don't have to talk about those.)
Most of the articles are online from 2005 on, but I've been writing for them regularly since 2000, and some of my favorites are interviewing some of the artists that have influenced Sunspot and to be able to ask them questions about their art has been enlightening. I loved talking to Butch Vig because he's the living epitome of Hometown-Boy-Who-Done-Good. Hell, he's still making awesome albums a decade and a half after the Alternative Nation has died out and he was just about as nice, honest, and interesting as you could hope from someone whose sonic skills defined most of what my 1990's high school mind considered what music should sound like. Billy Sheehan and Steve Vai were goddamn inspirational and it was nice that their personalities matched their talent.
Some guys just go through the motions. Rob Zombie was pretty nice, but you could tell that he was just doing press to promote the White Zombie box set and didn't really care that much about the band anymore (indeed, he mentioned that after the last show they played together, they didn't even say goodbye, they just got into their separate tour buses and rode off.) Brian Wheat from Tesla was alright, but he's he bass player, how much does he have to say? Well, I shouldn't say that, because Tom Hamilton from Aerosmith was really cool.
Some guys you think are going to be total dicks, but end up being really nice. I was fully prepared for Art Alexakis from Everclear to be a prick, but he was lovely as can be. Michael Schenker was cool as hell and I would never expect that from a guy who wears fucking sunglasses in all his press pictures (helluva guitarist, though.) Even Juliette Lewis was legitimately sweet and excited when she was talking about her album. But the biggest surprise was probably Yoko Ono. Yeah, that chick is weird. But you expect that, probably the most interesting thing is somehow her earnest hippie bullshit worldview becomes infectious. By the time I was done talking to her, I was all like "Peace, love, and art, man" too. She had such a natural energy, I really couldn't believe that so much piss was thrown in her direction for so long.
Anyway, it's just weird to think that I ended up typing out hundreds of thousands of words for something that I thought was just a cool way to get to talk to Glenn Danzig (who I eventually interviewed for the magazine in 2004 and surprisingly my phone didn't burst into flames - tip to parents, he did say that his gateway drug to Satan was Edgar Allan Poe, so watch your kids when they come home from 7th Grade English Class!) It's been an awesome opportunity, so pick up the copy of the next issue (don't forget to look for the Sunspot ad) and listen to Max Ink Radio, these guys (and I guess I'm included in that bunch by now, too) have been supporting Wisconsin music (even running some stories about Sunspot over the years) for over a decade and a half. And here's to many more years!
Rewind back to the Spring of 2000 and I'd done a few stories for my college newspaper, The Badger Herald (I innocently answered a couple of trivia questions they had about John W. Campbell (the author of the story that inspired The Thing and Gordon Parks (the director of Shaft, can you dig it?) and found out that they were looking for writers...) which lead to a couple of stories in the album collector magazine, Goldmine, which lead me to be on a bunch of rock publicist's mailing lists. So, I get a notice that Glenn Danzig was doing interviews and Hell, who wouldn't want to talk to the Evil Elvis himself? I wanted to do it, but I didn't know any magazines that were interested. I met Rökker, Max Ink's publisher, a short time earlier at his first Bomblastica party (which incidentally was the first time I got to see Rockford's cowpunk-metal gods, The Goodyear Pimps, and we've played with them a dozen times since) and I thought, hell, he's gotta want to have a little Danzig in his magazine, right?
Well, I was wrong on that account, because he wasn't interested at all. But, he was looking for some stories anyway and that meant I could probably get some ad space in for Sunspot and then (as now) we could use all of the promotion that we could get. So, he floated some stories at me that summer and I started writing and never really stopped. So, looking back, I've gotten to cover almost all of my favorite local Madison acts, but there are some big articles that I'm pretty proud of (I'm definitely not proud of all of them, ha, there's a ton where I hacked my way through, including two go-rounds with Buckcherry, but we don't have to talk about those.)
Most of the articles are online from 2005 on, but I've been writing for them regularly since 2000, and some of my favorites are interviewing some of the artists that have influenced Sunspot and to be able to ask them questions about their art has been enlightening. I loved talking to Butch Vig because he's the living epitome of Hometown-Boy-Who-Done-Good. Hell, he's still making awesome albums a decade and a half after the Alternative Nation has died out and he was just about as nice, honest, and interesting as you could hope from someone whose sonic skills defined most of what my 1990's high school mind considered what music should sound like. Billy Sheehan and Steve Vai were goddamn inspirational and it was nice that their personalities matched their talent.
Some guys just go through the motions. Rob Zombie was pretty nice, but you could tell that he was just doing press to promote the White Zombie box set and didn't really care that much about the band anymore (indeed, he mentioned that after the last show they played together, they didn't even say goodbye, they just got into their separate tour buses and rode off.) Brian Wheat from Tesla was alright, but he's he bass player, how much does he have to say? Well, I shouldn't say that, because Tom Hamilton from Aerosmith was really cool.
Some guys you think are going to be total dicks, but end up being really nice. I was fully prepared for Art Alexakis from Everclear to be a prick, but he was lovely as can be. Michael Schenker was cool as hell and I would never expect that from a guy who wears fucking sunglasses in all his press pictures (helluva guitarist, though.) Even Juliette Lewis was legitimately sweet and excited when she was talking about her album. But the biggest surprise was probably Yoko Ono. Yeah, that chick is weird. But you expect that, probably the most interesting thing is somehow her earnest hippie bullshit worldview becomes infectious. By the time I was done talking to her, I was all like "Peace, love, and art, man" too. She had such a natural energy, I really couldn't believe that so much piss was thrown in her direction for so long.
Anyway, it's just weird to think that I ended up typing out hundreds of thousands of words for something that I thought was just a cool way to get to talk to Glenn Danzig (who I eventually interviewed for the magazine in 2004 and surprisingly my phone didn't burst into flames - tip to parents, he did say that his gateway drug to Satan was Edgar Allan Poe, so watch your kids when they come home from 7th Grade English Class!) It's been an awesome opportunity, so pick up the copy of the next issue (don't forget to look for the Sunspot ad) and listen to Max Ink Radio, these guys (and I guess I'm included in that bunch by now, too) have been supporting Wisconsin music (even running some stories about Sunspot over the years) for over a decade and a half. And here's to many more years!
Here's us at a Max Ink party in 2005 and we're celebrating winning the Wisconsin Area Music Award for Artist of the Year. Check out the dude in the blue, he is not fucking impressed.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Sunspot Google+ Hangout #32 is LIVE NOW (1/29/2013 7:30 PM CST)!
Tonight, we're hanging out LIVE ON LOCATION at the Willy Street Pub (aka The Wisco) in Madison, Wisconsin.
We'll be interviewing and performing on the Jimmy K Show, which you can tune in live at
http://www.maxinkradio.com
Hangout Instructions here:
http://sunspotmusic.blogspot.com/2012/06/instructions-for-tonights-sunspot.html
http://sunspotmusic.blogspot.com/2012/06/instructions-for-tonights-sunspot.html
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
California Dreaming
 |
| Wendy at NAMM 2012 |
This week’s been a cold one. Nothing unusual for Wisconsin in January, but due to a series of very mild recent Winters, the sub-zero thermometer readings this week were more shocking than usual. The cold snap and Mike’s pilgrimage to NAMM have me thinking about the connection between Wisconsin and California.
No, I’m not talking about the unending flow of cars making a bee-line from our icy cold state to the land of palm trees and suntan oil. It’s no surprise that people would migrate toward an environment where one can enjoy the outdoors year-round without the discomfort of eight layers of clothing. In the music world, for as long as I can remember, we’d hear of bands “moving to L.A. to make a go of it”. So many more clubs, music industry people, bigger audiences, and opportunities galore. Best of all? No snow banks from which to excavate your band van and trailer! Wait, why are we still in Wisconsin?
I digress. In Madison, there’s a delightful miniature golf course with two different tracks to choose from: Wisconsin, decorated with great fiberglass cheese wedges, an enormous Packers helmet and a Bucky Badger to rival any tyrannosaurus. Or, California: with a great smiling redwood tree, Disney-esque castle, beachside scene, etc. It’s almost as if the question plagues us from childhood, “which road will you take? Wisconsin, or California?” I always wondered, why California? I mean… Couldn’t it have been a Washington mini-golf course? Or how about we give the other coast some love and go for Maine? Do other states, like Idaho, pay homage to Wisconsin in this manner? I don’t know, but I suspect the WI-CA connection is deep at the heart of the matter.
How many songs have California as a theme? There are hundreds, probably thousands of them. And I appreciate that, because in the depths of a bitter cold week like this has been, it’s a nice little mini vacation to close my eyes and let the Beach Boys or Red Hot Chili Peppers carry me right to that nice, sunny place. Ahhhhhh, I can practically feel the ocean breeze.
But, before I leave Wisconsin behind in the dust, let’s not forget that Justin Vernon wrote the highly acclaimed Bon Iver album while on a three month retreat in the Northern woods of Wisconsin. There’s something here for us and it may not be obvious as a sun-drenched beach full of hot bodied coeds. We all know that these cold months and the cabin fever that inevitably settles in can be downright depressing, but I like to look at it differently. Nature is, in a way, forcing us to be creative with how we use our time. Rather than seducing us outside with beautiful sunshine and endless ways to spend the day, we are forced to ask ourselves: WHAT CAN I DO TO STAY SANE?
As an artist, I enjoy the opportunity to hunker down and really focus on creating new things. No need to worry about distractions here! If I’m not mistaken, the February Album Writing Month (FAWM) movement was born out of this itch to make good use of CUT (Cooped-Up-Time). Thousands of songs have grown out of that notion alone. Now, granted, it may seem a little more challenging to find the uplifting material that is abundant in the sunnier climes, but take one snowshoe hike through the woods and you’ll know that there is no lack of inspiration in these Midwest surroundings. Besides, as we all know, some of the really great songs are NOT uplifting in content!
So, while I do dream of and look forward to hopefully MANY upcoming California vacations, tonight I’m reminding myself that the Wisconsin winter offers more than just the opportunity to build character. Now, please excuse me while I go to work on some new ideas for Sunspot songs… :)
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Monday, January 21, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Defending The Hobbit or What's Money Got To Do With It?
Don't worry, I'll keep it spoiler-free (ahem, just in case you're worrying about being spoiled for a 76-year old book.) But holy shit, I just saw The Hobbit and maybe it was because my expectations were lowered because of the lukewarm reviews, but I thought it was fucking awesome. It was like watching a real-life Dungeons & Dragons game (even more so than Lord of the Rings because these guys weren't fighting badass Ringwraiths right away, they were battling Orcs, trolls, and goblins - monsters that were just about right for low-level parties.) Most of the complaints I heard were about how long it takes to get shit rolling and were the songs necessary... to which I gotta say, "Have you fucking read the book?" There's nothing Tolkien likes better than dicking around before anything starts happening and in a lot of his work, he's always like "Hey, let's do a quick song and dance before we get this thing going." Yeah, it's not modern. But most modern fantasy sucks anus (Wrath of the Titans, the Conan reboot - even though I like my Khal Drogo, Jason Momoa, The Golden Compass, Dungeons & Dragons, In The Name of the King, I can keep doing this all day, I've seen them all.)
Now, why does a film that cost over 100 million dollars and has already made damn near 900 million need to be defended by a low-level barbarian like myself? It's because it doesn't matter how much a movie makes or how popular it is, it matters what you think of it. For some reason, over the past 20 years, we've started to pay attention to the amount of money that creative endeavors are rewarded with when they are marketed to the general public.
Are your favorite albums usually the ones that are #1 on the Pop charts? If they are, you should probably stop reading this and unfriend me on Facebook immediately. Are your favorite movies the ones that are the most successful (like Twilight or any Wil Smith sci-fi atrocity, I Am Legend - I am fucking not a single word like Richard Matheson's beautiful original novel is what they should have called it.) Anyway, I'm sick of all of us playing insider baseball with entertainment. Who cares what's #1? Money is irrelevant, most of the things I love have lost money (We made a video that references A Boy and His Dog and They Live, obviously mainstream popularity isn't that big of a factor...) So, I think the movie's honor is more important than just the fact that it made some money,
#1 wasn't made for us anyway, it was made for the people that watch Two and a Half Men or listen to One fucking Direction.
The important question about The Hobbit was did it make you feel like you felt when you were reading the book? Was it funny, silly, scary, and exciting in equal measure? Did you feel like you got to know the arrogance of Thorin or the homesickness of Bilbo, or the wisdom of Gandalf? I did. And I loved spending all the time with the dwarves because it was fun to get to know them before they started the journey. So, anyway, it's not like I'm defending Episode I or anything (I'm no apologist but I am known to like it better than most of my friends - Darth Maul, baby.)
Anyway, I didn't see it in 48 frames per second because there weren't any theaters in the area showing it (although I'd love to check it out, even if it looks like cheap video, I'm a sucker for 70's BBC shows) so I can't attest to that aspect of it, but I can say that it lived up to what I hoped for as someone that's loved that book for what feels like a thousand years now. Whether it was successful or not commercially is irrelevant, but as a testament to Tolkien and Peter Jackson's creativity and bringing the page to life, I think it was a classic.
Once I'm done smoking this, we're gonna sing some songs and go on an adventure, man...
Now, why does a film that cost over 100 million dollars and has already made damn near 900 million need to be defended by a low-level barbarian like myself? It's because it doesn't matter how much a movie makes or how popular it is, it matters what you think of it. For some reason, over the past 20 years, we've started to pay attention to the amount of money that creative endeavors are rewarded with when they are marketed to the general public.
Are your favorite albums usually the ones that are #1 on the Pop charts? If they are, you should probably stop reading this and unfriend me on Facebook immediately. Are your favorite movies the ones that are the most successful (like Twilight or any Wil Smith sci-fi atrocity, I Am Legend - I am fucking not a single word like Richard Matheson's beautiful original novel is what they should have called it.) Anyway, I'm sick of all of us playing insider baseball with entertainment. Who cares what's #1? Money is irrelevant, most of the things I love have lost money (We made a video that references A Boy and His Dog and They Live, obviously mainstream popularity isn't that big of a factor...) So, I think the movie's honor is more important than just the fact that it made some money,
#1 wasn't made for us anyway, it was made for the people that watch Two and a Half Men or listen to One fucking Direction.
These guys would make an awesome European metal band...
The important question about The Hobbit was did it make you feel like you felt when you were reading the book? Was it funny, silly, scary, and exciting in equal measure? Did you feel like you got to know the arrogance of Thorin or the homesickness of Bilbo, or the wisdom of Gandalf? I did. And I loved spending all the time with the dwarves because it was fun to get to know them before they started the journey. So, anyway, it's not like I'm defending Episode I or anything (I'm no apologist but I am known to like it better than most of my friends - Darth Maul, baby.)
Anyway, I didn't see it in 48 frames per second because there weren't any theaters in the area showing it (although I'd love to check it out, even if it looks like cheap video, I'm a sucker for 70's BBC shows) so I can't attest to that aspect of it, but I can say that it lived up to what I hoped for as someone that's loved that book for what feels like a thousand years now. Whether it was successful or not commercially is irrelevant, but as a testament to Tolkien and Peter Jackson's creativity and bringing the page to life, I think it was a classic.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Sunspot Road Mania 184 - Fave songs of 2012
Here's a quick update from after rehearsal as we talk about our favorite tracks from the last year.
Take a listen to the tracks right here:
Muse - Big Freeze http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftHMy7TbH-E
Mark Mallman - Shadow of the Darkest Dawn - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnYNADEa_S0
Metric - Breathing Underwater - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZuLsz4yPPM
Thursday, January 10, 2013
2013 - New Year, New Music, New Rules
Even though we've been pretty good about keeping up with everybody on Facebook and YouTube, it's been awhile since I've blogged. Probably because it's been a lot easier to get the short and quick messages across with a tweet or a Facebook pic than it is by putting it up here on the blog. But there still is a place for long pontifications, angry diatribes, and stream-of-consciousness essays that can only be satisfied by blogging and getting it all out there. We, or probably my longass-winded self, can't always get everything out in just a quick post that's just there to be digested like a soundbite. Like this, it's 2013 and it's time to talk about what we want to accomplish this year.
2012 was a decent year for Sunspot, we had some remarkable shows, from SXSW to Taste of Madison to Summerfest, and a lot of fun. The Google+ Hangouts and the little community that's formed around their laptop screens on Tuesday night are something I really look forward to every week. We put out a few tracks and certainly had some adventures, but we want to make sure 2013 is going to be the best one yet.
And here's why:
We're out of interest-bearing debt and we did it all through playing shows. If you've known us for a few years, we've probably told you stories of how our old Ford Econoline POS van would break down constantly in lots and lots of states. And we paid a lot of money for it over the years. And we put that money on credit cards. Lots and lots of credit cards. Hey man, it didn't seem like a bad idea at the time. After all, it was just an investment and we'd be rolling in money soon on our way to be rock stars. Um, yeah, that's a fantastic business plan.
So, we've played hundreds of all-night parties in bars over years anywhere that would pay us, with not only no stage and no PA, but sometimes you'd be in the way of the bathroom where some drunken jackass would have to walk through the stage to take his wasted whiz and we'd have to worry about whether or not he was going to trip over the lights, mic stands, or the dozens of cables that criss-cross our makeshift performance area. Constantly worried about whether or not some asshole was going to request a Nickelback song, waiting through our original tunes until we got to some song that he knew, constantly worried if the bartenders were going to ask to turn the music down. There's an acoustic drumset and we're a rock band, what did you fucking expect? But the biggest issue and what hurt the most wasn't feeling like a whore (I got over that a long time ago) but it's that I felt like we were letting the audience down. They weren't interested in hearing a 7-minute extended live version of "Morgan le Fay". Not that they didn't get it, ha. They wanted songs they knew. We were never going to be an awesome cover band. That's a hard gig for a trio. But we still played as many as we knew to keep the drunks there as long as we could. And we did our best to convert them into Sunspot fans, so they'd come back around next time they were through and hopefully ask for "Prozac Girl" or "Neanderthal" instead of some Theory of a Deadman song that I never even fuckin' heard. What the hell does the name, Theory of a Deadman, even mean? And sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. I'm looking at you, Wisconsin Rapids!
But what it did was make us a much tighter, much better band. Playing 3-4 hour sets certainly ups your chops. And it certainly makes you learn fast how to get people with absolutely no interest in what you're doing to at least look up from their Bud Lights. Not even Miller. And in Wisconsin even. We were hoping they would pay a couple minutes of attention for something new. And all that time was worth it because we met a lot of awesome people on the way and we're better for it. But not having to worry about paying bills every month means that we can take the best opportunities to give the best shows that we can give. Don't get me wrong, we gave it one-hundred and ten fucking percent, even when it was for two bartenders at the end of the night. I'm grateful for the awesome opportunities we've had, but I don't want to do things that I'm not good at anymore. I understand that bars have to make money, and the old model of playing all night kept people buying drinks. But Sunspot is not in the drink selling business. When you see us in 2013, you know that we're giving the absolute best show that we can give. We fought our way out of debt show by show and long drive by long drive so that we could get to this point. And that's the theme of this year. All killer, no filler.
That's why the death of the album is good for us as well. We try to make every album as full of the choicest cuts of rock hard sexiness that we can, but sometimes you rush tracks that aren't ready just so that you'll have an "album" instead of just a few awesome tracks. That's changing this year as well. We're taking time to experiment, to test, to play new material so that when you hear it, you'll fucking love it. In whatever format that takes.
So, that's our resolution in 2013. To get to all the places we've made friends that we'd like to see in person, to write awesome songs that mean something, to deliver on the promise that we made long ago. 17 years into this band and we're nowhere near done. Shit, sometimes it feels like we're just starting. The last few years have felt like paying dues and I know we've got a lot more to pay, but we're starting over, we're starting anew. And we're ready to make 2013 blow the balls out of the back of the room with great vengeance and furious anger.
So, that's our resolution for this year. We're fresh, we're excited, and we're ready. A lot of you guys have been with us since the beginning and the only thing we can promise is that we won't let you down.
2012 was a decent year for Sunspot, we had some remarkable shows, from SXSW to Taste of Madison to Summerfest, and a lot of fun. The Google+ Hangouts and the little community that's formed around their laptop screens on Tuesday night are something I really look forward to every week. We put out a few tracks and certainly had some adventures, but we want to make sure 2013 is going to be the best one yet.
And here's why:
We're out of interest-bearing debt and we did it all through playing shows. If you've known us for a few years, we've probably told you stories of how our old Ford Econoline POS van would break down constantly in lots and lots of states. And we paid a lot of money for it over the years. And we put that money on credit cards. Lots and lots of credit cards. Hey man, it didn't seem like a bad idea at the time. After all, it was just an investment and we'd be rolling in money soon on our way to be rock stars. Um, yeah, that's a fantastic business plan.
So, we've played hundreds of all-night parties in bars over years anywhere that would pay us, with not only no stage and no PA, but sometimes you'd be in the way of the bathroom where some drunken jackass would have to walk through the stage to take his wasted whiz and we'd have to worry about whether or not he was going to trip over the lights, mic stands, or the dozens of cables that criss-cross our makeshift performance area. Constantly worried about whether or not some asshole was going to request a Nickelback song, waiting through our original tunes until we got to some song that he knew, constantly worried if the bartenders were going to ask to turn the music down. There's an acoustic drumset and we're a rock band, what did you fucking expect? But the biggest issue and what hurt the most wasn't feeling like a whore (I got over that a long time ago) but it's that I felt like we were letting the audience down. They weren't interested in hearing a 7-minute extended live version of "Morgan le Fay". Not that they didn't get it, ha. They wanted songs they knew. We were never going to be an awesome cover band. That's a hard gig for a trio. But we still played as many as we knew to keep the drunks there as long as we could. And we did our best to convert them into Sunspot fans, so they'd come back around next time they were through and hopefully ask for "Prozac Girl" or "Neanderthal" instead of some Theory of a Deadman song that I never even fuckin' heard. What the hell does the name, Theory of a Deadman, even mean? And sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. I'm looking at you, Wisconsin Rapids!
But what it did was make us a much tighter, much better band. Playing 3-4 hour sets certainly ups your chops. And it certainly makes you learn fast how to get people with absolutely no interest in what you're doing to at least look up from their Bud Lights. Not even Miller. And in Wisconsin even. We were hoping they would pay a couple minutes of attention for something new. And all that time was worth it because we met a lot of awesome people on the way and we're better for it. But not having to worry about paying bills every month means that we can take the best opportunities to give the best shows that we can give. Don't get me wrong, we gave it one-hundred and ten fucking percent, even when it was for two bartenders at the end of the night. I'm grateful for the awesome opportunities we've had, but I don't want to do things that I'm not good at anymore. I understand that bars have to make money, and the old model of playing all night kept people buying drinks. But Sunspot is not in the drink selling business. When you see us in 2013, you know that we're giving the absolute best show that we can give. We fought our way out of debt show by show and long drive by long drive so that we could get to this point. And that's the theme of this year. All killer, no filler.
That's why the death of the album is good for us as well. We try to make every album as full of the choicest cuts of rock hard sexiness that we can, but sometimes you rush tracks that aren't ready just so that you'll have an "album" instead of just a few awesome tracks. That's changing this year as well. We're taking time to experiment, to test, to play new material so that when you hear it, you'll fucking love it. In whatever format that takes.
So, that's our resolution in 2013. To get to all the places we've made friends that we'd like to see in person, to write awesome songs that mean something, to deliver on the promise that we made long ago. 17 years into this band and we're nowhere near done. Shit, sometimes it feels like we're just starting. The last few years have felt like paying dues and I know we've got a lot more to pay, but we're starting over, we're starting anew. And we're ready to make 2013 blow the balls out of the back of the room with great vengeance and furious anger.
So, that's our resolution for this year. We're fresh, we're excited, and we're ready. A lot of you guys have been with us since the beginning and the only thing we can promise is that we won't let you down.
Tuesday, January 08, 2013
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