Sunspot

"My Own Worst Enemy" Live at The Annex

sunspotmike@gmail.com (Sunspot) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:27:06 PST

Here's a live version of "My Own Worst Enemy" from the Maximum Ink Halloween Spooktacular at The Annex.

I had a wardrobe malfunction, so I guess my costume went from ROTJ Luke to the Rancor Keeper!

Thanks to Joe Guerilla for the great footage!

Wendy's DrummerCam: Saturday 10/31/09 @ The Annex in Madison, WI

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:32:45 PST

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Wendy's DrummerCam: Friday 10/30/09 @ McAuliffe's on the Square in Racine, WI

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:31:33 PST

Pop-Up Videos for "Grand Guignol" and "More Than My Degree"

sunspotmike@gmail.com (Sunspot) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:42:03 PST

For all the people that missed their World Premiere on the WYOU telethon awhile back, here's our versions of Pop-Up Videos for a couple of the videos off the Singularity album. Let us know if you enjoy them and we'll make some more soon!

Happy Halloween!

sunspotmike@gmail.com (Sunspot) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:11:27 PDT

Live Madison Area Performance on the WYOU Telethon 10/21 9PM

sunspotmike@gmail.com (Sunspot) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:31:21 PDT

We're back to my old stomping grounds, WYOU, and that's the sweetness of community access television. We'll be on the telethon performing live tonight with our friends in Axiom. We'll be up right at 9pm with Axiom following at 10. Hosting will be our good friend, Rokker, from Maximum Ink. We'll be playing some live songs, showing some videos (including premiering a couple of Sunspot "Pop-Up" videos!), and hanging out on the air. You can call to talk to us or make a donation at 608-258-9644!

Here's some pictures from our very first performance on WYOU about a thousand years ago (excuse the web 0.1 quality graphics!)

Who doesn't miss Gwen Stefani shirts?

Hey Ben, Don Johnson called and wants his coat back. Actually, I think that one was mine.

Is that Ronald McDonald's evil goateed brother?

Find out more at the WYOU website and watch on Channel 95 on regular cable and Channel 991 on your digital dial!

Songs That Actually Terrify Me For Halloween

sunspotmike@gmail.com (Sunspot) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:11:34 PDT

Halloween is almost upon us and I absolutely love it. From the horror movies at the theater to slutty nurse costumes to bobbing for apples (the forerunner of the choking game?), as humans, it feels like we need to embrace our dark nature sometimes. And nobody does destruction like humans do destruction. We're awesome at being awesomely bad to each other, it's built in. For all the wonderful things that we can do, we're equally matched by the horrible. At Christmas, we celebrate our generosity and at Halloween we celebrate our ferocity. We mock our fears (dressing children up as tiny monsters!), weigh our mortality (ghost stories!), and (in Wisconsin at least) party like November 1st is the end of the world. We can rationalize the different reasons we celebrate the day, but let's face it, most of the time we do stuff because it's #1, everyone else is doing it, #2, it's tradition, or #3, we're too busy to consciously worry about what's going on around us, so as long as it doesn't hurt, let's do it.

I've thought about Halloween for you, though, and I've decided it owns. There's some songs that evoke a fear reaction in me so I can only listen to them every once in awhile. (There's only been one picture that's ever done that to me, which you can see right here.)

"Tomorrow, Wendy" by Concrete Blonde

Tragic and poetic and a reminder of mortality that makes me want to cry and flee at the same time.

"Only God says jump,

So I set the time,
'Cause if he ever saw her,
It was through these eyes of mine.
And if he ever suffered it was me who did his crying."

"Dead Skin Mask" by Slayer

When you want to find the right notes on the guitar to elicit a fear response, Slayer is your go-to band. And the spoken part with the child and Ed Gein is obvious, but it works.

Superheroes from Rocky Horror

The piano always gets me here for some reason. I love the part, but I can only handle it for a few seconds.

Dexter - Closing Theme

I turn the show off or hit mute before the end theme plays.

I'd love to hear what other songs people are actually scared of. Not just songs about scary themes, but songs they have a hard time listening to because they sound terrifying. Email me and I'll postthem too. Have a great Halloween! We'll be at The Annex in Madison to celebrate (with one of the guys from GWAR!)

Wendy's DrummerCam: Saturday 10/10/09 @ Howie's in La Crosse, WI

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:54:17 PDT

Wendy's DrummerCam: Friday 10/2/09 @ R & A Stoltz's in Mosinee, WI

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:46:47 PDT

Radio Ad for Max Ink Halloween Spooktacular 2009

sunspotmike@gmail.com (Sunspot) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:42:34 PDT

Check out the radio ad for this year's Halloween party at The Annex! You might recognize the songs they use. ;)

No cover, free food, and FREE BEER! With us, The Skintones, Axiom, and Lords of Discipline. It's gonna be the most fun Halloween show we've had for a long time.

Thanks to Rokker and Paul Schluter from Megatone for putting together the ad!

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 99

sunspotmike@gmail.com (Sunspot) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:03:53 PDT

Some September snapshots with Sunspot stopping by Eau Claire, UW's Engineering Hall in Madison, and Cudahy - with some music by Velvet Dog from Milwaukee.

Download it here.

Wendy's DrummerCam: Tuesday 9/15/09 @ The Frequency in Madison, WI

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:21:09 PDT

Thanks to each and every one of you who made it to the show Tuesday... I KISS YOU!

TONIGHT: Tuesday 9/15/09 at The Frequency with MARK MALLMAN!

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:11:42 PDT

The day is finally here!

Tonight we will be putting on a rare TUESDAY night show in Madison, and for good reason: Minneapolis rocker Mark Mallman is in town!

If you haven't had the opportunity to see or hear Mallman, here's a sneak peek of one of his new singles:

and here's another one that I love:

If that's not enough to convince you, I have a personal testimonial. I saw Mallman perform in June at The Frequency on a Sunday night, and let's just say he gave new meaning to "giving 110 percent". His show was so full of energy, showmanship, and raw talent I was stunned.

In honor of Mallman's brand new CD entitled "Invincible Criminal", the night's theme will be VILLAINS AND SUPERHEROES. Dress up as your favorite superhero or villain and get your photo taken in our mugshot photo booth! We'll have some other surprises for you too.

Sunspot has prepared a special set list just for tonight, and we'll also be doing our *enhanced* multimedia show w/videos. It's been a while since we played in Madison and we are excited to see you again and show you what we've been working on!

The show is a bargain at just $5- you'll get more than your money's worth at this one, friends!

Join the Facebook Event here

DISCLAIMER: You don't have to worry about staying up too late on a school night. The show starts at 9 and we'll be done by 11 (you stay up to watch Conan or Dave anyway, stay up with us instead! We promise it will be worthwhile or we'll drive you to work the next day if you're too tired.)

Wendy's DrummerCam: Saturday 9/12/09 @ Double Play Sports Bar in Antioch, IL

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:11:14 PDT

Sorry about the poor quality. I forgot my camera last weekend and had to use my phone. :(

Wendy's DrummerCam: Friday 9/11/09 @ Champs in Lake Geneva, WI

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:10:10 PDT

Sunspot featured in latest Film101 podcast

sunspotmike@gmail.com (Sunspot) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:02:40 PDT

Make sure you check out the latest Film101 podcast , they feature some tracks off our new CD and DVD, but it's also a fun listen if you love movies!

Wendy's DrummerCam: Sunday 9/6/09 @ On The Limiter in Cudahy, WI

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:16:15 PDT

Awesome name for a band

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:34:47 PDT

Wendy's DrummerCam: Saturday 9/5/09 @ Siemer's Cruise In in Walworth, WI

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 09:50:18 PDT

Wendy's DrummerCam: Friday 9/4/09 @ The Monkey Bar, Milwaukee, WI

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:27:29 PDT

Listen to us on FM 102.1 this morning!

sunspotmike@gmail.com (Sunspot) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:14:38 PDT

Wendy and I are going to be with Kramp and Adler on the morning show today at 9:15. If you're in the Milwaukee area, tune in to 102.1 on your FM dial, if you're out of the listening area then you can check us out on the live stream at their website!

Wendy's DrummerCam: Saturday 8/29/09 @ House of Rock in Eau Claire, WI

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:48:58 PDT

Wendy's DrummerCam: Saturday 8/22/09 @ EDGEFEST in Wisconsin Dells, WI

noreply@blogger.com (Sunspot) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:47:59 PDT

Hollywood Ending (Or Confounding Expectations)

sunspotmike@gmail.com (Sunspot) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:10:13 PDT

So, I was watching 1408 yesterday for the first time (this post will contain spoilers for a couple of movies, so tread carefully.) And when I reached the end, I started thinking “how weird is it that the protagonist lived at the end of a modern horror film?” So John Cusack (who I’ve thought was awesome since The Journey of Natty Gann by the way) didn’t die at the finish and there wasn’t any “surprise” in a mirror where a ghost shows up behind a character or somebody’s sucked through a window or portal. He lives, his wife lives, Samuel L. Jackson even tells him “good job” (unfortunately without using our favorite term for a person that copulates with female parents.) I thought it was unusual, so I looked up the movie on Wikipedia and saw that the original ending was that the main guy dies at the end in the fire and then his estranged wife is haunted by him, but it proved unpopular with test audiences, so they reshot it for American audiences.

I usually laugh at the people who like “happy endings” and I like my movies (especially horror) “hardcore”. And I often think American audiences are immature and foolish for wanting a happy ending. But I thought about it for a little while as to why I enjoyed the fact that the ending was different than what I expected. I’ve come to expect tragic endings now and that’s just as absurd as a Deus ex machina that saves everyone. Why is dark better or more realistic? Because we expect things in our regular lives to end in tragedy? Because everyone dies? The world doesn’t have to always be tragic and sometimes good things do happen. That’s why I liked the ending, because it was true to the story. There was no dramatically satisfying reason to kill John Cusack off. He didn’t believe in ghosts, so what? Either does 30% of the Czech Republic but we’re not going to do anything nasty to them (yet.)

Anyway, this is one case where I really thought that the original ending was inferior to the one they replaced it with, because it confounded my expectations. It’s a cliche since Night of the Living Dead to kill off the main character and at least Romero was trying to make a point about humans becoming monsters. If you want a dark ending, watch The Mist (that’s an ending that won’t leave you for a week, and a gut punch that actually was effective because it was true to the theme of fear changing people’s behavior in horrifying ways.) But why does every story have to be “dark” to feel realistic? What aspects of life are being documented? And why do these images have to be so brutal? I know that horror movies are usually supposed to be “commentaries” on things happening in the real world, but most of the time I feel like I’m really just covering up the fact that I like blood and guts. There might be some commentary involved, but it’s usually just to make me feel better about indulging in violent fantasies (otherwise how do I laugh and cheer on Dexter?) It may be healthy to for humans to express these ideas, but the conventions are getting old. The gloom that I used to see as being true to the world now just feels artificially constructed to get a rise or shock the adolescent in me who wants to be scared because I’ve never experienced what real fear-for-my-life horror is like. It’s that last dip on the roller coaster when you think you’re out of the woods, but it’s a sucker punch.

Yes, Hollywood endings are usually contrived and that’s the fault of the writer not setting up the pieces to make the climax dramatically satisfying, but I thought my reaction to 1408 was interesting specifically because it’s not the reaction I thought I’d have. I usually seek out the “original endings” because I think they’re more honest, but here I had the exact opposite reaction. So now I noticed something different in myself and how I see things.

That got me to thinking about the band and how when we release a song are we serving the song’s message in each lyric, in the song structure, even in our ridiculous a capella moments at live shows where we get everyone to sing along.

It’s time to start writing new songs again (I know we just released Singularity, but we’re always looking to write the perfect song) and sometimes I find myself struggling with repeating formats and plugging into templates of what’s worked before. It does help to make sure that the idea is clearly delineated before creating the actual work. We definitely did that with a lot of the tracks on Singularity, and most of the songs feel pretty complete (On most of the tracks, I wouldn’t know what else to add and on tracks like “Hypnogogic” there’s probably a lot more words than necessary to convey the idea!)

Thinking about how my own expectations need to be shaken and thrown around to get a different and surprising reaction out of me, I feel like that’s something we need to do creatively to get that reaction out of the listener.

What do you or don’t you expect from Sunspot would be the best question? How can we either exceed what you’re looking for or how can we confuse you enough to make it interesting? I’d love to hear what people think as we start to work on new material and develop the new live show. Feel free to email, DM, Myspace, or Facebook me any ideas or thoughts you might have.

Please vote for Sunspot on the Mad City Music Podcast

sunspotmike@gmail.com (Sunspot) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:05:50 PDT

Mad City Music Podcast is a great resource for checking out new local music and they're running a poll on their website for who you'd like to see in an upcoming episode. It's a chance to make a great-looking (and sounding) live recording and we'd love to be a part of it. Think about the DVD that came with Metallica's Some Kind of Monster that was a live recording in the studio and it looked and sounded awesome. Those are the kind of things that the Mad City Music Podcast is doing and it would be a lot of fun to do some Sunspot tunes on it. Plus, if we get in, we'll run a poll for the requests that people want to hear on the podcast as well.

Please click on this link to vote and thanks!

IMG_3220 [Flickr]

sunspot_mike — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:57:36 PST

sunspot_mike posted a photo:

IMG_3222 [Flickr]

sunspot_mike — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:57:28 PST

sunspot_mike posted a photo:

IMG_3213 [Flickr]

sunspot_mike — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:57:21 PST

sunspot_mike posted a photo:

IMG_3193 [Flickr]

sunspot_mike — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:57:12 PST

sunspot_mike posted a photo:

IMG_3178 [Flickr]

sunspot_mike — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:57:04 PST

sunspot_mike posted a photo: