Mr. Foff in The Isthmus

Madison newspaper, The Isthmus posted a quickie review of a track off our new record, "Mr. Foff". This is the first chance to hear any of the new record for those that weren't at the CD Sneak Preview in Milwaukee two weeks ago.

Get a taste and grab your advance ticket to the release party on February 23rd!

Wendy's Drummercam 01/27/07 House of Rock, Eau Claire, WI

Wendy's Drummercam 01/27/07 House of Rock, Eau Claire, WI
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Eau Claire was a killer, we can't wait to come back!

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 36

Video podcast from when we were working at Aquamunkee Studios for the rough drafts of what eventually became the album.

This is the first video podcast I edited together in iMovie and I have to say it's a great program. Next time, I'll be more ruthless with the editing, but there's a bunch of good moments in this one.

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep.35

Here's just us talking about our show on Saturday as well as discussing the details of our CD Release Party at Madison Avenue here in Madison on 2/23!

Here's the MySpace of the band we were talking about in the podcast.
http://www.myspace.com/garpiketheband

chicken leg dance?

Listen to the forthcoming podcast to learn what Ben is doing in this photo!

I GOT AN IPOD! I GOT AN IPOD!

I purchased my friend Dino's iPod (he's upgrading) and just got it in the mail Friday. I've played around with it a bit and so far, so great!

I realize I am way overdue to have bought an iPod, but I've been using my Treo for MP3 and podcast listening. But, I'm excited about the idea of having my entire music collection with me wherever I go.

I am ready for my life to be changed.

Very exciting news!

The official release of the new album will be February 23rd at Madison Avenue here in Madison, Wisconsin. Everyone is welcome, regardless of where you live. Feel free to road trip! Please join us for this most special occasion. Preparty with food and stuff at 6:30, Sunspot at 8. Dance party to follow. Tickets will be available online this week!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Testing...

Jus trying out the new Google Blog...

Blog Weirdness

When I look in the Blogger dashboard, the old posts are still there (thank goodness). I'd hate to lose all that. I'm trying to find a way to export it so we can at least save them all (in case they eventually go *poof!*).

One cool thing though, now I can post photos directly from my phone to the Sunspot blog again!

Skydiving Murder

Here's a pretty good reason not to do the hippity-dippity with your friends' girlfriends like these Belgian skydivers decided to do. Parachute tampering is a nasty way to go.

Still no word no whether the old blogposts will make it over to the new Blogger. I'm sure the good people at Google will figure it out if they're not too busy riding around on their Segways.

And it's easy to see how I missed feralchildren.com but how did I miss Doctor Who Scarf.com

Argh

We upgraded to the new version of Blogger this morning and there was an issue with the old posts making it over. We'll keep you updated as we try to fix it.

Deny Everything

The Air Force is offering an explanation for the Arkansas lights in the sky. Looks like it was just routine weapons testing.

That sounds reasonable, but I still don't trust them!

Sad News...

Ex-Social Distortion bassist killed by a truck.

Video from Mad Planet Show

Thanks to Ice Palace TV for putting up our set from January 20th at the Mad Planet in Milwaukee. Check it out to see what you missed if you weren't there!

Happy Blue Monday!

Once again, we've reached January 22nd, the saddest day of the year.

Don't cry, little ones. We're only five minutes to midnight anyway.

Wendy's Drummercam - 1/20/07 Mad Planet Milwaukee

Wendy's Drummercam - 1/20/07 Mad Planet Milwaukee
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Feral Children

There's a feralchildren.com and you people didn't say anything to me about it? Unbelievable, and the site's fucking awesome too.

There's a child raised by ostriches! I wonder if he bangs his head against the floor every time he gets scared.

Let's get feral at Mad Planet tonight!

The Girl in the Fireplace

Probably the best David Tennant Doctor Who episode I've seen so far. I'm never home on Friday nights so I've been trying to watch the episodes taped from the DVR, but that's one of the most affecting episodes I've seen yet. It had me almost as verklempt as "Earthshock". I know I'm like eight months later than the actual airdate, but since I'm just getting to enjoy them now (plus I stopped reading all online DW news so that it wouldn't get spoiled for me.)

It took me awhile to "get" David Tennant (I liked Chris Ecclecston immediately, but I knew him beforehand) but he's right on with this episode. Even the drunk Doctor scenes were believable for his version of the character. Anyway, Steven Moffat (the man who was unfortunately responsible for "Coupling") is one of the best DW writers. I hope they bring him on for a third season episode.



And when will Sci-Fi show Torchwood? I don't want to have to BitTorrent them...

Back To The Jungle

A girl was discovered in the Cambodian jungle after being missing for almost twenty years. And all she wants to do is go back. She's been living in the wild since 1989, holy balls! It's Jumanji for real and without coked-out Robin Williams. It's like The Emerald Forest which I think was the movie that made me like Powers Boothe because I saw that before I saw him play Jim Jones. Anyway, I was gonna say more on feral children but I wasted 30 minutes reading about John Boorman and his movies when I should have been constructing more coherent thoughts on feral children.

I'm listening to The Draft right now. I got this CD like five months ago and I finally popped it in my iPod the other day. It's all the guys from Hot Water Music and it's a fucking great CD.

More UFO Sightings

An Arkansas Air Force colonel sees lights in the night sky "not of this earth". There's pics too

First of all, that's fucking sweet. The colonel gets a little religious at the end because he's a Christian who has never believed in alien life forms (which I never got, why would God create a huge universe and just have us in it? I know there's mysterious ways involved, but what would it be for? Remember the huge dining room in the original Batman where Michael Keaton and Kim Basinger are having dinner? Who needs all that space?)

Anyway, combine this with the sightings at O'Hare in November and it sounds like they're here already!

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 34

Yeah, I know in the podcast we say that it's episode 33, but it's really episode 34. We're talking about our show at Bobby Rockets on Saturday and our upcoming CD Sneak Preview at Mad Planet in Milwaukee this Saturday, January 20th!

Byah!

This is also the first podcast we did on my brand new MacBook using GarageBand. Yeah, right we're only two years behind the times. I hope you can hear everything okay!

Testing Out the Blogger Widget

First I made the switch to Google and now I made the switch to Mac. I haven't had an Apple since high school and yes, they still feel great.

Can AppleWorks read and save to Microsoft Office formats? Getting ClarisWorks, which might have been the most intuitive word processor since man first started writing on papyrus, back might be worth the upgrade alone.

Cynergy 67

Cynergy 67
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

It's the farewell show for their lead guitarist, Niko. They have one badass light show and the sound at Bobby Rockets is great.



And the broccoli cheese poppers here are fucking fantastic.

Tejas pics and Denver show review

Thanks to Dario and Russ for the updates.

A review of the Denver performance at Wyatt's Torch.

Some hot pics from our Houston and Austin shows on the tour.

Awesome Mummy Picture

This mummy looks like someone did Munch for real. Check out this story on this recent find.



I didn't know there was a fair-haired, light-skinned tribe in the Andes that were competitors of the Incas. "The Cloud People" makes me think of Lando Calrissian, though.


You look absolutely beautiful. You truly belong here with us among the clouds.

Mention in the Journal-Sentinel

I knew about it, but didn't see this before we left. It's always nice to get a mention in the hometown paper, the Journal-Sentinel had me in Who's Spinning What? section.

The Glamorous Part

I'm doing the accounting from the tour this morning and Microsoft Money 2007 is acting up on me again. Does anyone really know how to use that program? Really? I can fake it and I can balance all the accounts, but it seems a lot more complicated than it should be. Yay, invoices!

At least I have Faith No More. I'm listening to The Real Thingthis morning and it's the first time I've heard it all the way through in years, and it's still a desert island record for me. I had a hard time for awhile between this and Angel Dust, but "Edge of the World" gets me every time.

Home

We left Denver at 12pm Central last night and just got home. It was an awesome ride.

We're taking a break tomorrow ha, but that's it, our new album will be out in short order. You'll be hearing a lot more from us in 2007.

Dawn over Nebraska

Dawn over Nebraska
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

We're about 100 miles to Omaha, but the late night driving is finité.

Wendy's Drummercam Wyatt's Torch Denver, CO 1/7/07

Wendy's Drummercam Wyatt's Torch Denver, CO 1/7/07
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Rawk! We just finished the show and we're heading straight back to Madison tonight. I hope we can hear Art Bell all the way on I-80...

Trapped between Vail and Denver

Trapped between Vail and Denver
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

The worst traffic of the tour here as the skiers are coming back from the weekend. At least it gives us a chance to test the limits of our bladder control!

Rolling to Denver

Rolling to Denver
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Pretty country, but the mystery noise is like sitting next to a jackhammer in the back, ha. The van is taunting us, teasing by not making the noise every once in awhile, then when we least expect it, she returns to torment our dreams.



Speaking of dreams, I had a cool moment of lucidity the other night. I realized that I was dreaming while being attacked by zombies and then I did the thing where you start spinning around and it keeps you from waking up. It kept from waking up for a few minutes (at least inside the dream, I don't know how long it was in real time) but it didn't prevent those undead bastards from getting a nip outta my arm.



We'll be at Wyatt's Torch tonight, starting around 10pm. If you know anyone in Denver, tip em about the show so they can join the Mile High Club with us tonight.

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 33 Part 2

Part two of two. Still sounds like space, unfortunately. I don't know about the MP3 converter on the Palm, it looks like the quality isn't there yet. But there's still some fun moments on the drive to Grand Junction.

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 33 Part 1

Part one of two. Still sounds like space, unfortunately. I don't know about the MP3 converter on the Palm, it looks like the quality isn't there yet. But there's still some fun moments on the drive to Grand Junction.

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 30 Part 2

I had to split these to podcasts into two, this is part two. I tried uploading it the other day and it didn't work, so I tried again before I fell asleep last night and it did. I just checked it out on Wendy's laptop and the files are cooked as fuck. It looks like doing podcasts from the Treo might be a little bit too far on the low quality end, might work in a pinch, but this isn't what we're looking for.

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 30 Part 1

I had to split these to podcasts into two, this is part one. I tried uploading it the other day and it didn't work, so I tried again before I fell asleep last night and it did. I just checked it out on Wendy's laptop and the files are cooked as fuck. It looks like doing podcasts from the Treo might be a little bit too far on the low quality end, might work in a pinch, but this isn't what we're looking for.

Driving to Grand Junction

Our show in the Junction of Grand was unfortunately canceled tonight but we're still making the drive because it's on the way home. If you listened to last night's podcast then you know we had fun.

We weren't able to podcast something today because the noise in the van is still there and it makes going a little loud. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, but we're still not sure what it is. It's a little better today.

Las Vegas is a fun town, I love the drinking and gambling and everything, but there's still something a little off about it. Probably the artificialness of building a city in the desert. It's like a human settlement on Mars, there's no natural culture there that's represented in the gambling areas. By recreating all the other cultures, I guess it creates one of its own. There's a lack of authenticity there that you'll find in other cities (including my beloved Madison), but that doesn't mean we can't love that shit when we're partying there. I also like the fact that the Nevada government stays the fuck outta their people's business a lot of the time (I guess that our current civilization has done good things by extending our lifespans, but if we spend that time on hold with Wells Fargo or waiting in line at the DMV. I dunno if I want the extra time THAT bad.) The nannies that run Madison could learn a few things from Sin City.

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 32

Recorded from the Sao Paolo Cafe at the Rio in Las Vegas at 5 o'clock this morning. I was already on Bloody Marys by that point and I don't quite remember anything we said, I just uploaded it.

When we were recording this, we forgot the name of the band we were hanging out, but they're called The F-Ups and their new recording is a monster.

Tokyo Smog

Tokyo Smog
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

The Japanese band that's opening the show tonight are kickass. The lead singer is pulling his pubes out and throwing them at the crowd.



This time I'm the one taking the pictures!

Viva Las Vegas!

Viva Las Vegas!
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

We just arrived at the Bunkhouse. It's cold here, but I have a feeling that Lady Luck is running hot tonight!

What is the mystery sound in the van?

Ever since the top railing of the van on the driver side was ripped off we're getting a super nasty loud persistent noise (like a airplane taking off) coming from the driver side just behind the window. We've tried taping things down, rejiggering some stuff, but it just won't go away. Anyone with any experience have any ideas?

Mountains south of Bakersfield

Mountains south of Bakersfield
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

The views from the road are really Holy Balls-unbelievable.



They're playing Sinead O'Connor on Pirate Radio 93.1 right now and how she ripped up the picture of the Pope from Saturday Night Live like a hundred years ago. Crazy bee-yatch, but man she had a fuckin' great voice.



It's a 600-mile drive today so we get to see a lot of California. We're up pretty high right now (elevation-wise only, unfortunately), we've seen the return of snow and the defroster's back on. 250 miles from Sin City.

Rock n' Roll Geeks in San Francisco

Rock n' Roll Geeks in San Francisco
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Here's me with Michael Butler, host of one of my favorite podcasts, The Rock n' Roll Geek Show.



Cool bar last night. We played acoustic and I drank my fill of Newcastle. I hung out with some of the Irish guys for awhile and they knew more about the Packers then I did!



We're on our way to Vegas right now.

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 31

We did this one from the van yesterday and the upload worked, so here's us talking about the LA shows.

San Francisco from The Bay Bridge

San Francisco from The Bay Bridge
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Makes me get all misty thinking of that Journey song. We're about 15 minutes from the venue, we're up at 8pm sharp tonight.

Windmill Farm near The Bay Area

Windmill Farm near The Bay Area
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

I first saw the enormous windmill farm on the way from Berkeley to Fresno (so in my memory it was actually closer to Fresno) when I was little and it's still fucking impressive today. There's thousands of these sumbitches and it's pretty awesome.



We did another Road Mania from the van today talking about last night's show, me getting ejected from the Viper, and other stuff, and I'll try to upload that while we're playing. The encoding and uploading takes forever.

Dust storm!

Dust storm!
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

From LA to San Francisco... and we finally saw a tumbleweed.

Drinking at The Viper Room

Drinking at The Viper Room
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Some all-chick band is playing. These LA bars are cool but they're super dark, there's no ugly lights at all!

Wendy's Drummercam Cat Club West Hollywood, CA 1/3/07

Wendy's Drummercam Cat Club West Hollywood, CA 1/3/07
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Partying in LA!

The Cat Club in West Hollywood tonight!

The Cat Club in West Hollywood tonight!
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

I've wanted to play on Sunset Strip since I picked up a bass (the first song I learned to play was "18 and Life" by Skid Row) and to rock in the birthplace of hair metal is pretty fucking exciting.



Sometimes it's hard not to be jaded, but tonight we're gonna have a good time. Showtime's at 8, I'm hanging outside the club to give our friends their tickets for the show.

And all the vampires walking through the valley

And all the vampires walking through the valley
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

move West down...

Sick break at Capistrano Camino

Sick break at Capistrano Camino
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Halfway to LA we needed to take a barf break at the Rite Aid. Did you ever see the Monty Python about the world's grossest family? Ben's like the "more beans, ma, more beans!" guy today. Anyway, I don't have time to look it up, but it's worth a search on YouTube.

Wendy's Drummercam - Dream Street Live - San Diego, CA 1/2/06

Wendy's Drummercam - Dream Street Live - San Diego, CA 1/2/06
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Go!

Getting a tan and loading up the van

The first band last night, The Third, was killer last night. They did a bunch of Green Day songs and nailed them. Super cool guys and friends. Ocean Beach, CA is just amazing and the show was a blast. Wen and I took a walk to the longest pier on the West Coast this morning to watch the surfers.

Ben isn't feeling so hot this morning, he was a barfer (not from drinking... this time) but he's a trooper and we're gonna rock the fuck outta the Sunset Strip tonight.

I tried to upload a Road Mania yesterday from the van but my FTP program on the Palm keeps erroring out for some reason. We'll try to get something more up later...

Devil's Canyon...

Devil's Canyon...
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

..is really spec-fucking-tacular. I just discovered that I can take pics with my camera and transfer them to the Treo via SD Card and upload them. I'll try to do that from now on to get better pics, yo.

Standing by a cactus

Standing by a cactus
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

Waiting for an oil change in Phoenix. It's 70 degrees out.



Hollywood Alley was awesome last night. Everyone treated us like gold and we saw a lot of old friends. We'll come back to Phoenix anytime.

Sunspot Road Mania - Ep. 29

Got clipped at the end when we hit a traffic jam, but it's us talking about New Year's.

We're at Hollywood Alley right now in Mesa, AZ and it's a really cool place. We were going to do an acoustic show but it looks like an electric room. so I think we're gonna go with that.

We're up in an hour!

Approaching Tucson

Approaching Tucson
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

We keep calling it "Tuck-son" and thinking we're funny. We've seen a lot of I-10 the past two days because we've rode on it all the way from San Antonio where they make Pace picante sauce.



Hollywood Alley tonight, bitches!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year
Originally uploaded by sunspot_mike.

It's motherfucking gorgeous in El Paso this morning. Not too warm but it's about 50 or so.



Thanks to our friends at The Bangkok Pepper for helping us close down 2006 in a big way. Everybody get some rest, because tonight we party in AZ!