We are a local music that is Sunspot and Scott Bacula,
who was ever a song intro I could ever have back
and have a redo on rocker.
That would have been one right there.
Anyway, that's brand new Sunspot here on Macsync.
Super excited rocker.
Well, brand new old Sunspot actually, Jimmy.
Brand new and his old base.
Based out of weird Wisconsin, Sunspot
is a multiple award winner,
including five time winner for best rock album
from the Madison Area Music Awards
and Wisconsin Area Music Industry, artist of the year.
Originally joining forces at the University of Wisconsin,
they've gone on tour in America's rock underground
for over two decades with nine studio albums,
thousands of shows, hundreds of podcasts,
and no intention of letting up Mike and Wendy
from Sunspot.
Welcome to Macsync Radio.
Thank you.
Wonderful to see you all again.
Yes, it is.
You too.
You know, I laugh so hard.
The posts that you made on social media advertising
or coming out of the show,
the picture that you chose,
you all look so young in that picture.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We took it last week.
And you look great today too.
Yeah.
It's great.
You guys used to look really good, you know that?
What the hell happened?
You know, I'm going to say,
it drives me crazy seeing younger photos of Jimmy K.
I'm like, hmm, I wasn't.
I think I look better now than I did back then.
What's going on?
Especially with that new stash for those.
Oh, yeah.
Those who haven't seen Jimmy's got a handlebar going on now.
Yeah, it's a whole committee has to run wild,
all over the side.
You know what I mean, brother?
I do.
I do.
Hey, you know, I was just thinking, you know,
the Packers, they were all got together.
They were so close, right?
They were.
That was, uh, that was been fun.
But, you know, and I remember, I mean, back in the day, right?
With, uh, with Farve and they were, you know, it was almost like, given, like, we're
going to the Super Bowl.
And you guys got on it and, and, and, and wrote a song, right?
Go pack.
It was perfectly timed.
And I think maybe this year, the Packers caught people by surprise.
Maybe you buy surprise.
But we can't say the name for the same for next year.
Are you guys going to do that?
Yeah.
I mean, it's not a surprise.
Maybe you buy surprise.
But we can't say the name for the same for next year.
Are you guys going to maybe pen like a little Packer song for a possible Super Bowl run?
Well, it depends how good the team goes.
Well, we can't wait till then.
It's got to be done before.
And actually, I was thinking, you know, we just released the 20th anniversary Scott
vacula song.
Maybe it's time to do an updated version of Go Pack.
Yeah.
That's what I'm talking about.
We go pack right.
I'm not talking about, I'm not talking about far anymore.
We're not talking about Aaron Rodgers.
It's the Jordan Love era.
Yes, it is.
And so he might deserve.
Maybe we'll give him a verse.
I think you should.
Yeah.
Well, he'll see if he earns it.
If he keeps playing like he did in the first few games of that playoffs, then I think he might earn it.
He might earn a reverse in a sespa.
I mean, that song got some traction right though.
I mean, I heard of that box.
I think.
Yeah.
It was licensed for the Super Bowl that the Packers were in there.
For Packers songs, for the playoffs and stuff like that.
And that was the year that the Packers destroyed the Pittsburgh Steelers and embarrassed them in front of the entire nation.
Hell yeah.
It got played once or twice during the Super Bowl or I don't think I played at all.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
But it was licensed.
We sent a contract.
We sent a contract for it, but I never heard it.
And let me tell you, it makes watching the Super Bowl a lot more fun when you think, hey, one of our songs might get played.
Yeah.
Makes you really pay close attention.
We just didn't, or we just didn't hear it, but no matter.
There could have been like a two-second clip of it.
That's what, you know, I'll talk to the commercial or coming back from the commercial.
Yeah.
So, but it was very exciting because they were looking for it.
They heard the song and they contacted us.
It's like, this song's kickass.
Well, we know.
We know.
Yeah, thank you.
So that was a very exciting thing.
And it's exciting to support the team and things like that.
It's fun to be part of when you have a great season.
There's a good video for that too up on YouTube.
If you're wanting to check it out on the Sunspot page.
Oh, yeah.
We went to Lambo to record a video for it, so.
That is awesome.
Well, I can't wait till next year.
I want to hear it.
Mike, Wendy, for our listeners who may not be familiar with Sunspot,
give us a quick rundown of your backstory without taking three hours because you're over 20 years,
but just kind of give people who may not know who you guys are a little 27 years, isn't it?
Shh.
Yeah.
Well, you're on it.
Ben and I got the facts, though.
We started playing together in high school.
And then we came to college and we didn't want to stop the band.
So we were, you know, like, rumies together in the dorms in Celebry Hall.
And Wendy knew Ben.
Ben and I knew each other from, in high school, we played together in the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra.
So once we were in college, ran into Ben one day on the sidewalk and he's like,
hey, my band's doing a show.
And I went and saw him and we all became really good friends.
Was somebody else playing drums at that time?
Yeah, yeah.
They had a, but they were, I don't know.
Once we knew that Wendy could play drums, it was all over for that guy.
That was it, huh?
That was it.
We knew that this would make the group complete.
You never had Johnny five as your drummer, did you?
No, I've jammed with him a lot.
Yeah.
But we, I don't think he's ever joined us on stage.
Yeah, that's a trivia question.
What band has Johnny five never played?
Right.
Right.
Now, 20 years ago, we just, we just heard this song.
But 20 years ago, a Sunspot released a song called Scott Bakula.
And there's new video out there to celebrate with a brand new version.
But that song got some traction as well and ended up on the Star Trek Enterprise.
What's up with that?
So we recorded the song, Scott Bakula.
And we just put it on our website because we thought it was fun.
And he was, at the time, Scott Bakula was starring in Star Trek Enterprise.
That was on UPN.
And so it gets on there.
It gets on some Star Trek forums and immediately crashes our website.
This is back when you could crash your website, right?
Yeah.
The first, and probably the only time our website was crashed.
Right.
We were like, this is a big day for us.
Like, oh, my God.
I'm sorry.
We couldn't support the traffic.
You know, we had to pay for extra gigs, the whole deal because people kept on downloading
it.
And then Scott Bakula's agent calls.
And I'm expecting to be like, take this crap down.
Instead, he's like, hey, we're about to celebrate his 50th birthday and have a party.
And we were wondering if we could use the song for the party.
Did they license it?
No, they didn't license it.
I was right.
I should have said that.
It was our birthday gift to Scott.
We didn't charge it for it.
But so the birthday party was on the set of Star Trek Enterprise.
Wow.
So like they played our song and stuff like that on the bridge.
And Scott Bakula heard it on his birthday.
On his 50th birthday.
And so we just started to be fun because it's a leap year.
Yeah.
And his leap week is like, hey, let's make a new version of it with us playing the song through
the past 20 years.
We're playing it at hundreds of shows.
Oh, wow.
Let's make a new version and make the video be all those bits and pieces of the song
over the years that we've done.
Wow.
And then we added some Scott Bakula.
It was been busy.
Yeah.
And so we added a couple extra verses.
Oh, no.
Oh, wow.
That is so neat.
I don't know how many times you've been on Max Sank here over the years, but I've never heard
the story before.
Really?
I feel like I should have been telling that the first time I was out of the case.
Hey, Star Trek fans.
Check this out.
Like, wow.
I could die a happy man when that was over.
So your music was on the bridge, or did you play on the bridge?
No, they just played the song for the thing.
Like if they invited us to come out, I would have been able to do it.
Oh, my gosh.
I would have cried and stuff.
It wouldn't have been fair.
We don't want that.
Right.
But wow.
That would be cool.
Play a set on the bridge.
Yeah.
You're amazing.
No, I would have had to wear a diaper.
I wouldn't have made my helmet.
Can you imagine the mosh pit on the bridge that could happen?
Oh.
Well, that's how the original series was.
When they moved the camera.
Yeah.
That was the mosh pit.
Yeah.
And everybody had to like fake.
Right.
Lean right.
Lean right.
Yeah.
Oh, that is funny.
Well, a worldwide shutdown.
Put your recording studio time on hold.
But Sunspot changed directions and started pat podcasting Thursday and Paranormal Tuesday.
Tell us about the podcast and finishing your latest album.
The strangest frequency.
You know, I heard there were ghosts at the frequency.
There were.
In fact, the Darwin, like when I first started working on a haunted history tour of medicine,
I went in there and Darwin's the owner of this bar called the frequency that we all loved
in downtown Madison for anybody unfamiliar.
And I was a great punk rock, hard rock, all kinds of music, you know, seven nights a week, live music.
Yes.
It was a blessing.
And Darwin was a local music guy for, you know, decades.
Local hero that met him back at OK's in the late 90s.
And I said, like, hey, I was just wondering if this place is haunted.
And he just gives me this look like for real.
Yeah.
And I'm like, for real.
And then he goes in and immediately tells me about the experiences that people had in the basement dressing room.
Yeah.
You know, all of that with things pulling on their hair.
The woman.
That was me.
That's rocker sneaking on it.
It's down there and waits for bands to go.
I'm going to spooky.
And then I'm going to take all 28, the gig, can you tell us your gig money?
No, but, you know, the thing here, like the woman was painting the little mural and stuff down there.
Like she said, it was haunted and weird things would happen.
They had, there's a haunted bathroom upstairs.
And I think I, I mean, I probably was the cause of that.
I cursed that bathroom a couple of times.
And you do ghost tours too, raw Madison, right?
American ghost walks is the company.
And you guys can check it out.
We do Madison, Milwaukee.
It's this with a state here.
Madison, Milwaukee Bayfield, Walker Shaw.
And Wendy hit was a guide in Walker Shaw for a while.
So if you see her at a show, you got to say, tell me a walk.
What, what, what, what, what ghosts are in Walker Shaw?
Oh, there's all kinds of ghosts in Walker Shaw.
Oh, really?
It's, it's, it seems like an unlikely place, but let me tell you.
You got to check out the tour because there's, there's, there's tons of history there
with the spiritualist movement and everything.
And I could go on.
Well, you know, for sure, you know, you know what's ironic about that club 400.
And Walker Shaw has more churches per capita than anywhere else in the country.
And I guess they have more ghosts.
There you go.
I think they go together.
There could be something there.
At the club that Les Paul's family owned the club for hundreds.
Yep.
We did a, like Friday the 13th late night haunted investigation there.
Wow.
I love the club 400.
So that's a great bar.
Who's your favorite ghost?
You've met a lot of ghosts.
I know you have.
Who's your favorite ghost, Mike?
Um, you know, I would love to see Buddy Holly at the race.
Yeah.
That would be great.
People have seen, because that was a couple days before he died, they played at the Eagles
Club in Milwaukee on that winter dance party tour in the end of January 1959.
I think.
And people still, I get on stage and they look in the wings and they see a guy with glasses.
You know, and it's staring back at him.
That's freaky.
That goes to Buddy Holly.
So that would be, I would, uh, I would go pretty crazy about, I'd be fan struck.
I'd be like, it's Buddy Holly.
Yeah.
No, that would be quite the thing.
And there's the big bopper.
That's right.
How about you, Mike?
Uh, I don't know if I have a favorite ghost, but I would sure like to catch a glimpse of the
orfiums ghost.
Maybe.
I don't know about the offerings.
Wow.
There's a whole lot of ghosts we don't know about.
We're really close to the open.
Yeah.
Well, we could sneak over here, exploding distance away.
Exactly.
Right.
So you've got to keep your eyes out here in this building.
Well, you know, you know what?
Strange.
The lights turn off here every night at 10 p.m.
And we can't figure it out.
So I don't know.
I'm curious.
That is unusual.
But every, every rock venue, every rock venue has some kind of ghost story associated with it.
Yeah.
And the rave, they have that underground like pool, right?
They have that pool area that's in there that's like kind of awful limits, but that's where
the ghost lives, right?
They say there's a lot of haunting haunted stories from down there.
Yeah.
People have weird experiences.
I mean, I've had weird experiences at the rave too, but they were not, you know, from
another dimension.
They were very mindful of the self-mentions.
They give me goosebumps.
Sunspot has upcoming shows in Wisconsin March 23rd at the Harmony Barn Madison with Bing
Bond April 26th.
Sunspot is in Racine at McCullough's.
And May 24th, you're right back here in Madison for Broadfest opening for Tantric.
Yeah.
Wow.
How cool is that?
It's really cool.
I think it's.
Well, I mean, it'll be fun.
It'll be fun.
I mean, first of all, the Bing Bond show, the Harmony is a really cool place and we're going
to blow it up.
Yeah.
It's just going to be because that's the kind of room.
You get a lot of people in there, a lot of energy.
I'm excited tonight, Rock Show.
Yeah.
So if you're anywhere near Madison and you're doing anything else in March 23rd, cancel
those plans right now.
The thing is, like, let's say it's like, hey, I'm listening to Maxing Gradio on March 23rd.
Absolutely.
I want you to listen to Maxing Gradio and then at 9 o'clock, I want you to go to the Harmony
and stop what you're doing.
And you can listen.
You can still listen on the app when we're done.
I wouldn't need a doctor's note for that.
All right.
We'll provide you with one.
Any ghost that's the Harmony?
You know, I haven't heard anything in particular about the Harmony.
You got to check it out.
I think there's got to be.
I mean, come on.
Well, right.
Well, we're just the kind of place.
We're going to talk with the owners and we're going to see what we can find.
We'll see.
We can drag them up here.
Mike, Wendy is great to see you again.
Thank you so much for coming on.
You too.
Appreciate it.
We have another song.
This is actually indeed a new song.
I'm not screwing them up, right?
No.
Correct.
We just released this.
Just released this song is called Blackout.
I got the preview at earlier.
It's awesome.
Tell me about the song.
Well, I think we've all met people in our lives who are trouble.
You know, I don't see them when they come into your life.
They're trouble.
And sometimes you indulge those people.
And some days you'd rather not die.
And so this song is kind of about that.
It's about watching out for people that will put you in the blackout.
Watching out for people in the blackout.
How do we keep up with Sunspot Online?
You'll find us at sunspotmusic.com.
And also we're going to be live on Facebook like this Wednesday night.
And we do usually do the first Wednesday of the month.
And you can find us at facebook.com slash sunspot music.
You guys are awesome.
All right.
Thank you.
You're awesome.
Thank you, Wendy.