I love randomly discovering new bands, and this is one of my newest finds from twitter: Sunspot. They are a rock group but with some seriously geeky topics. Their sound reminds my of a lot of my favorite 80s classics, only with a little more electronic sound and a few more Star Trek references.

The Background Story

Sunspot consists of Mike, Ben, and Wendy who have been making music together since at least 1997 when they released their first EP. They call their sound electro-space rock and have described themselves as the “rock and roll equivalent of the sci-fi channel” (back before they were Syfy, obviously). Another description I like from their Bandcamp page is “the Cheap Trick of geek-rock and Van Halen for Nerds”. They have a definite singable-rock sound with more geek, scifi, and academic references than the Felicia Day episode of Supernatural.

Sunspot is from Wisconsin, and two of their albums have won the Madison Area Music Award (MAMA) for Best Rock Album in 2004 and 2010. Their earlier albums tend to be clusters of songs written together, however, their 2010 album, Singularity, came out of a song-a-month project and is more of an eclectic collection. The newest release, The Slingshot Effect, has more electronic sounds and is very space oriented.

What to Listen To

The song that first caused me to listen is entitled Scott Bakula and is sung by a guy who realizes that he will never be as good as Scott Bakula to his girlfriend.

This one is a favorite off the new album

Here’s another great song I couldn’t find on youtube, so I got you on bandcamp: 2012

Some Lyrics …

“Can’t you see, it all adds up, like Bernoulli’s equation
When I get your prime below mine, I’d even forego graduation
Was it just coincidence that you called on me?
Do you know I want you more than my degree?” – More Than My Degree

“We’ll go so fast that we’ll erase the past.
I’m gonna retcon my whole life.
Event one, hit the reset button.
We get to start again, we get to start again tonight. “ – The Slingshot Effect

How to Be a Fan

I actually found Sunspot when they followed me on twitter, and once I heard a few of their songs, I was hooked. So, definitely check out their twitter and then also their webpage. You can hang out with them on Google if that’s your thing. Their music is available on itunes, but if you are like me and want it DRM-free, they also have a bandcamp page. Just be sure to pay them fairly, our money keeps small geeky bands in business!