MC Lars
MC Lars |
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Andrew Robert Nielsen (born October 6, 1982) is an American rapper, known by his stage name MC Lars. He is the self-proclaimed originator of "post-punk laptop rap". He was one of the first underground rappers to sample and reference post-punk and emo bands. John Mayer has credited Lars with coining the phrase "iGeneration", a term used to describe kids born from 1982-2000.[1]
Career
He has recorded for Truck Records in the UK, Sidecho Records in the USA, Big Mouth Records in Japan, and Shock Records in Australia. He was formerly known as MC Lars Horris but changed his pseudonym to MC Lars in 2004 for purposes of simplicity. MC Lars currently resides in California.
In 2006, he released the single "Download This Song" with it entering the Australian Singles Chart at number 29.
Nielsen has toured and done one-off performances with many different bands and rappers, including The Matches, Lupe Fiasco, Nas, Something With Numbers, Simple Plan, Bowling for Soup, Army of Freshmen, Gym Class Heroes, Say Anything, Streetlight Manifesto, Suburban Legends, Test Icicles, Jack's Mannequin, Patent Pending, Bayside, Fightstar, Make It Better Later, MC Frontalot, Wheatus, The Aquabats, Ludacris, YTCracker, T-Pain, Yung Joc, Cartel and Zebrahead. Some of these bands play the part of Hearts That Hate for the song "Signing Emo" at live shows.
Nielsen appeared in the 2008 independent film Community College as MC Lars.
Nielsen was also a judge for the 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists.[2][3]
Education
Lars was born in Berkeley and grew up in the Oakland hills. He attended the Head-Royce School before his family moved to the Monterey Peninsula in 1993.
He then attended Stevenson School and was the co-founder of the Monterey Bay Area punk rock band Amphoteric.[4] He would later leave and the group would switch directions and gain a progressive metal following (especially amongst Internet listeners). Although the line-up has changed entirely, the group still resides in central California and continues to release albums independently. While at Stevenson he had a morning radio show through the school's radio station, KSPB. The show was called "Morning Madness", which featured Andrew and his co-host, Chris Gates.
Lars moved on as an English studies-major student of Stanford University in California who went on international study at Corpus Christi College, Oxford University in England.[4][5] During his time at Stanford, MC Lars and fellow band member and Stanford student, Mike Love, co-created and appeared in Good Morning Tresidder Union[6] which appeared on Stanford Cardinal Broadcasting Network (SCBN). While at Stanford, Lars drew a comic strip called 27th Street for the Stanford Daily This was partly due to motivation from a Scottish friend of his youngdarrin. Following his graduation in 2005, it became a webcomic.[7] He had a radio show on Stanford's radio station KZSU, playing nerdcore hip hop and old school rap, prior to being discovered by Truck Records.
Style and culture
Originally releasing tracks under the name Lars Horris, he eventually dropped Horris which later became the name of his record label, in order to become MC Lars. In the past, MC Lars was backed by a single friend who handled laptop duties. However, today's MC Lars live experience is very different. With a punk rock band set to back him up, MC Lars plays a hip-hop set to a true punk rock background (a joining which he refers to as "post-punk laptop rap"). His band mates play live over the samples and loops contained in his recorded music - all stored on his laptop computer.
As with many other rap and Hip-Hop acts, samples play a key role in MC Lars' music. But, with intent to preserve his rock roots, MC Lars chooses to sample alternative bands such as the British band Supergrass, Long Island, New York's Brand New, as well as Fugazi, and Iggy Pop.
MC Lars has also shown an interest in using lyrics and song titles based on English and American literature. "Rapbeth" references William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, whilst "Mr. Raven" is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." Also, the song "Ahab", which is featured on one of his newer albums, The Graduate, sees Lars rapping about the novel Moby Dick while "Hey There Ophelia" on This Gigantic Robot Kills retells the story of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
The term iGeneration, used to describe the generation born primarily in the mid-to-late 1980s, was not actually coined by MC Lars, but it was used in his song of the same name, which was given out for free to Facebook users in August 2006 in conjunction with iTunes.
MC Lars' MySpace profile includes exclusive tracks related to the MySpace social scene of the iGeneration: "Internet Relationships", "Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock", "Download This Song" and "Signing Emo". Hearts That Hate, whose song "Cry Tonight" is sampled in Lars' "Signing Emo", is a fictional group created by the rapper. The Grammy-nominated Texan band Bowling for Soup performed as Hearts That Hate when MC Lars has supported them on tour. A full version of "Cry Tonight" is available as a B-side to the UK "Signing Emo" single.
In early 2006, his song "Download This Song" was featured on the pop-culture CBC Radio show, Definitely Not The Opera, during an exposé on geeks.
The Graduate
In 2006, Lars worked with the Canadian independent record label Nettwerk Records to release The Graduate. Following this release, Lars toured extensively throughout the U.S., then he toured UK and did shows in Japan,[4] and Australia. Not long after the album was released on iTunes, Lars received an e-mail from a 15-year-old fan Elisa Greubel on his web forum saying she identified with "Download This Song" since her family was one of many being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America. This led to Nettwerk executive Terry McBride and a team of major-label artists managed by Nettwerk to support the Greubels with their case.
MC Lars returned to the UK in October 2006, due to popular demand, to play more shows in support of his "Ahab" single and video.
This Gigantic Robot Kills
In April 2007, MC Lars and Nettwerk made the component tracks for his single "White Kids Aren't Hyphy" available for remix under a by-nc-sa Creative Commons license on the Jamglue online mixing site as a contest.[8] In May, MC Lars toured the UK on the third installment of the Good To Go Tour, making friends with Wheatus front man Brendan B. Brown. In July Lars and Brendan recorded a bunch of new songs, two of which would later appear on This Gigantic Robot Kills. In November, Lars returned to the UK on tour with pop-punk band Last Letter Read who performed their own set and then on stage with Lars, debuting Lars' new song "Hey There Ophelia".
In 2008 and 2009, Lars worked with "Weird Al" Yankovic, Wheatus, the Rondo Brothers, Nick Rowe and Mike Kennedy of Bloodsimple, Daniel Dart of Time Again, Donal Finn of Flash Bastard, Pierre Bouvier of Simple Plan, MC Bat Commander of The Aquabats, Suburban Legends, Worm Quartet, Gabriel Saporta of Cobra Starship, Brett Anderson of The Donnas, MC Frontalot, Jesse Dangerously, Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup, Adil Omar, Linus Dotson of Size 14, Parry Gripp of Nerf Herder, Salvation, Jonathan Coulton, Aesias Finale, Sebastian Reynolds, Joe Ragosta of Patent Pending and classical musician Walt Ribeiro to complete his album "This Gigantic Robot Kills".
Lars Attacks! (2011-)
In an interview on punknews.org it was announced that the album "Lars Attacks!" will be released in March 2011.[needs update] He also stated that the album is going to have fewer guest artists and more of a return to basics so the album will to contain less punk elements and more standard hip-hop stylings like the split with k.flay. The subject matter will be "Everything from circumcision to bro culture to vikings!"
Later in the interview he revealed that he would be releasing a children's album after Lars Attacks!.
B-sides and rarities
Some demos of songs Lars finished but will not be released include "Dharma Police", "You Might Be Stoner", "Coming Up Short", "Ana's Song", "Wikipedia Song", "I Flow Econo", "Dudes Don't Text Dudes", "Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Religion I Learned from Daniel Johnston", "Pop Life", "Don't Fear the Ice Cream Monster".
Record label
MC Lars has his own record label, Horris Records. In 2008 Lars signed a two-record distribution deal with Crappy Records, founded by Jaret Reddick, from the American Rock band Bowling For Soup.[9]
Live accompaniment
MC Lars is often joined on stage by bands he is on tour with. He has had Bowling For Soup, Simple Plan, and Army Of Freshmen play with him live on the song "Signing Emo" filling in for the fictional band "Hearts That Hate". He's also had the band Failsafe back him on several tours of the United Kingdom. Recently[when?] while supporting the band Zebrahead in The UK and Europe, MC Lars had Zebrahead members Ed Udhus and Greg Bergdorf on drums and guitar every night. This also included Zebrahead Tour Manager Bobby Conner on bass.
Discography
Albums
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Nothing to Fear | Noseman |
| 2000 | Insectivorous | Noseman |
| 2003 | Radio Pet Fencing | Truck |
| 2006 | The Graduate | Horris |
| 2007 (download release) 2010 (CD release) 2011 (CD re-release) |
21 Concepts (But a Hit Ain't One) | Horris |
| 2009 | This Gigantic Robot Kills | Horris/Oglio |
| 2011 | Lars Attacks! | Horris |
EPs
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 (CD release) 2009 (download release) |
The Laptop EP | Truck/Sidecho Horris |
| 2008 | I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas | Horris/Oglio |
| 2010 | Twenty-Three EP | Horris/Oglio |
| 2011 | The Ill Remix EP | Horris |
Collaborative Releases
| Year | Title | Other Artist | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | The Digital Gangster LP | YTCracker | Horris/Nerdy South |
| 2008 | Change the World (Black Precedent) | Wheatus | Montauk Mantis |
| 2009 | Single and Famous EP | K.Flay | Horris/Flayzer Beam |
Singles
| Year | Title | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | iGeneration | The Laptop EP |
| Signing Emo | ||
| 2006 | Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock | The Graduate |
| Download This Song | ||
| Ahab | ||
| Hipster Girl | This Gigantic Robot Kills | |
| 2007 | White Kids Aren't Hyphy | |
| 2009 | Guitar Hero Hero | |
| 2010 | Reaping Beauty | 21 Concepts (But a Hit Ain't One) |
| Something Wicca This Way Comes | ||
| Nerdcore Died |
Compilation Appearances
| Year | Track Featured | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | A Message From MC Lars | The Necker Cube: Volume 2 |
| 2006 | Geeked Out | Greetings From Nor-Cal |
| 2006 | Download This Song | Penny Candy |
| 2006 | Gary the Green Nosed Reindeer | A Santa Cause 2 |
| 2006 | If I Had a Time Machine, That Would Be Fresh | 50 Minutes |
| 2007 | Gopher Guts | The Simple Life: Camp Songs |
| 2007 | The Lint Song | For the Kids Three! |
| 2009 | (Lord it's Hard to Be Happy, When You Aren't Using) The Metric System | Up End Atom |
Remixes and Featured Appearances
| Year | Title | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Do the Joker | Ubernators featuring MC Lars |
| 2005 | Circle Square Triangle [MC Lars Remix] | Test Icicles |
| 2007 | Two Minutes of Hate | The Scribes featuring MC Lars |
| 2007 | Schvensen Fitzlogik | HardNox featuring MC Lars |
| 2007 | Dead Horses | Smilex featuring MC Lars |
| 2008 | Dementia Revolution | The Great Luke Ski featuring MC Lars |
| 2008 | Put Up a Fight [MC Lars Remix] | My Awesome Compilation |
| 2008 | Adoption | Funky49 featuring MC Lars |
| 2008 | Nerdcore Rising | MC Frontalot featuring Doc Popular & MC Lars |
| 2009 | Monsters of Rock | Schäffer the Darklord featuring MC Lars |
| 2009 | The Case For Christ | J-Bynn featuring MC Lars & Jesus Disciple |
| 2009 | Party Retarded | Uh Oh! Explosion featuring MC Lars |
| 2009 | Chance of Showers | My Parents Favorite Music featuring MC Lars |
| 2009 | Dreidel Playa | The Rondo Brothers featuring MC Lars |
| 2009 | Paper Planes and Spitballs | K.Flay featuring MC Lars |
| 2010 | Can't [MC Lars' Running Game Remix] | Alan Lastufka & Tom Milsom |
| 2010 | Summer Camp Love | Walk Through Hell with MC Lars |
| 2010 | Bohemian Grove | The Rondo Brothers with K.Flay & MC Lars |
| 2010 | Cult Leader | The Rondo Brothers with MC Lars & Beefy |
| 2010 | Uncanny | Beefy featuring MC Lars |
DVDs
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | The MC Lars DVD | Truck |
| 2007 | This DVD Is Not Punk Rock | Horris |
Books
| Year | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 27th Street: A Book of Cartoons | Horris |
| 2007 | Bukowski in Love: A Book of Poems | Horris |
Videography
| Year | Title | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Hey That's Me[Videography 1] | Steve Dawson |
| 2004 | iGeneration[Videography 2] | Stewart Hendler |
| 2004 | Signing Emo[Videography 3] | Kurt St. Thomas |
| 2005 | Download This Song[Videography 4] | Frank Borin |
| 2006 | Ahab[Videography 5] | Sean Donnelly |
| 2006 | If I Had a Time Machine, That Would Be Fresh[Videography 6] | Richard Barham |
| 2007 | Hipster Girl[Videography 7] | Michael Licisyn & Tommy Avallone |
| 2007 | Scientology=WTF?[Videography 8] | Richard Barham |
| 2008 | White Kids Aren't Hyphy[Videography 9] | Tim Thompson & Odin Wadleigh |
| 2008 | I Want My Guns N' Roses[Videography 10] | Richard Barham |
| 2008 | Manifest Destiny[Videography 11] | Irina Slutsky |
| 2008 | I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas[Videography 12] | Richard Barham |
| 2008 | MC Lars's Facebook Count > Your Facebook Count[Videography 13] | Tim Thompson & Odin Wadleigh |
| 2009 | Guitar Hero Hero[Videography 14] | Sean Donnelly |
| 2009 | True Player For Real[Videography 15] | Richard Barham |
| 2009 | O.G. (Original Gamer)[Videography 16] | Nigel Wallace |
| 2009 | Single and Famous[Videography 17] | Tim Thompson |
| 2010 | This Gigantic Robot Kills[Videography 18] | Tim Thompson |
| 2010 | Twenty-Three[Videography 19] | Heath Balderston & Jaret Reddick |
Filmography
- Community College (2009)
- Nerdcore Rising (2009)
- Nerdcore For Life (2009)
References
- ^ MTV.
- ^ PRLog.
- ^ Independent Music Awards - 8th Annual IMA Judges.
- ^ a b c "Spotlight Artist: MC Lars". Full Effect Magazine. 2006-03-16. Retrieved 2007-04-05. Cite error: The named reference "Full Effect Magazine" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ http://www.cherwell.org/content/8649
- ^ Good Morning Tresidder Union.
- ^ 27th Street.
- ^ http://www.jamglue.com/contests/mclars
- ^ "MC Lars: This Gigantic Robot Kills". SuicideGirls.com. 25 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
Videography References
- ^ "Hey That's Me". Richard Barham Youtube Channel. Richard Barham. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "iGeneration". Nettwerk Music Youtube Channel. Nettwerk Music. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "Signing Emo". Nettwerk Music Youtube Channel. Nettwerk Music. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "Download This Song". Nettwerk Music Youtube Channel. Nettwerk Music. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "Ahab". Horris Records Youtube Channel. Horris Records. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "If I Had a Time Machine". Richard Barham Youtube Channel. Richard Barham. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "Hipster Girl". Horris Records Youtube Channel. Horris Records. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "Scientology=WTF?". MC Lars/Nettwerk Music Youtube Channel. MC Lars/Nettwerk Music. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "White Kids Aren't Hyphy". Horris Records Youtube Channel. Horris Records. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "I Want My Guns N' Roses". MC Lars Video Podcast/Horris Records Youtube Channel. Horris Records. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "Manifest Destiny". Nerdy South Records Youtube Channel. Nerdy South Records. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas". Crappy Records Youtube Channel. Crappy Records. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "MC Lars's Facebook Count". MC Lars Video Podcast/Horris Records Youtube Channel. Horris Records. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "Guitar Hero Hero". Horris Records Youtube Channel. Horris Records. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "True Player For Real". Horris Records Youtube Channel. Horris Records. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "O.G. Original Gamer". Nigel Wallace Youtube Channel. Nigel Wallace. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "Single and Famous". Horris Records Youtube Channel. Horris Records. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "This Gigantic Robot Kills". Horris Records Youtube Channel. Horris Records. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ "Twenty-Three". Oglio Records Youtube Channel. Oglio Records. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
External links
- 1982 births
- Living people
- Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
- American bloggers
- American expatriates in the United Kingdom
- American rappers
- American musicians of Swedish descent
- American people of Australian descent
- Musicians from California
- Critics of Scientology
- Nerdcore hip hop artists
- People from Berkeley, California
- Rappers from the San Francisco Bay Area
- Stanford University alumni
- People from Pacifica, California