- MC Lars
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MC Lars 
Background information Birth name Andrew Robert Nielsen Born October 6, 1982 Origin Berkeley, California, U.S. Genres Hip hop, punk rock, nerdcore hip hop Instruments Vocals
GuitarYears active 1999–present Labels Horris Website Official website
MySpaceMembers MC Lars
Damondrick Jack
Jon Thatcher Longley
Joe Oliger
Mike Russo
Josh WhitePast members Chris Ayer
Steve Connolly
Mike Love
Jon Shiffman
Rob Piccininni Jr.Andrew Robert MacFarlane 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] He is the founder and CEO of the independent record label Horris Records.[2]
Contents
Career
He has recorded for Truck Records in the UK, Sidecho Records in the US, 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 Brooklyn, New York.
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, mc chris, 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.[3][4]
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.[5] 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.[5][6] 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[7] 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.[8] 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 US, then he toured UK and did shows in Japan,[5] 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
MC Lars performing with Australian band Wherewolves at Bang! Nightclub in Melbourne, May 2009.
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.[9] 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 MC Lars stated that the album Lars Attacks! 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".
Horris Records
Horris Records is an independent record label formed by MC Lars in 2006. Horris served as an imprint of Nettwerk and Oglio before becoming its own label.[2] In 2008, Horris signed a two-record distribution deal with Crappy Records, founded by Jaret Reddick, from the American rock band Bowling For Soup.[10] The label's name derived from a cartoon character Lars created in middle school which also served as the basis for Lars' original stage name, MC Lars Horris.[2] In 2011, Horris signed Weerd Science.[2]
Horris Records currently represents Damondrick Jack, Jon Thatcher Longley, Joe Olger, Mike Russo, Josh White, and used to represent Chros Ayer, Stve Connolly, Mike Love, Jon Shiffman, and Rob Piccinni Jr.
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. While supporting the band Zebrahead in the UK and Europe in 2010, MC Lars had Zebrahead members Ed Udhus and Greg Bergdorf on drums and guitar every night. In addition, Zebrahead Tour Manager Bobby Conner joined them on bass.
Discography
Main article: MC Lars discography- Nothing to Fear (1999)
- Insectivorous (2000)
- Radio Pet Fencing (2003)
- The Graduate (2006)
- This Gigantic Robot Kills (2009)
- Lars Attacks! (2011)
Filmography
- Community College (2009)
- Nerdcore Rising (2009)
- Nerdcore For Life (2009)
References
- ^ MTV.
- ^ a b c d MC Lars and Weerd Science interview Part 1. hatchettv. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8-MjPyX1Ok. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
- ^ PRLog.
- ^ Independent Music Awards - 8th Annual IMA Judges.
- ^ a b c "Spotlight Artist: MC Lars". Full Effect Magazine. 2006-03-16. Archived from the original on 2006-04-23. http://web.archive.org/web/20060423132452/http://www.fulleffectmagazine.com/node/136. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
- ^ Cherwell.org | Music | Interview: MC Lars by Dan Gallacher
- ^ Good Morning Tresidder Union.
- ^ 27th Street.
- ^ Jamglue.com has shut down
- ^ "MC Lars: This Gigantic Robot Kills". SuicideGirls.com. 25 February 2008. http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/MC+Lars%3A+This+Gigantic+Robot+Kills/. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
External links
Categories:- 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
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