MC Lars
MC Lars with his Kidrobot toys in 2012
MC Lars with his Kidrobot toys in 2012
Background information
Birth nameAndrew Robert Nielsen
Also known as
  • Lars Horris
  • MC Lars Horris
  • Lars
Born (1982-10-06) October 6, 1982
OriginOakland, California, U.S.
Genres
Years active1999–present
LabelsHorris Records, Nettwerk, Truck Records, Oglio Records
Websitemclars.com

Andrew Robert Nielsen (born October 6, 1982), known professionally as MC Lars, is an American record producer, rapper, cartoonist, podcaster and educator. Lars is one of the self-proclaimed originators of "lit-hop",[2] and is the founder and CEO of the independent record label Horris Records. Lars has been cited as the creator of the term "iGeneration", which he was credited with doing in 2003.[3][4]

Education

Lars attended Stevenson School, a high school in Pebble Beach, California. For college and graduate school, he attended Stanford University and Oxford University.[5][6]

Career

He has recorded for Truck Records in the UK, Sidecho Records in the United States, 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.

As a touring act, Nielsen has opened for Snoop Dogg, I Fight Dragons, the Matches, Lupe Fiasco, Nas, Simple Plan, Bowling for Soup, Gym Class Heroes, Say Anything, Streetlight Manifesto, Suburban Legends, Test Icicles, Jack's Mannequin, Bayside, Fightstar, MC Frontalot, MC Chris, Wheatus, The Aquabats, T-Pain, Yung Joc, Cartel, Zebrahead[7][8] and Insane Clown Posse.[9]

Musical style and culture

MC Lars at the Vans Warped Tour 2013.

Originally releasing tracks under the name Lars Horris, and then MC Lars Horris, Nielsen eventually dropped Horris (which later became the name of his record label), becoming MC Lars. Lars plays with a laptop and occasionally a punk rock band to back him up, which he refers to as "post-punk laptop rap". Samples from bands such as Supergrass, Piebald, Brand New, Fugazi, and Iggy Pop play a key role in MC Lars's music. 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.[10]

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, while "Mr. Raven" is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven". "Ahab" is about the novel Moby Dick and "Hey There Ophelia" on This Gigantic Robot Kills retells the story of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The term "iGeneration", coined by Lars in 2003, was used to describe the generation born primarily in the mid-to-late 1980s, was used in his song of the same name and given out for free to Facebook users in August 2006 in conjunction with iTunes. In early 2006, his song "Download This Song" was featured on the pop-culture CBC Radio show Definitely Not The Opera.

Intellectual property activism

In 2006, he released the single "Download This Song", which entered the Australian Singles Chart at number 29, while working 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,[11] 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.[12] MC Lars returned to the UK in October 2006.

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.[13]

Carnegie Hall performance and TEDx Talks

After releasing the "Edgar Allan Poe EP", MC Lars performed at Carnegie Hall as part of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards National Ceremony.[14] Subsequently, he delivered a TEDx talk at the University of Southern California on the ties between literature and rap, in collaboration with the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.[15] He later gave another TEDx talk in Homer, Alaska.[16]

Horris Records

Following 2004's the Laptop EP, Lars continued to grow his independent record label Horris Records. Horris served as an imprint of Nettwerk and Oglio before becoming self-distributed.[17] In 2008, Horris signed a two-record distribution deal with Crappy Records, founded by Jaret Reddick, from the American rock band Bowling For Soup.[18]

MC Lars performing with Australian band Wherewolves at Bang! Nightclub in Melbourne, May 2009.

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, Pierre Bouvier of Simple Plan, the MC Bat Commander of the Aquabats, Suburban Legends, Worm Quartet, Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship, Brett Anderson of the Donnas, MC Frontalot, Jesse Dangerously, Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup, Linus Dotson of Size 14, Parry Gripp of Nerf Herder, Jonathan Coulton, Aesias Finale, Sebastian Reynolds, Joe Ragosta of Patent Pending and classical musician Walt Ribeiro to complete his album This Gigantic Robot Kills.

In 2011, Horris signed Weerd Science.[17] Having his own label allowed Lars to experiment creatively.[19] Lars Attacks! was a return to basics, with less punk elements and more standard hip-hop stylings, funded by Kickstarter, featuring cameos from KRS-One, Sage Francis and Mac Lethal.[19] MC Lars used Kickstarter to fund a "Greatest Hits" album on vinyl, which also included his "Edgar Allan Poe EP".[20] On November 6, 2015, Lars released the Zombie Dinosaur LP, his fourth official album.[21] After releasing various musical projects via Bandcamp and Patreon in the years that followed, Lars used Kickstarter to fund his fifth album “Blockchain Planet” in 2021. The name Horris Records is derived from a cartoon character Lars created in middle school which also served as the basis for Lars' original stage name, MC Lars Horris, named after a character from Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.[17]

Live accompaniment

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 Brown recorded 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".

On stage, Lars has been joined by Wheatus, Bowling for Soup, Simple Plan, the Matches and Failsafe. While supporting Zebrahead in the UK and Europe in 2010, Ed Udhus, Greg Bergdorf and tour manager Bobby Conner joined Lars on stage. In 2019 MC Lars took to the stage with Newcastle-based unsigned alt rock outfit Ruled By Raptors as his backing band in the UK as part of his 10-year anniversary celebrations for This Gigantic Robot Kills. On the tour, MC Lars mentioned this was the first time that he had performed with a band without any form of backing track, instead relying on the band to recreate everything instrumentally or with samples and triggers.[22]

Discography

References

  1. ↑ Elderkin, Beth (May 26, 2020). "10 Nerdcore, Nerd-Folk, and Other Geeky Artists to Add to Your Playlist". Retrieved January 5, 2021 – via io9.gizmo.com.
  2. ↑ "Rapper MC Lars Shares His Favorite Book". SPIN.com. Retrieved 2016-06-12.
  3. ↑ "Talking 'Bout iGeneration - MC Lars". ascap.com. Archived from the original on 2008-12-11.
  4. ↑ Williams, Justin A. The Cambridge Companion to Hip-Hop. 12 February 2015. ISBN 9781107037465.
  5. ↑ Cabrera, Marc (November 20, 2008). "Nerd rap". Montereyherald.com. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
  6. ↑ Thornton, Stuart (December 13, 2007). "Already ambitious MC Lars further expands his sound". Monterey County Weekly. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
  7. ↑ Friends, Debbie and. "Boston's Own Debbie And Friends Among The 8th Annual Independent Music Awards Vox Populi Winners". PRLog. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  8. ↑ "Independent Music Awards - 2009 Judges". 12 April 2009. Archived from the original on 12 April 2009. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  9. ↑ "MC Lars Interview on DCG Con, ICP, Nerdcore, more! [May 2018] - Faygoluvers". Faygoluvers.net. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  10. ↑ Newitz, Annalee (March 1, 2005). "Adam Curry Wants to Make You an iPod Radio Star". Wired.com.
  11. ↑ "Spotlight Artist: MC Lars". Full Effect Magazine. 2006-03-16. Archived from the original on 2006-04-23. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  12. ↑ Thornton, Stuart. "Already ambitious MC Lars further expands his sound". Monterey County Herald.
  13. ↑ "Jamglue.com has shut down". Jamglue.com.
  14. ↑ Baden, Morgan. "Video spotlight: MC Lars is "Never Afraid" when books are around!". Scholastic.
  15. ↑ "The hip-hop of Shakespeare: MC Lars at TEDxUSC". YouTube.
  16. ↑ "Education Through Rap and Hip Hop- MC Lars - TEDxYouth@Homer". YouTube.
  17. 1 2 3 MC Lars and Weerd Science interview Part 1. YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  18. ↑ "MC Lars: This Gigantic Robot Kills". SuicideGirls.com. 25 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  19. 1 2 "MC Lars Kickstarter Site". Kickstarter.com.
  20. ↑ "MC Lars Kickstarter Site". Kickstarter.com.
  21. ↑ MC Lars. "The Zombie Dinosaur LP - AVAILABLE NOV. 6th!". Bandcamp. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  22. ↑ "MC Lars". Facebook.com. Archived from the original on 2022-02-26.
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