May 27, 2009

MC LARS TRIVIA HOTLINE

Call the MC Lars Australia Trivia Hotline and answer these three questions for free entry for you and a friend to any of the upcoming Aussie shows! (Subject to availability.)

1) What was Lars's 1999 debut called?
2) Who is Lars on tour with?
3) What is the REAL NAME of Lars's backup rapper / co-executive producer of "This Gigantic Robot Kills?"

Call 0405 903 674 to win!!

- MC Lars

May 25, 2009

PODCAST 28: MELBOURNE STARING CONTEST

REQUEST MC LARS IN AUS

We need the Australian MC Lars legion to come together and request some post-punk laptop rap. There's 2 sites, just click on the logos.


Go to "Make a Request" and fill out the form, be sure to request MC Lars.


You have to register for this one, but that's super easy and only takes a few seconds.

So go ahead and help us get the word out, and don't forget to go to http://www.mclars.com/australia for more about the Aussie tour.

May 23, 2009

AUSTRALIA BLOG #2

I'm writing this from a Thai restaurant in a Southeast Asian mall in the middle of downtown Melbourne off of Burke St. DJ and I found three things we were looking for, he called it the "Shangri-La of tour rest stops." We found:

1) a peaceful comfortable place
2) with cheap Thai food
3) and free wireless that we're stealing LOL



So we're in Melbourne right now. For the past few days we've been staying at a monastery in Box Hill. These monks have a great life. They eat delicious food, study, teach, and live in a comfortable, beautiful place. We've been getting to know them and they're really really cool.



Why are we staying in a monastery? Because we're giving up hip-hop and joining the order. JK!!! But we have loved it here.

We met a monk named Christopher who's 90 years old and really has a good perspective on things. DJ said, "Do you have any advice on life?" He quoted Shakespeare to us, "This above all, to thine ownselves be true." Apparently alcohol isn't forbidden amongst Franciscan Friars, so they have fun. True players for real.



We went into the city that night and met up with our friend Carly from the US. She took us to some rowdy bars and we had a good time. We then went back to her house and listened to the Beatles and DJ fell asleep in her friend's room. Then when I came to get DJ, Carly's New Zealand roommate was furious because we were whispering too loud. It was probably one of the most terrifying international experiences ever - to be in a random girl's house in Australia, and be yelled at by a strange New Zealander at 4 am for whispering. We left the next morning and came back to the monastery to sleep for a few hours before our Wheelers Hill show.



The first show was fun but the sound was really really crazy. Their input board was really old school, so there was no room for my guitar amp to have a mic on it... so that meant no guitar in the monitor mix. It was a blistering mix of treble, reverberations, and synths. We rocked it though, and the two-hundred people who had come out to see our show in the middle of the Melbourne suburbs loved it.



Guess what Melbourne has a lot of? Beautiful people. It's like they all come here to enjoy the prosperity and walk around and catch everyone's attention. Melbourne = New York + Barcelona. Yay.

We played an in-store yesterday at a cool punk rock record store called Fist to Face. It was a tiny room but it was packed with excited kids - it was our only under 18 show on the tour, so young kids came from hours away. It felt like a Stanford dorm show. Wherewolves backed us up with their acoustic guitars. My Aunt Dale and Uncle Ted came to the show and we made plans to meet up and see the rest of my cousins Sunday.



DJ and I then took the train into town, and since trains leave so rarely, we were on a car with a bunch of cool fans from Northern Victoria. We talked about everything, and our new friend Kotty introduced us to a vegan burger placed called "Lord of the Fries".

We went to the hotel, got some rest, and went looking for a Guitar Hero controller for the show that night at the Bang Club at the Royal Melbourne Hotel. Apparently this is a popular spot here - when we finally went on stage, 600 people were crammed into the beautiful room. The sound was awesome, Wherewolves were tight, and it was fantastic.

We packed up the gear and went out to another bar with our friend Claire and her friends to another bar where Australians were doing drunken back-flips. Into people sitting with drinks. And people were laughing. It felt like a scene from Crocodile Dundee. And they were playing AC/DC loudly - it's almost like they're proud of that hard rock export.

We came back to the hotel, fell asleep, and woke up. Today we had some work today, I'm seeing my old friend Bonnie who I met on the Matches / Something with Numbers 2005 tour, and then I'm meeting up with my family. I'm thousands and thousands of miles away from home but it feels like home.



Melbourne rating: beautiful city full of beautiful girls who want to talk to you and beautiful things, plus awesome music and awesome food. We think we'll stay.

Lars and DJ
mclars.com/australia

May 20, 2009

AUSTRALIA BLOG #1

Hello from Melbourne. I left for Australia Saturday and arrived on Monday. It's a looooonnnnggg flight but I stayed up late to get onto Australia time.. Sam from the opening band / our Aussie backup band Wherewolves (formerly a Year to Remember) picked me up at the Brisbane airport. We crammed my stuff into his car and dropped it off at his house. Then we got into a train full of commuters and went into town to explore downtown Brisbane. We went to the park and rented two bikes and went on a beautiful ride along the river. My time zone acclimation's pretty discombobulated but we still had fun. We got back and I took a nap and he went to get DJ at the airport.



DJ arrived and we went to rehearse for the afternoon and night. The Wherewolves guys are very talented and write catchy songs, but it took a while to work out some of the more complicated songs (i.e. "This Gigantic Robot Kills", our ska slammer). By the end of the first night, we felt almost prepared. We came back, went to sleep, and got up early the next day to pick up our rented screen and projector and rehearse for nine more hours. What a day. Having DJ in tow is very helpful because he's been taking on the duty of the music director. I have a good ear for beats and hooks, but he has a much better ear for specific notes, chords and harmonies. He was our music director for Failsafe in England, the New York band for the last East Coast tour and now with Wherewolves in Australia. By the end of the day I felt extremely confident. We went out to a bar in Brisbane to celebrate our first "night on tour".



DJ is very good at hollering at ladies because he is so friendly and gregarious. We met some girls from Cairns who had come to Brisbane to see some emo band on tour because apparently not a lot of bands tour up to Northern Queensland. We then went to another bar across the street. By this time, it was pouring rain. Buckets of rain. Sheets. See, it doesn't rain a lot in Australia, but when it does it's torrential. So we crossed the street and got soaked and it was hilarious. We met some people who were apparently big Australia hip-hop fans and apparently knew my music. That's why it's fun to return to a country after you've had a top thirty hit to see how the seeds have germinated - you make friends more easily.




We caught a taxi back to Sam's house. Coincidentally, the cab was number 666 and the driver was blasting heavy metal on the radio station Triple J (government run, which means no Clear Channel fodder). DJ and the cab driver started talking about when you know it's good to buy girls drinks at bars - when it's a good idea and when it's a waste of money.

"Well, make sure they're showing interest in you as a person, not just treating you as a cash machine", the cab drive explicitly said. "Otherwise you will spend all of this money and feel taken advantage of."

The next morning DJ explained how this would apply to his life philosophy. Not to let people take advantage of you and be honest with them. I love DJ because he is a fountain at wisdom. He says next time before he buys a girl a drink he'll say, "I think you're really cute and I want to buy you a drink, but I don't know if you're the type of girl who wants to use me for free drinks all night or if you really want to talk. So A), tell me if you're interested or not really interested, and I'll but you a drink anyway for being honest, or B), if you are interested I'd love to buy you a drink and get to know you better. It's your call, either way if fine with me." That can work in many situations.



The next morning, Sam and the gang picked up the van and trailer and then drove me to the airport. I was going to fly to Melbourne a day earlier to do some press, but because the rain was so incredibly tropically immense, Virgin Airlines suddenly cancelled all of their flights.

"Please get your bag from carousel three and go to windows sixteen through eighteen to get on a later flight."

Just what I wanted. I grabbed my suitcase from the baggage claim and went to wait in line. It was insane. Lines and lines of families and children and suitcases all around the airport and out the door. It was going to be hours to see anyone who worked there, and even longer to get on a flight. I was going to have to stay in Brisbane for the night and leave the next morning.



Luckily, the Wherewolves guys hadn't left, so they picked me up at the airport and we made the twenty plus hour drive down the coast to Melbourne. It's about two thousand kilometers from Brisbane to Melbourne, which is about 1,250 miles. Australian bands are road dogs - they don't stop, they just drive and drive because nothing is close, so you have to be prepared to make the ridiculously long journey. I saw it as a good opportunity to see the beautiful expansive countryside and listen to some good music and get caught up on DVDs and reading. That's my road warrior armor - media. I am also learning how to meditate even in noisy, crowded, loud vans with my Alan Watts book-on-tape. The van has no windows so it got really hot when then sun came up in the morning but we survived.



For those of you in America: Imagine driving from Seattle to San Diego in a day. Distances like these are normal for Australians. Most of the people live in the southeast corner of the country / continent. A few people live in Perth, and even less in the north. I'm reading Bill Bryson's book "In a Sunburned Country", in which he depicts his adventures across the nation, especially in the small country towns. He also talks about the social history and wildlife in an easy to understand way.



Here are some interesting unique aspects about Australia: people don't wear shoes when they go to rest stops. People are incredibly gregarious and welcoming. The people who work in the service industry are generally cheerful and friendly, and when they say "Have a nice day", it feels like they usually mean it. The music scene is so tiny, but if you're good, you can really get ahead with label support. Some of my friends (Something with Numbers and Kisschasey) have had incredible success by being incredible bands who have made name for themselves and succeeded within the old-school label model. Imagine that - a music industry based on local pride and merit that supports a local scene. The Wherewolves guys are going to do well - it seems like every band that opens for us at some point gets hugely famous (Gym Class Heroes, Say Anything etc.). We're happy when that happens because it's good karma.



My Dad's Australian, so I have a lot of cousins in Melbourne. We're here until Monday, so I'm going to try to meet up with them. We are incredibly excited for the first show of the tour tomorrow. It's going to be great. We haven't even started the tour and it's been a really fun time.



Signing out from Down Under,

MC Lars

May 14, 2009

HELP PICK NEXT SINGLE/VIDEO

Help pick the next single from "This Gigantic Robot Kills", win a free USB MC Lars robot!!

You can vote here.

MC Lars


May 12, 2009

MC LARS MERCH

Check out this hot merch from MerchDirect:




More merch here!

May 11, 2009

UK TOUR PODCAST

Just got back from another awesome tour with my East Coast band. We played a few club shows, headlined a festival in Rochester and opened for Nas in Connecticut. The band has been killing it... now if we can only get Rob to quit his job at the bank, we'll be locked in for the summer tour. JK Rob. Props to Mike Russo for his tour management skills. I enjoyed rocking out with Worm Quartet in New York too (great shot Lanni!):



I'm back at my parents' house for this week before I go to Australia. I'm headed up to San Francisco tomorrow to record some guest parts and a song from the new record with the Rondo Brothers. The new album is called "Lars Attacks!" and it's going to be amazing. I finally edited the podcast from the April UK tour... see above.

HORRIS RECORDS FTW!!!!

Watch out Australia, because DJ and I are headed down under this weekend. Can't wait to return to the country with spiders the size of studio apartments in Pacifica.

Much love to the fans who came out to show their support. See you on the summer US tour!

MC Lars
www.twitter.com/mc_lars

May 2, 2009

LAST.FM INTERVIEW

MC LARS GEEK MONTHLY FEATURE

Check out the new issue of Geek Monthly for the cool interview they did with me recently.

SHOCKHOUND VIDEO INTERVIEW


Check out the full interview here!

JOIN THE AUSTRALIAN STREET TEAM

Yo Australia! Want free merch? Join the street team from Australia to spread the word about the new record and you'll get some awesome free stuff.





Love you!!

MC Lars