Podcast with Bryan Atchison of Koo Koo Kanga Roo

This week, I catch up with to Bryan Atchison, the other half of Koo Koo Kanga Roo. We talk about how we met on the VANS Warped Tour, our frequent tours together to the UK, and how he and Neil first met at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, shortly before starting Koo. We also talk about fatherhood, the music industry, and the creative process, and the serious business of being silly on stage. We discuss our musical influences and speculate on the future of Koo Koo Kanga Roo and MC Lars. An awesome conversation with a creative and brilliant artist!

Podcast with Neil Olstad of Koo Koo Kanga Roo

An interview with Neil Olstad (one half of the legendary Twin Cities children’s band Koo Koo Kanga Roo)!  I caught up with Neil while we were both on tour in the UK to talk basketball, theme parks and music.  We discuss about the similarities between a curated day at Disneyland and coming to see a Koo show, and tips and tricks on how touring bands can help rescue bad shows (which never happens to Koo or me).  We also talk about the podcast medium and Neil’s two shows, both on Minneapolis’s professional basketball teams ("Lynx Dynasty" and "Wolvescast").  A great interview with a brilliant dude.

Podcast with Chris Gates

Back in high school, my friend Chris Gates and I had a radio show on KSPB. These days, he's a successful pop culture journalist who has published his own comic book and written articles from everyone from Playboy to Mashable. This week on the MC Lars Podcast, we talk about the years he spent writing for MAD Magazine, our shared excitement for Super Mario Maker 2, awkward middle school memories, and our first band together (Horris). We also talk about the day I decided to call myself Lars!

"Dewey" stuff

So as many of you probably know, my friend Mega Ran and I made an album a few years ago about our favorite literary masterpieces.  We then did a Kickstarter so people could pre-order it and we could pay the people who worked on the album. The physical copies have been sent to the backers and the album is available everywhere digitally this coming Friday (even though most of the songs have already been posted as singles).  Yay.

There are two videos out already, which you can watch below.  My dream is that one day they’ll get millions of views, but as of right now, we are continuing to promote them however we can.  “1984” has about three thousand views and “Walden” has about five hundred.  I know we don’t have millions of subscribers, but I think these videos are really special. Between Mega Ran and me tweeting about them and the pair of us doing all of these interviews that our publicist Sue has set up, I know our videos will find their audience. (In other words, please tell a friend.)

I just finished Trout Fish in America by Richard Brautigan.  It’s a weird, funny, inspiring book that felt a lot like Infinite Jest in how it plays with time, reality and narration perspective.  I will write a song about this California classic by “the last of the Beats” (which is how I have heard Brautigan described). Life is exciting, but it is also very weird right now.  I am thankful for my friends and these upcoming shows, as well as the exciting tours that might be happening later this year. Also, there has been some progress on a huge project I’ve been working on for a decade, which is wonderful. I’m more patient these days. 

The world is increasingly getting scarier with these shootings and the death of democracy.  Reading makes me happy, as does exercise, but I will admit that I feel isolated right now.  I am working on losing weight and being a more kind person. I started reading Danny Goldberg’s book about Kurt Cobain.  I’ve been playing Super Smash Bros for Switch and dreaming of a brighter tomorrow. 

Goodnight everyone.

"Infinite Jest"

I was intrigued by Chuck Klosterman’s essay about Wallace in But What If We’re Wrong?, so I began reading Infinite Jest casually in early 2016, diving in earnestly on Dec 26th, 2018. It took a lot of discipline to finish the 1,079 page novel, but I did, and it inspired a bunch of Patreon tracks, of which I am very proud. I feel like I can read anything now.

You can listen to my interview with Wallace scholar Greg Carlisle here, where I ask him dozens of questions about Wallace’s book’s plot and Carlisle’s fantastic Elegant Complexity, a guide that greatly helped me understand Jest.

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"Travel East"

To where they shred you like a sawmill

Suicidal fortress, forests and forces

Where you can walk into the loving arms

of the death snake

Falling away

Forgetting the pain 


"Rollercoasters Alone"

You could ride them forever

Ups and downs

Alone

Quick highs and lows

On repeats

Or you could share them;

Build a life

Open-hearted

Diligent, kind, and strong

Because life is not a stack 

of unread eBay comics

DVDs by Kamal in cellophane

Flatscreens in garages

Although it can be all of these things

It is necessary to take a new step

Find love and stability

Flex your muscles

Pray a bit

Cleanse yourself from pass sins

Redemptive, apologetic poems

All I ever prayed for, really