It’s the morning of December 31st, I am at my parents’ house in Carmel Valley, I’ve been up and back to sleep all night recovering from a cold I got while in Oklahoma a few weeks ago. Christmas was a whirlwind of fun and craziness spending time with my and my new girlfriend’s family. I’ve finally had a second to breathe and I wanted to recapitulate some of the highlights of 2009.

I put out a new album this year, my first actual new MC Lars CD since 2006. It had taken a while to release due to changes in management, labels, agents and producers. The record featured some heroes as well as some other commercially successful guests. NPR and iTunes both featured “True Player for Real” as their song of the day and week, respectively. SPIN did an interview with me for their website. Alternative Press and AbsolutePunk.net continued to give me props. The press was awesome

In January, I moved in with my then girlfriend to a place in Pacifica and her Mom came and stayed with us in our studio apartment for a week. I then drove down to LA to film the “Guitar Hero Hero” video, directed by former classmate and NYU film school grad Sean Donnelly. I had my publishing company pitch the song to Guitar Hero for licensing in one of their games, but the track’s thesis that “Beating Guitar Hero Does Not Make You Slash” was less than appealing for the brand. Apparently if I want corporations to endorse my music, I need to stop denigrating them with my lyrical content.

I was nearly run over by a woman on pills from Sacramento in a stolen car, as she tried to escape from the cops on Highway 1 near Linda Del Mar Beach. She skidded off of the road and onto the bike path. I jumped out of the way just as she ran over my Schwinn bicycle, hitting a woman walking her dogs on the same bike path. What could have ended in tragedy resulted in me getting a new bike and escaping with minors scrapes and bruises. I played a show in Oakland (a few blocks from where I would later move in November) and flew to Amsterdam for a “nerdcore” showcase with YTCracker, Beefy and MC Router. My girlfriend flew home and I explored Spain. I played an in-store at Amoeba in San Francisco.

In March I performed at MarCon in Minneapolis and SXSW in Austin, before returning to the UK for a headlining tour with Failsafe. I broke up with my girlfriend and moved out of my apartment in April. Christian from the Aquabats helped me get through it by being a good friend to me when we were in Scotland. I flew back east for a show with Ludacris and another with Nas, the Ludacris one being cancelled because of a swine flu outbreak at Johnson and Wales University. We did an East Coast club show tour to promote “Robot”.

In May I returned to Australia for a run of shows with the Brisbane pop-punk band Wherewolves. I played Live 105’s BFD in June and recorded an EP with K.Flay. In July I flew to Orlando for Nerdapalooza, after telling everyone on the Internet that nerdcore was dead and angering a cadre of underground rappers. We have all since made peace and I have realized that the timing of such an accusation was less than ideal. Apologies to Frontalot for trashing his brand. LOL!!!!

I then performed at a showcase at Comic-Con after signing autographs at the convention center. I flew to Vegas in August for an event Facebook promoted as part of DEF CON. I filmed two videos in August, one for my single with K.Flay, and kicked it in Cape Cod with my drummer and his family for a week. I worked at Stanford Sierra Camp for a few weeks as a counselor for grade school kids, where I met my new girlfriend. I fell in love with her later that year.

We attended the premier of my cousin’s amazing movie in September and saw him walk the red carpet. I was incredibly proud. I wrote a song for the American Heart Association and flew back to New York to track it and two other songs with my favorite producer Mike Sapone. I went to see ICP and was blown away by how fresh they’ve kept it in the past decade plus since I’ve been a fan. In October I returned to the UK with Bowling for Soup, Zebrahead, Failsafe and the Leftovers for one of the greatest tours of my life.

I kicked it with my new girlfriend on Halloween in San Francisco, she went as Nurse Ratched and I was Randal McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. We went pumpkin hunting in Half Moon Bay and carved them at a party in the city. We saw “Where the Wild Things Are” the next day at the IMAX and I cried. It was beautiful.

In November I toured the Midwest and East Coast with Bowling for Soup and then again in December for some shows in Texas. K.Flay and I played two holiday gigs, one in Rochester and another in Anaheim. We opened for Pitbull in Massachusetts. I filmed a video for “Twenty-Three” in Wichita Falls, Kansas that was sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. I moved to an apartment in Oakland.

“The Cleveland Show” was one of my favorite new television programs of 2009. MC Paul Barman’s first record in seven years did not disappoint. The second Wesley Willis documentary finally made it to DVD. I lost twenty pounds biking and swimming. I reclaimed emotional and psychological space.

I’m looking forward to our upcoming break before I head back to England and Europe with Zebrahead in the spring. I’m enjoying living with my friend DJ. I’m starting to write more. I’m about to embark on a ginormous media campaign for the American Heart Association. The AFSP and I are going to raise awareness about depression and suicide with the “Twenty-Three” video.

Much love to everyone’s support this year. I couldn’t have done it without you!

K.Flay is opening for Afrika Bambataa tonight. I’m going. What an awesome way to reign in the new decade!

Happy 2010!!

MC Lars