It’s Christmas time in Cleveland.

Well, not literally, but the holidays are approaching. We loaded into the House of Blues venue today after our fun day off with our Ohio friends Nick Brophy and Drew. Taco Bell has sponsored our tour, so we have an insane amount of coupons to use for Mexican food. I wanted to tweet something about how the van was going to smell, but both Jon and DJ decided that this would be a bad idea for our corporate relations.

I took a walk today down to Lake Erie, past the Cleveland Browns stadium. The downtown area of Cleveland by the lake is beautiful. I saw the Great Lakes Science Center, but it was closed. You know how I love science on tour.

I am on my fourth tour with my Texan homies Bowling for Soup. It’s my second US tour with them, the last time being in 2005 when I took time off from my senior year at Stanford to become a professional laptop rapper. They’ve had my back for years and years, and just took me to the UK with them and Zebrahead. We’ve done a stripped down version of the set for this run with drums, K.Flay on the MPK and guitar, and DJ and me rapping. It’s been great because it has a more hip-hop and less punk vibe. DJ has been rocking Jesse Dangerously’s parts on “No Logo”.

We started the tour, flying into Des Moines and meeting Jon and Joe in Iowa. We spent the evening rehearsing the set in the hotel room and then met up with Bowling for Soup the next day. It was a small, dedicated crowd. We then drove to South Dakota, where I played my first ever show in that state. Mt. Rushmore was about seven hours out of the way, so we passed on seeing it this run. It’s all good though.

In Madison we played in a theater, and Flay rapped at an after-party for frat boys. They didn’t understand what she was doing, and the DJ kept cutting her beats off, so after we silenced the hecklers, we decided to roll. It was really crazy because people were harassing us as we drove away. But whatever, we’re unstoppable. In St. Paul I saw my friend Brandon Patton from Frontalot’s band, and then we drove to East Lansing to play a new venue called Small Planet near Michigain State. David from Dual Core came and hung out with us at the East Lansing show, and we drove to Nick Brophy’s house in Luckey, Ohio, freestyling in the car to his Mobb Deep iPod instrumentals.

We watched that Three 6 Mafia “Hollyhood” DVD and chuckled at the cultural juxtaposition. How can these Memphis boys come so hard on the record, but be so silly and sweet in real life, trying to go to auditions and pitch songs to Jackass? It’s a great look into Hollywood.

I love this tour in great part because my road crew is so fantastic. Shout outs to Joe Oliger for rocking merch and helping with the tech stuff everyday. He learned “Hipster Girl” in case we have time to play it, but the sets have been mad short. Our friend Mike Russo is joining us after Pittsburgh to add some guitar flavor to the set. Then he is taking DJ and Flay away from me for their show with Asher Roth (holler, he tweeted about her being ill, which was right on), and Jon Longley and I will rock Wilkes-Barre solo.

2009 is wrapping up on a really great note for everyone in the MC Lars camp. The Crappy Records team and I have had a lot of fun figuring out how to promote and sell the material from “Robot Kills”. We’ve been all over the world…. Amsterdam, Australia, England, Ireland, the US… we’re being booked for a New Year’s show in Russia. I’m in love with the most amazing girl I’ve ever met and she understands that I have to be gone sometimes for music. Real talk about the new muse in my life: I’d known her since I was a kid, but we reconnected this summer when I was helping out at a summer camp near Lake Tahoe and she was randomly visiting. I ran into her near the cabin where I spent the summer after my freshman year and we started talking. I gave her a copy of the new EP and then I hollered at her. We started hanging out in the Bay Area. She’s poet social worker and the most beautiful brilliant amazing woman I’ve met and I’m not afraid to admit that I’m smitten. Plus that means I get to have good morals on tour, which is always a smart idea anyways. Y’all feel me. I’m a one-woman man and I love it.

So as I wind this down, weird jazz music plays in the Starbucks by the venue where I’m stealing someone’s wireless connection. I’m so proud of K.Flay for stepping up and killing it this tour. She has a two-minute solo rap thing, a la Blackalicious, where she steals the show. Everyone in my crew is amazing. The fans have been awesome and it reminds me why I do this. Tonight we’re hanging out with our rapper friends Nicky Brophy and the Average Homeboy.

Much love to the Midwest!! Come see the rest of the tour.

It’s a joyful life.

Peace,
MC LARS

P.S. Remaining dates:

Nov 17 2009 – Cleveland, Ohio – House of Blues
Nov 18 2009 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Diesel
Nov 20 2009 – Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – The Hardware Bar
Nov 21 2009 – South Hackensack, New Jersey – School of Rock
Nov 22 2009 – Lancaster, Pennsylvania – Chameleon Club
Nov 23 2009 – Richmond, Virginia – The Canal Club
Dec 5 2009 – Rochester, NY – Waterstreet Music Hall (headlining show with K.Flay)
Dec 8 2009 – Dudley, Massachusetts – Nichols College (with Pitbull)
Dec 11 2009 – Wichita Falls, Texas – Neon Spur
Dec 12 2009 – Odessa, Texas – Dos Amigos
Dec 13 2009 – Albeline, Texas – Midnight Rodeo 3
Dec 14 2009 – Lubbock, Texas – Jake’s
Dec 18 2009 – Fort Worth, Texas – Aardvark
Dec 19 2009 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – Diamond Ballroom