MC Lars - This Gigantic Robot that Kills
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
This Gigantic Robot Kills is the new nerdcore album from MC Lars, the self-proclaimed originator of “post-punk laptop rap.” The title of the album is based on a sample of Wesley Willis saying “Lars Horris, I like your song, I'm gonna write a song about you. I'll probably write it on my next rock and roll record which is called This Gigantic Robot Kills.” Wesley Willis died before he was able to make that album and MC Lars must have picked the name as homage.
The “self-referential introduction song,” “True Player for Real,” features the accordion talents of “Weird Al” Yankovic (a “childhood hero” of MC Lars) and contains a sample of “Don’t tase me, bro!” from the University of Florida Taser incident. Both of these things should give you a pretty good idea about where MC Lars is coming from…and just when you think you have him figured out, the title track, “This Gigantic Robot Kills,” will surprise you with third wave ska references (“Ska is not dead!”) and a horn section. Then there’s the well-done piece on suicide, “Twenty-Three,” that, unfortunately, feels a bit out of place on this album.
“Hipster Girl” and “White Kids Aren't Hyphy” are initially funny and accessible, but, like most humorous songs, probably won’t hold up to many repeat listens. A few of the tracks will probably pass that test though…because of the cleverly constructed lyrics. “No Logo” not only has the line “I’m taking down the system with my blog,” but it name-drops Adbusters, Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein (who wrote the anti-globalization book No Logo) and uses the words “egregiously” and “sheeple” in rhyme. K.Flay (who also appears on the latest Zion I release) contributes an impressively awesome verse on “We Have Arrived” and one of her fellow collaborators spits the great line: “Put a little Cap’n Crunch in your cereal port/that’ll shut your mouth so you can’t retort.”
- Score
- 60%
This might be the most mainstream nerdcore album ever released and if MC Lars doesn’t cross over with This Gigantic Robot Kills, then there probably isn’t much hope for anyone else in the genre. Give it a try and see what you think.
