Friday, March 16   9:00 p.m.
Karma Lounge   (119 W 8th St)

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  MC Chris - wiid mod mix
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christopher brendan ward (aka mc chris) was born september 2nd, 1975 in a sububrb of chicago. he grew up in libertyville, il, a pretty much perfect picturesque american town. john hughes filmed his teen comedies in the area. his father worked for the chicago mercantile exchange, his mother stayed at home. he was raised catholic and attended catholic school up to the fifth grade. he grew up with a love of the arts, drawing, entertaining, singing, performing in general. his plans were to go to the school of art insitiute of chicago to study animation as it was walt disney's alma mater. he did attend the school for a year and a half but instead of animation he got wrapped up in video production and writing for film and transferred to new york university's tisch school of the arts where he majored in screenwriting.

new york offered mc a wide array of creative options. as luck would have it his first nyu suitemate was adam rabuck, lead singer of dirt bike annie, a pop punk college band. he introduced mc to lookout records, mr. t experience, screeching weasel, the queers, nofx, operation ivy and green day. mc opened his mind to post ramones pop punk, all the while having a field day in manhattan's hip hop record stores. mc had loved hip hop since 89, when his older brothers started playing public enemy and de la soul. mc went on to absorb all of tribe called quest's catalog. other favorites were epmd, black sheep, roots, intelligent off the beaten path hip hop. in new york he studied some of the old school masters, biz and run dmc. while in new york adam and mc began to experiment with adam's eight track. not before long was mc writing his own rhymes over adam's beats. mc chris was born. recordings were usually made over a colt 45, 45 ounce, after a night of sweeping popcorn off the floor of the movie theater mc worked at. the beats would be ready for him at 88 christopher street when he clocked out. the rhymes always came easy. there were a couple rules: say your name as many times as possible, talk about how great you are, make lots of dated pop references. most of the early songs all have mcchris in the title. it's how mc built himself up when college was secretly crushing his spirits.

mc graduated with a bfa and cassette demo of his music that was more of keepsake. as chris ward looked for a purpose post college life, mc chris went dormant. after a life sapping stint in philly, waiting tables, working for an pharmaceutical informercial company, mc was able to return to new york and live with adam and dan paquin, the bassist of dirt bike annie, in a dilapidated brownstone in jersey city, named the souse house. the basement, with its low ceiling, was home to many a marathon of underground pop punk out of the tristate and from around the country. it was at these parties that mc started to cross paths with john fewell, who was in a band called attention deficit. they shared the same label as dirt bike annie, mutant pop records, run by tim chandler. having heard a mashup (and this was around 1999) of green day's geek stink breath that john had done with some drum and bass, mc begged john for beats.

john came up with a few things and chris traveled to hastings-on-hudson in upstate new york. there in john's attic they got to work on their first song. one about boba fett. it was after phantom menace pre clones, hence all the innaccuracies. this was the beginning. soon after that mc would be hired by adam reed and matt thompson, creators of sealab 2001. up to this point mc had been working on michael moore's the awful truth and taking improv classes at the upright citizens brigade theater. he soon got to work on something new. cartoons for adults. mc contributed in every capacity on the show, writing, voice, etc but mainly he was a photoshop jockey, repurposing and cleaning up old hanna barbera scuba divers from the seventies. after about three months the show decided to move to atlanta to be closer to the cartoon network. mc chris, said goodbye to the nyc life he loved dear, left the souse house and came along for ride, sensing this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

all this time mc had been going up to wherever john was; sarah lawrence college, where he went to school, or home, to record more songs. fucking up my christmas, the tussin came soon after. mc flew up to nyc from atlanta to meet with john gemberling and hallie bullit to finish up what would become life's a bitch and i'm her pimp. mc turned 26 on the day adult swim premiered. nine days later was 9/11. not soon after that, mc launched a website, mcchris.com. after fett's vette played in an episode of sealab 2021, the site got flooded. the file got shared and mcchris became common knowledge on the internet.

mc relocated to williams street where he helped out the brak show and aqua teen hunger force where he again, drew on photoshop and occasionally lent his voice. soon he worked solely on the brak show during its last season. his responsibilities shifted all over place. mc got a few scripts into production, including a rap opera with cee-lo. by this time he was audio editing full shows, creating radio plays for the animators and producers of the show. this was put to use when mc became an associate producer and started making commercials for adult swim. mc loved working with great editors and sound folks, but still all the while kept on flying up to new york to make more music.

life's a bitch and i'm her pimp or LAB, was followed by knowing is half the hassle or KIHTH. it was john and mc's first financial endeavor and they were shocked by the response. kids actually payed for the music. they started making shirts as well. all sold directly from the site. after KIHTH, chris started getting emails and phone calls from the good folks at good charlotte, the big time mtv pop punk act. turns out they were geeks too, loved the music and wanted to see it go global.

inspired by the interest, mc set out to make eating's not cheating or ENC. mc would fly up on weekends and holidays, and spend most of his spare time at the office working on the website or the merchandise. adultswim was kind enough to make on air advertisements for the album's drop date. it made enough money that mc felt confident enough to leave cartoon nework, return to new york and really take the whole mc thing seriously. this is was the end of 2004.

2005 became a whirlwind year for mc. immediately after touching down in nyc, mc secured a manager, a booking agent. the album was repackaged and re-released under the good charlotte's dc flag label and a tour was booked. the first leg of touring surprised everyone involved. the shows were selling out, kids were showing up in droves and they knew all the words. they've since toured the country extensively, having done 200 some shows since their first one, the 2004 onion christmas party. other shows of interest include an appearance on g4's attack of the show, a 2000 person show at the penny arcade expo, opening up for jurassic 5, and opening for mindless self indulgence on numerous occasions. on the day revenge of the sith premiered mc took his sold out auidence in eugene oregon to a reserved theater to watch the movie. mc had the luck of seeing the movie earlier at skywalker ranch with george lucas. magazines appearances include time, spin, alternative press, stuff, xxl, wired, toyfare, wizard, timeout ny, the voice, and the onion. they were nominated for 2005 underground band of the year at spin.com. but the greatest achievement was the realization of the ever growing mcchris fanbase, kids saw up to ten shows, travelled all over the country to catch the little varations. it had all the makings of a dead head like following, except with nerds.

the release of mc's fourth album, dungeon master of cermonies was an unprecedented success, peaking at number nine on hip hop itunes in the fall of 2006. the release was followed by another amazing tour, breaking all previous records. the tour even made its way into the pages of newsweek early 2007. as for the future, mc has acquired new management and new legal, has parted ways with john and is taking meetings with everyone from sony pictures to hasbro. for right now though the focus is music. after south by south west mc will tour all spring with piebald, during which mc's film debut in the new aqua teen hunger force will kick off mid april.