THE GOOD:

Last week, I was voted “Best Indie Act Of 2010″ by the readers of the Orlando Weekly. That made me feel really good, and not more than just a tad bit shocked. If you voted for me, thank you very much. It goes to show that there are always way more people paying attention than I expect, and I’m glad that I have left enough of an impression on *anyone* to be called “the best”, let alone a whole city. You guys rule, seriously.

Also, in this last weeks issue of Orlando Weekly, my 2004 song “No London In Brazil” was voted as one of the “50 Best Orlando Songs” by none other than my pal Hex of Nerdapalooza fame. The fact that ANY of my songs was considered good enough for this honor is pretty humbling and exciting, but I’m really flattered that one of my personal favorites made the cut. I never get sick of that one, and I’m glad you folks haven’t either.

THE BAD:

You’ve probably heard about this by now, and if you haven’t… heh, pull up a chair.

Last weekend, I made my third appearance at the yearly Nerdapalooza festival. To say that it’s one of my most eagerly anticipated shows of the year by both the audience and myself would be a massive understatement. And while I would love to be spending the next few minutes telling you all about how awesome all of the acts were this weekend, (which they were, and I was especially blown away by Devo Spice, Dr. Awkward, MC Cool Whip… not to mention the absolutely mindblowing Sunday Service set by Emergency Pizza Party), and I would really love to go on at length about how much fun I had sharing the stage with Sci-Fried during their BLISTERING Saturday night show, (which you can see clips of here, including the premiere of the song I helped out on called “Foiled Again”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_VOWpuW4Ik), but instead… I’ve got to talk about the news of the moment.

At about 6 PM on Sunday night, I climbed onstage for my Nerdapalooza set. I had the thankless task of following the utterly explosive performance by Zealous1 & The Bossfights, and I was ready to take the task on headfirst. After a rousing introduction by Hex himself, I jumped into “Chicken Pox & Star Wars Guys” and everything was going pretty swell. Exactly halfway through the first verse of “Stairway To Rudolph”, I twisted to the right slightly, and at the exact same time the somewhat wobbly stage shifted under my feet (best as I’ve been able to put together, at least… this all happened really fast). At this point, I lost my balance and my kneecap popped out of socket. While trying to keep my feet planted on the ground to avoid the fall, I could feel a few more pops in my knee, and next thing I knew, I’m crumpled in a ball on the stage and my guitar has just bonked me on the head. I reach down and – without thinking – I pop my knee back in place by hand and ask one of the numerous people that had rushed onstage to check on me to get me a chair. As soon as I could hop onto the seat, I tried to pick up where I left off in the song, but my knee was throbbing pretty badly and I’m sure I butchered the rest of it.

I performed the rest of my set trying to balance mostly on my right leg, and I had to be pretty much carried off the stage after “Happy To Be Alive”. I did cut one song, to be fair, but I still played for about 25 of my scheduled 30 minutes. I know that a lot of people had come just to see my set, and even more folks had flown from all over the world to be there. I did my best not to let you all down, and I hope that you enjoyed the show despite the very, very obvious setback.

Within an hour of the end of my set, I had to quickly depart to go to an emergency room. My knee had swollen to the point where I could no longer pull my pants leg over it, so I knew it was pretty serious. We ended up at an ER near my house because apparently most walk-in clinics are closed on Sunday nights. They referred me to an orthopedic specialist, prescribed me a glorified bottle of Aspirin and sent me on my way. The following day, I pretty much couldn’t bend my leg at all.

THE REALLY, REALLY SUCKY:

By Tuesday afternoon, it was pretty clear that something was much, much more screwed up than we’d previously anticipated. After an MRI, I was told that my anterior cruciate ligament had been practically torn in half, and as was visible on the x-ray, there was a good inch and a half of fluid surrounding all parts of my knee… and my patella was at about a 45 degree angle from where it normally is.

In short? My knee is really fucked up. I’ve been ordered to stay off of it as much as possible for the next six weeks. Which means that I HAVE to cancel the August 7th show in Orlando where I was to play the “Normal Bias” and “Bubblegum Romance” albums in their entirety. Anyone that knows me can vouch that canceling anything EVER is abhorrent to every bone in my body – I’m pretty sure that I proved this on Sunday night with my Nerdapalooza performance. But in this case, I’m in no shape to perform a marathon show, and I certainly couldn’t even carry my own amplifier. In order to do the show, I’d be stricken to a chair, and it wouldn’t be any fun to watch…. hell, I’d probably be in too much pain to even sing well for any period of time, honestly. I am not going to waste anyone’s time when I know in advance that I will not be able to put on the kind of show that you have come to expect from me. And on top of that, if I *did* try to perform, I’d run the risk of screwing my knee up even worse than it is, and as much as I love playing my songs for you… I’m gonna need my left knee in the future.

So yes, to reiterate: my August 7th show at Stardust in Orlando, Florida is 100% canceled, I will reschedule it for later in the year, and maybe I’ll do it for this year’s annual holiday show, if you’d like. I will return to performing in early September. I hope this doesn’t disappoint or inconvenience anyone too badly.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone for their super kind emails and well-wishes over the last few days. And especially Dr. Vern from Sci-Fried who made sure that I had crutches waiting for me offstage at the end of my set. So many people were amazing about coming to my aid that day, and I want you to know that I appreciate everything you all have done very, very much. I hope that I can get back to performing sooner than later, and that you’ll all be excited when I’m able to get back to doing the shows.

Love on ya,
Marc

PS: Since I had to shut down merch sales directly after my Nerdapalooza set (for obvious reasons), many of you had inquired about whether or not they could still get the RetroLowFi vinyl at the lowered pre-sale price, or if there were any left at all. The answer is: there are plenty left, and I’ll keep the price at twenty bucks for a few more weeks. Thanks for understanding.

Click this link for proof.

PS: I know, I’m just as surprised as you are about it.

In the last few weeks, I had a bit of a dream come true when I dropped the needle on some sweet red vinyl and heard my own voice coming out of the speakers. Sure, I’ve released more music in the past than I can keep up with, (seriously, I have almost no idea what’s out there and what isn’t at this point), but absolutely nothing has compared to this. As I was so terrifyingly told on my last guest spot at Nerdy Show, there’s a good chance that one day soon we’ll see a huge flare-up of the sun that will render all of our digital wares useless. I’m not sure that I totally buy that, but it’s comforting to know that if all of technology should be destroyed, that all you’ll have to do to hear some of my songs is put the tonearm onto a wax copy of RetroLowFi: 10 Years Of Marc With a C, put your ear close to the disc and make the platter turn… and bam. There are my tunes preserved for all of eternity. Unless the sunspots melt all of our petroleum based products, in which case… well, I’m gonna have an entire room in my house dedicated to warped records. Making my point obsolete. Nevermind. Vinyl’s as final as it gets for now, and I’m glad to be preserved. Those grooves are magical, and it was like hearing some of my own songs for the first time ever. This is a limited pressing, and while it won’t sell out overnight, once they’re gone, I don’t have any plans to repress it. You can nab yourself one on the “Record Store!” page of marcwithac.com.

Of course, I’m lucky that these were ready in time for my performance at this years Nerdapalooza. This is my third time being invited back, and if the current setlist sticks, I’ll only be repeating about three songs from past performances at the festival. Who knows, though? I could just show up and play “Nerdy Girls” nine times in a row. I always change things at the last minute anyways. Regardless, I’m playing on Sunday, July 18th at around 5 PM, so if you can make it to Orlando for the most fun music festival I have ever been to, I’ll be excited to see you there.

The next gig after that is in early August at my old haunt known as Stardust Video in Orlando. I’ll be performing two of my records in their entirety: Normal Bias and fan favorite Bubblegum Romance. I’ve been asked numerous times if there’s a special occasion that convinced me to make such a move, and here it is for the record… ready? It seemed like fun. That’s it. Plus, both of those albums are heavily represented on the RetroLowFi compilation, so I suppose that in a way it’s sort of celebratory, but it wasn’t really intended as such. With Bias, I get to play pretty much my favorite of my own albums straight through, meaning that I’m getting the chance to play some certain songs that I really, really love but never have time to put in a setlist, and with Bubblegum, there’s a huge cluster of some of my most oft-requested tunes mixed with tracks that I haven’t played in upwards of seven years. Seriously. I have to relearn more than a few tunes to play them at this show. And as is the case with any of my shows that run into the “marathon” category, if time permits and the audience is willing, I’ll totally do one of my patented all-request encores. Although this time I might try to come up with a system that’s a bit more effective than just having everyone yell stuff at the same time. As I get older my hearing goes out just a tad more, and it’s getting harder to make out what the hell you’re saying to me. At a show in April, I misheard a shouted request for “Melena” and instead wrote a new song on the spot for what I thought was yelled: “Lolita”.

And of course there’s Tampa OddCon to look forward to in October. And probably the traditional Rocky Horror shows with the Rich Weirdoes over Halloween, but nothing is confirmed about that just yet. So maybe I shouldn’t have typed that. Oh well, too late,

Other things I’m currently working on: I have about thirty minutes of new material demoed for the next Marc With a C album, so far. The new songs are cool, but I have absolutely no idea what will make it to the finished product, which I’ll tell you about as soon as it’s good enough to release. The tracks I like best so far are “The Kindergarten Steely Dan”, “Good Night Miss…”, “Try To Just Stop” and… I dunno, I like “I Would Build You A Home”, but how many people want to hear another long, drawn-out piano ballad out of me? I’ve also remastered an older cover of mine for a tribute album that I can’t tell you about yet. I started work on a song for another tribute album I can’t tell you about yet besides the one I just mentioned. Actually, I’ve been recording quite a few covers lately. More than usual. Weirdly, I feel like my pace of recording has slowed to a crawl, but I’ve technically pressed the “record” button on enough stuff to make a double album without editing anything, and my last album was only released to the public in March. I can expect absolutely no one on earth to have the attention span that it would take to hear every little tune I make up, so for now, I’ll just tease it in bloggy-journal-type-things.

Oh, and I did some work with Sci-Fried. More on that soon, when I’m able to say more than “oh, and I did some work with Sci-Fried”, haha. Some teasers: you’ll really like the song, and I’m playing an instrument that you’ve probably never heard about me playing before.

On another note: As many of you know, all of the records I have made as Marc with a C are freely available to download for no money whatsoever at marcwithac.com. But, if you can believe it, some folks find downloading zip files to be entirely too much of a burden for their, busy, on-the-go lifestyles. Some people just want to hear song real quick like as they powder their faces or what have you. So now, besides selling vinyl and CD’s at my website, and beyond letting you download whatever you’d like for free, you can now stream pretty much all of my officially released studio work for no charge at marcwithac.bandcamp.com. This does not extend to certain limited EP’s or the live albums, but… holy crap, there’s a lot of friggin’ songs up for your perusal. If you see fit, you can also download the music there on a “pay what you want to pay” basis. You can donate anywhere from nothing at all to a gazillion dollars per song. The world is your burrito. Well, at least as far as my songs are concerned, it is.

Speaking of burritos, I’ve been looking for years for a place that can replicate the type of delicious burritos one can easily acquire on any street corner in San Diego, but it’s been slow going. I have to wonder how some of this crap is ever even passed off as “food”, really. My pal Hex hails from some similar stomping grounds as I do, experienced the same woes as myself, and he showed me an awesome place called California Burrito Express right here in Orlando. My wife and I have eaten there more times than our own house in recent weeks. That’s not really a shameless plug, but more of a “holy crap, we’ve eaten a lot of burritos lately, and it’s all I can think about”. Seriously. This place is awesome. I’d go to their 24-hour drive through right now if I didn’t think that my wife would kill me for not waking her up and bringing her with me.

I should probably wrap this up. I will leave you with some parting words that you should take to heart: I am currently working on *way* more than I am telling you about in this blog, and much of it will be a total surprise to you. I can keep a secret or two when I have to.

Love on ya,
Marc

PS: Oh! If you’d like to hear a newer song of mine, Independent Clauses is hosting a compilation EP of various artists that features an exclusive demo of my new song “Brian, Jenny, & The Mayan Calendar”.

(click on the photos to see a bigger image, please!)

These are still available for pre-order for the lowered price of $20 and will be until the “official” unveiling at this years Nerdapalooza festival. Why not grab your copy now?

Also…

OH MY GOD MY FIRST VINYL RECORD HOLY CRAP I AM SO EXCITED.

Love on ya,
Marc

The contest was: make something/anything visual that proved how badly you want the album. I promised to pick the one I liked best and award things accordingly. Ready?

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

(Please click on them to make them bigger. They’re worth seeing!)

This one comes from DeLani. There’s a lot going on here, and it’s right up my alley. Good job!

Chas made this one. He wanted the records so badly that he broke some stuff.

THIRD PLACE:

Bruce Worden (of Goodnight Keith Moon fame) made this picture. People make fun of my stage name all the time… and he’s the first one to make this particular joke. He wins the third place prize: a mixtape!

SECOND PLACE:

KSV (of Sci-Fried/Slacker & The Man) made this video for “I’m In Love With Everyone I Know”. I laughed long and hard at this one, and so did pretty much anyone that I talked to about it. Never let it be said that I can’t laugh at myself. This one wins the second place prize: a dubbed copy of the original “Amy, It’s Kevin” answering machine tape. And what the hell, he gets a mixtape too!

FIRST PLACE:

There’s a tie!

My contest, my rules, my decision. Both of these were equally awesome.  They both get copies of the RetroLowFi vinyl test pressings. I had an extra pair anyways, what the heck was I gonna do with it, really?

This entry comes from Emmit. It’s the backside of a one-stringed electric slide guitar that he handmade. Yup, a new instrument has been brought into the world because of this contest. I’d be a real jackass if this didn’t get some top honors. Wish I could play it. You make some music in response to me making music? You win some wax, my friend.

Aaaand… yes. Indiana made a doll in my likeness. Knitted a “sold separately” guitar for this amigurumi to play. Put some awesome records in the video and juxtaposed it against some of the creepiest jingle music I’ve ever heard. If you look closely, you’ll even see a triple inchophone record player on the floor. There’s no question that this entry deserves the wax too!

So, there you go. Amazing work, folks. SERIOUSLY. You’re all winners in your own way, but these winners get the prizes. Contact me with your address ASAP, and I’ll totally send you your stuff. You have definitely earned it beyond the shadow of a doubt. You guys rule!

Love on ya,
Marc

Now’s your chance! The RetroLowFi compilation is officially on vinyl and up for pre-order. It’s two LP’s, pressed on beautiful red wax in a super-bitchin’ gatefold package. It has all of the big crowd favorites that we could fit onto it, and it spans all of Marc’s first ten years worth of releases. If you take advantage of this special advance sale, you can get it for the low price of twenty american dollars. After the presale ends, the price goes up, so really… don’t sleep on it. This offer won’t be repeated and supplies are ULTRA limited. Order it safely through PayPal, eh?

All orders will ship in late June/early July. Don’t worry, you’ll know.

One lucky winner will win a test pressing of the album. There are literally five
of these in existence, so you will have the ONLY copy that will exist outside of myself, Chris Zabriskie, and our pals that helped us get this pressed. That’s it. Awesome, right?

HOW TO ENTER:

This contest is open to everyone on the planet. Here’s all you have to do: make SOMETHING visual that proves how badly you want the test pressing. It can be a photo you took, something made on MS-Paint, a YouTube video, a sculpture… whatever floats your boat. You have until Monday, May 31st, 2010 to enter. There are a very few ground rules, and this is the list:

1. No nudity involved from you or anyone else, please. (I’m sure your private parts are very nice, but they won’t get you very far here.)
2. The visual “thing” that you make must clearly display the words “Marc With a C” and “RetroLowFi” somewhere.
3. You MUST host this visual “thing” on your web presence – Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, Flickr, LiveJournal, your personal website, etc – where it can be seen, and it must be left up until at least Monday, May 31st, 2010. (You’d think I was trying to promote an album or something, right?)
4. You can let us know that you’ve done this via Twitter (marcfi), Facebook (facebook.com/marcwithacmusic), or by emailing retrolowfi@gmail.com. (If you don’t alert us, we won’t see it, and that means hardly anyone else will see it either. That’d be a waste of your time, wouldn’t it?)
5. Whatever you make can be funny, serious, historical, dangerous… doesn’t matter. I’m picking the one I like best overall. And I’ll have some input from secret judges, so it may not help you to simply try to impress *only* me. Express YOURSELF!

THE PRIZE(S)!

GRAND PRIZE WINNER: receives one copy of the test pressing of the RetroLowFi vinyl LP. I’ll write something on it, if you want. Or I’ll leave it clean and pristine. Up to you.
SECOND PRIZE WINNER: receives a copy of the cassette I found in a thrift store containing a creepy guy begging to get his girlfriend back on answering machine for about 90 minutes. This is the cassette that inspired my song “Amy, It’s Kevin”. This is not a joke. I’ve only played it for my wife and maybe one other close friend, and the thing is seriously uncomfortable.
THIRD PRIZE WINNER: receives a mixtape made just for them by yours truly. I make some mixes that are pretty hard to fuck with, and this one will be just for you. Ask around, my skills are nearly unmatchable.

So, that’s the scoop. Are you ready? The contest starts… now.

Love on ya,
Marc

-Marc

Oh. Em. Eff. Gee. There is so much going on right now – I really cannot keep up. Like, literally. I can’t even remember what emails to respond to and which ones I have already sent replies for. If you’ve tried to reach me and I’ve seemed aloof, please, just sent me a gentle reminder, and I’ll do my best to get you an answer as soon as I can. In the meantime, here’s a few very pertinent announcements I have to tell you about!

1. In case you hadn’t seen the announcement, it’s all true: this summer, I’ll be releasing an abridged version of the RetroLowFi compilation on red vinyl. It’ll be two discs, and we have an amazing pressing plant that we’re working with, ensuring that this first foray into the world of LP’s will blow your mind. We hope to have these ready by this years Nerdapalooza festival in July, but trust me when I tell you that I’ll keep you all up to date with any developments surrounding this release as soon as I can.

2. Speaking of new releases, my newest album Pop! Pop! Pop! is available on CD, and you can get it at this very website. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but if I don’t remind you, who will?

3. Just because my latest album of new material only came out last week, it doesn’t mean that I’m resting on my laurels. By the end of the year I also hope to release another album of new material, as well as the third volume of the Share The Covers, Bitch! series. I never know what these things will sound like until they are done and in your hands, but I have a general idea of what I’m going for. But I can’t tell you – keep in mind, while I was recording Pop! Pop! Pop! I said that I didn’t foresee any singalong pop being on the album, and… well, I was wrong.

4. Did someone mention shows? Here’s the upcoming ones that can be confirmed, (there are others, but… you know):

Friday, May 14th, 2010 @ Club 57 West, Orlando, FL
With openers: Krondor Krew, The House Of Black. 18 and up, $5, 10 PM!
(This is another full-length show, but not sure if it’ll become another “marathon”. Depends how late Chris and I go on.)

July 2010 @ Nerdapalooza 2010, Orlando, FL
With: MC Frontalot, Sci-Fried, Devo Spice, Schaffer The Darklord, TheGreatLukeSki, MegaRan, Fred Lives, The House Of Black, Worm Quartet, Captain Dan & The Scurvy Crew, Krondor Krew, MC Cool Whip, Dual Core, and about a billion others TBA.
All ages, exact dates/venue/cost/etc to be announced when I get the go ahead.

October 8-10, 2010 @ Tampa Bay OddCon, Doubletree Westshore, Tampa, FL
With: Sci-Fried, Emergency Pizza Party, Bohemian Fire, not to mention all kinds of cool events.
All ages, exact dates/venue/cost/etc to be announced when I get the go ahead.

There’s also a short set coming in April that I don’t know if I can announce yet. This show calendar may seem skimpy, but it isn’t: I’m already waiting to announce some 2011 stuff. It’s all a matter of not blowing my wad all at once, right?

5. Don’t ever try to write up a whole bunch of news blurbs while listening to The Frogs It’s Only Right & Natural LP, because it’ll take you forever to get anything else done. You’re too busy laughing and wondering if that guy just said “here comes the watermelon seed up my snoot snout”.

6. My partner in crime, Chris Zabriskie, has just released his film Tretet at his website: chriszabriskie.com. It is completely worth your time, it’s a little more than majestic, and you may lose sleep over it. Not safe for work, by any means.

7. Finally, a big “thank you” to everyone that made last weekend’s marathon show at Stardust such an overwhelming success. Some of my pals came all the way from Italy to see the show, while others only had to cross the street – but we packed the venue to the point of uncomfortability, and that was *after* a last-minute change to the larger video room. I had such a blast, and I can’t tell you how much all of the love and support in that place meant to me. If you weren’t there, here’s a short recap of what you missed: roughly 2 and a half hours of music, roughly 37 or 38 songs depending on how you calculate it, Ryan Price and Chris Zabriskie trading off drum duties, and more than a few songs that we hardly ever play anymore. Hopefully we’ll be uploading some fan shot video soon, but if you took some film of the show, please feel free to share it on YouTube – we won’t be upset. Get yourself a soda/your reading glasses, because this was the approximate setlist:

Holly Vincent / Winter Colors / Roll The Tape / Fighting For Love / All My Drug Use Is Accidental / San Diego Doorways / Chicken Pox & Star Wars Guys / I Will Repossess Your Heart / Hot Topic Kids / As The Bombs Fell / I Tried To Die Young / Bounce Bounce Bounce / Shock Treatment / RetroLowFi / Every Single Friend / Song Song / God’s Away On Business / If I Had A Dealer / Chasing The Bug / Stuck With Me / No London In Brazil / Terror Song / I Can’t Explain / Chris’s Drum Solo / Astronomy Domine / Life’s So Hard / Nerdy Girls / Happy To Be Alive / (encores): The Audience Is Listening / Drunk Classic Rock Fans / Stairway To Rudolph / A Very Special Episode / Lolita / Sweet Transvestite / Laura, I Need Medicine / Pinball Wizard / Linda Lovelace For President / Interstellar Overdrive

Phew. Here’s some pictures taken by one Mr. Randy Pence from the show: http://bit.ly/bjeLJ5

8. Own a Marc With a C album, even just digitally? Have some free time? Why not give it a numerical rating and start cataloging your collection at Rate Your Music? Heck, if you follow a few links there, you might even stumble upon my personal collection of albums, and I’m only about 1/3 done entering them on that site.

9. WHY AM I STILL PLAYING THIS FROGS ALBUM? I think I may have just ruined a keyboard by spitting out a mouthful of soda when “These Are The Finest Queen Boys” came on.

10. Nope, the keyboard is fine, but learn from my mistakes, kids.

Love on ya,
Marc

More details will be made available soon!