Mc Lars to Release Anniversary Edition of THE EDGAR ALLAN POE LP

MC Lars is set to release a One Year Anniversary Edition of THE Edgar Allan Poe LP, arriving one year after the artist delivered the record to his Kickstarter backers on Halloween 2025. The campaign finished at roughly 598 percent of its $5,000 goal.

The album is executive produced by Adam F. Goldberg, creator of The Goldbergs.

The One Year Anniversary Edition expands the original twelve tracks with seven bonus recordings, including three new 2026 versions and four songs from the 2012 Edgar Allan Poe EP, among them the Dead Milkmen collaboration 'Mr. Raven' (2012) and a 2026 update of that song featuring Chicago's Gosh Diggity. Nineteen tracks total. Guests across the record include Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup, longtime MC Lars collaborator Watt White, Mega Ran, Rodney Anonymous, Schäffer the Darklord, Lacey Johnson, Ash Tell Em, Christina Rotondo and Worm Quartet. The record also enlists underground prank call figures Longmont Potion Castle and Brad Carter of Phone Losers of America, who both turn up on '$3.47.'

The lead and only single, a new 2026 version of 'Amontillado' featuring Watt White, arrives October 2.

In December 2023, MC Lars completed a master's degree in Instructional Science and Technology. His capstone was a controlled study in which he built a curriculum module teaching poetry through rap, ran it with students, and measured the results statistically, including a Bonferroni correction. Students' attitudes toward poetry improved, and their retention of the material improved, with both results described as statistically significant.

MC Lars has been rapping about Poe since 'Mr. Raven' in the mid-2000s, released The Edgar Allan Poe EP in 2012, and performed 'Flow Like Poe' at Carnegie Hall with a live string ensemble for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. He gave a TEDxUSC talk connecting Tupac's death to the final act of Hamlet.

A graduate of Stanford and Oxford, he coined 'iGeneration' in a 2003 song, a usage ASCAP credited as an early instance. He charted in the Australian Top 30 with 'Download This Song,' an anti-RIAA record he made while signed to a label, which the label released anyway. He has toured with Nas, Snoop Dogg, Bowling for Soup, Simple Plan and the Vans Warped Tour, and put out early K.Flay records before Interscope signed her.

He is also a pioneer of nerdcore, the mid-2000s scene that Mega Ran, who appears on this album, is also associated with.

The Oglio release also marks a return to a familiar label. Oglio Records was founded in 1993 by Carl Caprioglio and previously released MC Lars's This Gigantic Robot Kills and 21 Concepts (But a Hit Ain't One). Its roster over three decades has included Brian Wilson, whose Live at the Roxy Theatre Oglio has kept in print and expanded for a 25th anniversary edition, as well as Nerf Herder, Barnes & Barnes and Wesley Willis. Horris Records, the label Lars founded in 2004, began as an imprint under Nettwerk and Oglio before going independent.

'I've been rapping about Poe since before I had any business doing it,' says MC Lars. 'The EP was a sketch. This is the actual building. A year ago I sent it to 385 people who paid for it before it existed, which is the most Poe thing imaginable, except he never got the money.'

'I went and got a master's degree to prove that teaching poetry through rap actually works, because I got tired of people calling it a gimmick. It turns out you can just measure it.'

'I want a kid to hear this record, get obsessed with 'The Raven,' and not realize until later that they did their homework.'

MC Lars performs at the Gathering of the Juggalos in August, several weeks before presenting a lit-hop project with Stanford University's English Department and its Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).

The Edgar Allan Poe LP (Special One Year Anniversary Deluxe Expanded Edition) arrives digitally and on two-disc CD October 16, 2026, via Oglio Records. Pre-orders are available here.

Disc 1

Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe? — 2:16

Victorian Drip — 2:24

Amontillado featuring Lacey Johnson — 3:29

OG Gothic Poet featuring Rodney Anonymous and R2 the Specialist — 4:44

The Devil's in the Belfry featuring Christina Rotondo and Worm Quartet — 3:20

Fatal Pattern featuring Schäffer the Darklord and Brad Carter/Phone Losers of America — 2:29

Wiggle Wiggle Worm featuring Dory-Loup — 2:56

The Black Cat Came Back featuring Ash Tell Em — 4:35

The (Slightly Less) Abridged Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket featuring Somos Animales — 4:30

$3.47 featuring Schäffer the Darklord, Ash Tell Em, Brad Carter/Phone Losers of America and Longmont Potion Castle — 5:34

A Dream Within a Dream featuring Ash Tell Em, Christina Rotondo and Liliia Kysil — 5:14

99 Ways to Die in a Poem — 4:34

Disc 2

Amontillado (2026) featuring Watt White — 3:37

Wiggle Wiggle Worm (2026) featuring Jaret Reddick — 3:08

Mr. Raven (2026) featuring Gosh Diggity — 3:41

Flow Like Poe — 4:05

The Tell-Tale <3 featuring Mega Ran — 3:22

Lenore (I Miss You) — 3:30

Mr. Raven (2012) featuring The Dead Milkmen — 3:12

Upcoming Shows

August 19, 2026 — Macks Creek, MO — Gathering of the Juggalos 2026 with Insane Clown Posse, Vanilla Ice and more

September 7, 2026 — Seattle, WA — @ Barboza with Optimus Rhyme and Beefy

September 12, 2026 — Hampton, VA — Supernova International Ska Festival 2026 with Suburban Legends, The Planet Smashers, The Impossibles, Eastern Standard Time, Susan Cadogan, Jackie Mendez, Blake Rules, Catbite, The Boy Detective and more

October 3, 2026 — Syracuse, NY — Official Retro Gamer Con Afterparty with Schaffer the Darklord

October 10, 2026 — Kingston, NY — O+ Festival 2026 with Lucero, Matt Pond PA and more

Tickets available here.