Hearts That Hate

Hearts That Hate is a fictional band that was made up by the American post-punk laptop rapper MC Lars and 'sampled' in his track 'Signing Emo'. Hearts That Hate is a fictional generic emo band, a four-piece band consisting of the following four members:

- Blake Richards (Vocals, Lead Guitar)
- Alan Ferris (Guitar, Vocals)
- Jacob Cohen (Bass)
- Harlan "Hard" Corr (Drums)

As the song tells the story, Hearts That Hate vocalist Blake Richards can not really sing in tune but computer effects are used to help disguise this fact. The band do back flips onstage to show how different they are (in a Story of the Year style), everything they do is highly clichéd and the record label signed them as an emo bandwagon band in order to rake in some serious cash from the Hearts That Hate single 'Cry Tonight'.

Everything has already been carefully planned out, the record label don't mind that the band can't really sing/aren't very good with their instruments and the main thing is that as many records as possible are sold.

Hearts That Hate is a band that was formed as an in-joke for MC Lars fans, although the band is a joke the 'Cry Tonight' sample that is used in 'Signing Emo' in fact a really good piece of music. It's generic emo music but its well done, an acoustic version of 'Cry Tonight' was in fact used as a B-Side to the single 'Signing Emo' in the UK and this I feel was a genius touch on behalf of MC Lars. In the acoustic version of the track MC Lars sings the track and plays along to it with his acoustic guitar, the lyrics are cheesy but the track is brilliant.

In the 'Signing Emo' video Hearts That Hate are shown performing, their image is as generic as their music and it really is quite an amusing video to watch. In the video the lead singer of the band is played by someone called Steve Conolly, a man who is no stranger to the emo scene and has in fact been a member of a number of Long Island emo bands himself. He certainly has the right image, his part is well chosen I feel and the fact that he genuinely does have history in the emo scene makes the video for the track all the better.

'Signing Emo' has an excellent video, the fact that the in-joke is extended not only through the song but through the video also is I feel absolutely excellent. The video certainly does not disappoint, it's highly amusing and Hearts That Hate here impress with their generic diva attitudes and clichéd looks.

When MC Lars plays live the 'Cry Tonight' sample is usually played by the band that he is touring with. Usually MC Lars tours with his own band, when it's just him and his laptop however the support/headlining band usually steps in to play the 'Cry Tonight' excerpt. I've seen Bowling For Soup do this whilst touring with MC Lars and I have to say that it was absolutely excellent.

As generic and clichéd as it is, 'Cry Tonight' is really quite a good song and to see it played live really is quite exciting. 'Signing Emo' is a brilliant track made even better by the use of the 'sample'; on the live circuit it's even more energetic and full of fun than it is on record.

I do highly recommend seeing MC Lars play live, even if it's purely to see the 'Cry Tonight' sample come to life, I promise you that you'll not be disappointed.

A Hearts That Hate Myspace page can be found on the internet, this I feel completes the joke fantastically and this did come complete with a Hearts That Hate homepage also (although this page seems to not be working at the moment). The website for the 'band' did let on that it was all a joke, subtly though as it was stated in quite small print on the page.

The Hearts That Hate Myspace page had a moody theme, it's well constructed and does I feel adequately portray the generic emo image that it was obviously going for. Two 'Hearts That Hate' tracks can be found on the Myspace page; an acoustic version of 'Cry Tonight' and a non-acoustic version also. The non-acoustic version that is featured on the Myspace page is the sample that was used in 'Signing Emo' and the acoustic version is the one that can be found as a B-Side on the UK release of the 'Signing Emo' single.