I’d never heard of their album until Droll Stevan recommended their video of Handlebars to me. At first listen I loved it and that prompted me to take a trip through their 2007 release, Fight With Tools (amazon) (iTunes). Their sound reminds me of a lot of different and equally diverse influences and for the first hour or so I found myself unable to accurately put into words what I was hearing. They remind me of a band that mixes Eminem’s rhymes with the Gorillaz smooth pop rock. They remind me of Rage Against the Machine without the searing guitar solos or the searing angst filled screams {although the political mindedness of their lyrics is spot on}. At times they obliquely remind me of Mighty Mighty Bosstones mashed up with Linkin Park.
I guess you could say this a serious example of the new wave of genre blurring musical acts {and really, what’s a genre today? Everything is fractured in fractal patterns. Even myspace has you list the three, yes three, genres your band fits into}.
mp3 : Flobots - Stand Up
mp3 : Flobots - Handlebars
If you didn’t watch their video for Handlebars from the above link make sure you click here to watch it over at YouTube. It’s my favorite song on the album, by far, and the lyrics are amazing. It’s nice to hear hip hop {hip pop?} with this many political and pop culture references.
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They are amazing!!! Thanks for the post, I’ve come to discover a lot of my new loves through here. Theres something hypnotic about the juxtaposition of the violin and the rapping. Addicting.
Wow… I can’t believe there aren’t more posts about Flobots on hype… there’s only two other people that posted about them and neither of those blogs liked flobots that much (why would they post then?)…
your write up is definitely the best. I’m really surprised these guys aren’t bigger. I mean, they are really good. The way they combine the trumpet and viola with their hip-hop is just great. I all works really well together.
i don’t know why some blogs post about music that they don’t seem to like. what are they, just another corporate mag? i thought that was the beauty of a blog; no strings attached, no favors owed, you can post what you want when you want… i guess i don’t see the appeal posting about something you find to be so so.
neither do I…
Check out this video of the Flotbots talking about their new success and Denver
http://youtube.com/watch?v=My9JCO_aWpw&feature=user