Up & Coming Artists #3: Flobots

Flobots

A Time For American Heros

This week's Up & Coming Artist is the 6-piece (7 piece with session trumpet) Indie/Hip-Hop band that with their 2007 second album 'Fight With Tools' and 2008 single 'No Handlebars' is setting the US Modern Rock scene truly alight. I don't normally review bands or artists that have already released two albums, however this is a truely important exception.

With a MySpace following of 65,000 people worldwide and over 3 million profile views, they are quite well established and have recently signed to a Major American label. However, this fame has duly been well earned and the band have had to work very hard for their work to be finally recognised by the fatcats of the US Industry.

At the turn of the year, their album began to sell more rapidly and they were soon outselling more established national acts, and early this year they were offered a formal major recording contract with Universal, which they rightly snapped up and said thank you very fucking much America.

All this is very well, but what might you ask stands this band aside from the rest of the ever emerging new generation of great new bands and acts from the likes of New York, Chicago and in this instance Denver, Colorado; the heart of America.

The band were first referred to me by a mate at work around two months ago, I'd never heard of them, despite the fact they were about to set alight a new genre of rock in the most important country in the world.

With exploding lyrics from frontman Jonny 5 that scream Mike Shinoda at every angle for me, Flobots comprise a set-up that touches on light-metal/indie/math and thrash rock all sexed up with a dab of hip-hop and progressive/classical rock.

This year's single 'No Handlebars' really sums up Flobots in a nutshell, its poppy, its bright, its fun and yet its meaningful and serious all at the same time. "I can lead a nation with a microphone and I can split an atom from a molecule".

Flobots are starting to sounds to me like the American power-rock version of Oxford, England's mathrock funksters Foals.

Although the band are insistant, that although they've now signed to a major label, they won't abuse the privilages they've been given that other bands do. They insist they are going to use their new found fame for solely good purposes and to help change the dogmatic society of America for the better.
Upon signing their new deal with Universal, the label wanted the band to release 'Fight With Tools' completely untouched and were very keen for the band to continue exploring music with activism and community-building.
"We imagined a world where the message of 'Fight With Tools' is the mainstream, with the airwaves broadcasting honest statements about our nation’s past violence and calling for a new vision of a fully engaged, non-violent society. We imagined a network of music fans in cities around the globe organizing to implement this vision.
This is where I feel the band's true identity is shown, and I pray to god, and every angel in existence that the band carry on with this message, and their third album could potentially be one of the biggest selling albums in America that year, and I literally cannot wait for the band to come to the UK sometime later this year or early next. A slot at Glastonbury 2009 would be absolutely perfect!