F-L-O-B-O-T-S

There's a new song getting a lot of airplay on Kansas City's "modern rock" station:  Handlebars by the Flobots.  The Flobots are a Denver-based band that probably could be best described as an indie-rock/underground rap/???? group.  Ok, so they're a bit hard to pin down.  I like their music because their songs have more than three or four notes and on any given song you can hear strings, brass, acoustic and electric guitar, heavy bass, techno effects and even real percussion, which just sounds better than electronic drum kits.

The Flobots are also extremely political.  Their songs are protest songs for this generation, this time.  The Flobots rap and sing about injustice, about war and poverty, about state-sanctioned violence and killings, about the way in which so many of us are starting to understand that the government of the USA, what is supposed to be our government that represents the people and only does what the people tell it to do, is and has been ignoring us for quite some time in order to represent the desires and whims of a very small and select group of people.  People who buy and sell governments, who will gladly poison our children to make a few extra cents on a toy, who will poison our food if it means extra profit and who will then buy off more politicians to make it illegal for businesses that act ethically to tell us about it.

I personally can't stand it when entertainers and artists ramble on about their political beliefs, expecting people to listen to them because they're famous.  But creating art that reflects their beliefs, that makes a statement is something that I appreciate, because then they're using their gifts, they're tapping into the power of music and poetry and film and all the rest to speak to the rest of us on a higher plane than merely blabbing into a reporter's microphone.

I've got some Flobots videos and some lyrics after the jump.  Feel free to leave comments recommending other good protest music.

"There's a War Going On For Your Mind"

There's a war going on for your mind
Media mavens mount surgical strikes from trapper keeper collages and online magazine racks
Cover girl cutouts throw up pop-up ads
Infecting victims with silicone shrapnel
Worldwide passenger pigeons deploy paratroopers
Now it's raining pornography
Lovers take shelter
Post-production debutantes pursue you in nascar chariots
They construct ransom letters from biblical passages and bleed mascara into holy water supplies

There's a war going on for your mind
Industry insiders slang test tube babies to corporate crackheads
They flash logos and blast ghettos
Their embroidered neckties say "stop snitchin'"
Conscious rappers and whistleblowers get stitches made of acupuncture needles and marionette strings

There is a war going on for your mind
Professional wrestlers and vice presidents want you to believe them
The desert sky is their bluescreen
They superimpose explosions
They shout at you
"pay no attention to the men behind the barbed curtain
Nor the craters beneath the draped flags
Those hoods are there for your protection
And meteors these days are the size of corpses

There's a war going on for your mind
We are the insurgents

Comments

[Sir Charles]

Stephen,

For protest music, you can never go wrong with Billy Bragg.

My favorite record of political protest music is an oldie -- back to 1978 and the winter of England's discontent, the cusp of the Thatcher era --called "Power in the Darkness" by the Tom Robinson Band, Tom Robinson being an openly gay, leftist Englishman who was unabashed about letting the world know where he stood.

[darrelplant]

They Might Be Giants: "I'm Impressed"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CccPPDe2JU