Being isolated from civilization with no cell phone or television in West Jefferson, North Carolina, for less than a week has literally driven me crazy. Call me spoiled, but try having no communication with the outside world besides dial-up Internet, then couple that with having to play card games every minute of the day with only your parents. It’s like that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry and Elaine are trapped in Florida with Jerry’s parents, who constantly fuss over everything, but not funny.

I’ve even had to resort to going to the extensive public library and reading old Rolling Stone magazines. One particular cover stuck out because it mentioned Flobots, whose bandwagon I have definitely jumped on since hearing them on the radio. “Handlebars” is refreshing, unique and simple yet powerful with a real message about the way our country is being run.  

Give credit to Rolling Stone; they wrote about the up and coming rap group from Denver very quickly. They saw potential just as major recording labels did (Flobots was signed to Universal Republic Records) and didn’t waste any time. However, in trying to describe what Flobots sounds like, they compared it to Linkin Park and Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine. Now I can understand de la Rocha because the lyrical content is very similar. Also, most of the tracks off of Fight With Tools definitely have that funk undertone also, much like Rage. Voice-wise? Not so much. De la Rocha’s voice is incomparable to anyone and it was an enormous stretch to relate Flobots to Rage in the vocal category

What really set me off was where it said that Flobots was very similar to Linkin Park. That is fucking absurd. Are you kidding me? Was Rolling Stone trying to compliment Flobots? If so, then they did a horrible job. 

I think the main difference between Flobots and Linkin Park is that one makes music while the other one eats shit. Every one of Linkin Park’s hits recycles the same tone of the last radio hit. There is absolutely no talent there. They just shout or shout/rap and occasionally try to sing and then the vocals are masked by producers and drowned out by an obnoxious, headache-inducing hybrid of noise and cheesy beats in the background – it takes a lot to try to disguise how horrible Linkin Park’s vocals are. One impressive aspect of Linkin Park, though, is how many songs they can write about being numb and being in pain. Thank you, Linkin Park, for giving the world so many songs about being in pain … we definitely need more. 

Flobots, on the other hand, don’t try to appeal the Hot Topic (read: faux-rebellious pre-teen) crowd and continuously copy their own song that blew up. On Fight With Tools, “Handlebars” stands alone, as does every other song. They accompany different vocal styles like talking, female vocals, rapping and singing with an array of instruments, which is admirable because they came up with a whole album of songs that are individual from each other. 

Rolling Stone, what were you thinking? Have you listened to either band? If anyone, Flobots has Cake-like characteristics, especially in “Handlebars.”  Flobots has come up with a genuine great song; don’t insult them by likening them to Linkin Park.



Afterthought – I remember back in the day seeing a YouTube clip of how every Nickelback song sounds exactly alike so I looked up Linkin Park. I wasn’t disappointed.