Flobots

[Gaelbert]

From the radio, to the web!
I'm sure at least some of you have heard that catchy "Handlebars" song on the radio recently. It's all over the place.
Now, a few weeks ago, a friend of mine started an obsession with this song. I don't really respect her taste in music that much, so when she asked me to listen to it I didn't necessarily pay very much attention to it. But then a week later I heard it on the radio, and actually started listening to the lyrics. It's pretty deep. Anyways, I started listening to the Flobots in general, and ended up buying Fight With Tools. An amazing album.
I think that rap is a very effective way to get a message across, but it's a genre that's becoming clouded with all the commercial crunk and stuff spammed all over the market. But I digress.
The music video for Handlebars is pretty impressive. I watched it today, and my stomach actually started to twist at the end of it (although that might just be the fast food I ate for lunch.) Give it a chance. You'll be impressed. Here's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuK2A1ZqoWs) the link.
Here's a rundown of the video:
It starts out with two friends riding their bikes through a peaceful countryside. I'll call them "spiky brown hair guy (SBHG)" and "the other guy (TOG)." SBHG takes his hands off the handlebars, and TOG follows suit. They ride for a while until they reach a city. A signpost has a symbol with a "C" pointing to the left, and a picture of a dove pointing to the right. I believe the C symbol is supposed to stand for the country, and the dove stands for peace. SBHG takes the peace path, and TOG takes the other. The camera follows SBHG as he passes through a residential area. The lyrics focus on innocent subjects, more human topics. "My friend and I saw a platypus, my friends and I made a comic book, I know all about Leif Erikson, and I'm proud to be an American" and so on and so forth, though not necessarily in that order. After a while, it switches to TOG. The imagery on this side seems a little darker, and the lyrics focus more on money, economics, and, for lack of a better word, technology. The definitive turning point of the video, I think, is during the lyrics "I can lead a nation with a microphone." At this point, TOG becomes the president of the "C" nation. A scene shows a tattered and ragged SBHG walking by a TV store, seeing TOG on one of the screens, and SBHG shaking his head. In the sky, a dove is eating by a black colored bird as a jet flies by, obvious symbol and metaphor. The rest to come, later.

[LurkerInPlayground]

I actually liked the video for Handlebars.

This is mostly because of the darker twist and what I took to be a jab at the usual aggressive machismo you would expect in rap. It sort of echoes the highly elitist attitudes you get out of any class of people. A humble kid's talents grow until he is a global tyrant. Humorous.

Look up Wikipedia for a more in-depth view about the themes the artists were trying to convey.

[Jae]

I really like this song and have already thought about so i apologize in advance if this is an unreasonably long post.

The music video didn't interest me half as much as the lyrics. I mean, it furthered the symbolism that I was already getting from the words. My favorite thing about the video, though, is that it makes it all into a story.

Originally, upon hearing this song, I thought of this whole progression from innocence to corruption..but I wasn't thinking on human terms and I surely wasn't thinking of two people. Seeing the music video awhile ago everything clicked a little better... my mind works on connections. It's easier for me to think about everything in a story-sense. (Which is probably why I have to make every poem or song I hear into some kind of short story or connection, i hear it best that way. Likewise, I need the background story to every thought, idea, theory, or person.)

The fact that the person in the business suit (who leads to corruption, funny??) and the guy in street clothes are originally friends and balanced helps out a lot. Without extremes involved, everything seems to work. Throw in extreme business and power, everything changes. Obviously these elements were there to begin with, but it isn't until it's taken a bit too far that it ends in the demise of his own (old) friend. This, at least in my mind, translates to the murder of this preexisting balance and thus complete and utter chaos.

I thought the song was funnier before I had actually thought about it.


Look up Wikipedia for a more in-depth view about the themes the artists were trying to convey.
Respectively, why would anybody want to do that?? Doesn't it kind of take the fun out of..uhmm...actually thinking about it??

I kind of hate that information that used to take genuine thought literally sits at anybodys finger tips. I think that's why any other person I've talked to about this song has said "Omg I love it hahaha yeah but...I dont really get it." :smallannoyed:

@V: too late. I fell in love with that music video months ago :smalltongue: serj is genius, though.

[Verruckt]

I must agree, and say that it saddens me the way hip-hop gets buried under the irritating mainstream crap when the style can be so great for delivery of a message. For those playgrounders who enjoy Flobots I'd also suggest the songs "Narcissist" and "Makeshift Patriot" by Sage Francis followed by "Lovelife" and "Always Coming Back Home to You" by Atmosphere. "God Loves Ugly" is probably my favorite underground hip hop song ever written, as well as "Woman with the Tattooed Hands" but they can be a little hard to follow if you don't already know the words.

TL;DR it's good too see that some people are catching on to the thinking man's rhyme, but Flobots are just the beginning.

PS: hands down best stomach twisting music video, whether or not you care for Serge Tankian's style of music, this piece is genius commentary on war in general: http://youtube.com/watch?v=BZSKvSz1roQ

[Gaelbert]

Respectively, why would anybody want to do that?? Doesn't it kind of take the fun out of..uhmm...actually thinking about it??

I kind of hate that information that used to take genuine thought literally sits at anybodys finger tips. I think that's why any other person I've talked to about this song has said "Omg I love it hahaha yeah but...I dont really get it." :smallannoyed:

Because everyone's view of the song is not going to be the same. It will be different things to different people. The wikipedia entry is a way for people to see how other people think of the song, which in turn may help evolve one's own understanding of it.

[Jae]

Because everyone's view of the song is not going to be the same. It will be different things to different people. The wikipedia entry is a way for people to see how other people think of the song, which in turn may help evolve one's own understanding of it.
That'd be songmeanings.net, getting other peoples input.
Going straight to what the artists symbolism was intended to be is rather different. There's discussion, and there's looking it up. Wouldn't you agree that they're not exactly the same thing?? Moreover, would you prefer a quick answer to talking about it?

I mean, you started this thread. You obviously appreciate the thought that goes into it.

edit: at any rate, has anybody looked into Flobots activist work/street team??

[LurkerInPlayground]

That'd be songmeanings.net, getting other peoples input.
Going straight to what the artists symbolism was intended to be is rather different. There's discussion, and there's looking it up. Wouldn't you agree that they're not exactly the same thing?? Moreover, would you prefer a quick answer to talking about it?

I mean, you started this thread. You obviously appreciate the thought that goes into it.

edit: at any rate, has anybody looked into Flobots activist work/street team??
As far as I'm concerned, it *is* the same thing. I can't ask Flobots directly, and getting their opinion helps me mediate my opinion on their song. That's a good enough substitute for discussion.

And unlike some so-called "artists," Flobots seems like they're actually capable of irony and subtlety. They don't lay down a didactic "Message" but simply discuss their inspiration and themes. Thankfully, this means you don't get people telling you that you're deviating from the holy writ of The Canon.

[Eurus]

...Wow. That is an incredible song and video. I probably don't understand half of it, but it's still amazing. I love the symmetry at the beginning... Neither was inherently more talented or capable than the other, they just went their separate ways. So although I can imagine many themes to it - the value of simplicity over progress, the corrupting influence of power, etcetera - one of my personal favorites is 'you are whatever you choose to be', whatever that may be in the end.

But regardless of what I think, it's still an awesome song.

[thubby]

as a song I wouldn't listen to it. as a sort of poem or short story, its pretty good.

[Warpfire]

Handlebars is a great song, but the rest of Fight With Tools is terrible.
Haven't tried any of there other stuff, probably won't.