NEW YORK (Top40 Charts/ 60
Cycle Media/ Universal Republic) - Universal Republic Records' Denver newcomers
Flobots debuted on The Billboard Top Album Chart at No -15 this week, as well as No 8 on the Billboard R&B Albums Chart, with their acclaimed Fight With Tools. Riding the success of their first single 'Handlebars' as music's newest rap/rock sensation, Fight With Tools also takes the No 2 spot on the Billboard Rap Albums Chart and No 3 on the Billboard Alternative Albums Chart.
The new CD is garnering rave reviews from critics across the U.S., with USA Today praising the band as 'reviving the genre with explosive joy and purpose on snarling anthems packed with funk/rock rhythms, slamming hip hop and stinging social commentary...' and the The Los Angeles Times calling Fight With Tools 'a focused flip-book of progressive-leaning issues: corporate greed, Guantanamo, the Iraq war, globalization, racism, government-sanctioned assassination, the plight of the powerless.'
Rock and rap fans concur, with the celebrated 'Handlebars' scoring as one of the fastest rising new songs of 2008, soaring to No 1 on the Alternative chart, and holding down the top spot on Los Angeles' influential radio station KROQ for more than two months running. The new video for the single has also become one of the most requested rap/rock clips in memory, leaping on to FUSE's Rock Countdown, and making a huge impact on MTV's TRL. The band's deft mix of edgy hip hop, combustible funk and rock and socially aware wordplay has quickly garnered them a global following of fans and critics who make up the burgeoning Flobot Nation.
The new video for 'Handlebars' was directed by groundbreaking video production/animation collective Dirty UK, featuring a breakthrough animation style perfectly capturing the band's kinetic chemistry that has made them one of the most talked about newcomers of the year.
Incredibly, the new single achieved its Top Ten status in less than 3 weeks of release, the first song to achieve such rapid and lofty heights since Semisonic did it a decade ago with their hit 'Closing Time.' 'Handlebars' has also become a digital and myspace phenomenon, soaring to No 10 on the iTunes hip hop chart, with the digital version of the band's CD climbing to No 2 on the iTunes hip hop countdown.
Cheered for a boisterous performance style that includes the eclectic interplay of viola and funk-fueled rhythm section, the group wowed the audience at a recent taping of Last Call with Carson Daly earlier this month and will be hitting The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on June 5.
Recognized as an innovative catalyst of the Denver music and creative scene, Flobots have crafted one of the most loyal and independent thinking audiences in rock and rap. Led by charismatic Emcees Jonny 5 and Brer Rabbit, the band's local newspaper The Denver Post has hailed them as towering local icons of 'social change and civic organization' due to the band's highly regarded activist efforts: 'Less than 3 years after coming together, the Flobots are here to show their fans and peers what they've done - and how others can do the same thing, both musically and politically.'
The band first broke through the Denver indie music ranks in 2005, releasing a hardscrabble version of their debut CD in October 2007. The Universal Republic Records' release of Fight With Tools includes the anthems 'Rise,' 'Mayday,' 'We Are Winning,' and 'There's A War Going On For Your Mind,' which sparked The Philadelphia Daily News to comment 'if that doesn't grab you, it's time to check your pulse.'
