In a bid for post-rap-rock relevance, Linkin Park downplayed the role of rapper Mike Shinoda on their most recent album. A year later, however, Denver upstarts Flobots stormed modern-rock radio playlists by doing just the opposite, delivering “Handlebars,” a single built around monotone, Shinoda-esque raps. Nobody will mistake the Flobots emcees as the next coming of Rakim—if anything, their launch pad-flat verses evoke Cake’s John McCrea—but unlike so many alternative-rock bands that play hip-hop for novelty, at least they seem to have a genuine love for the genre to complement their incisive hooks. Flobots do an 8 p.m. show at the Rave tonight.
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