Flobots "White Flag Warrior" (2010)
They're a hip-hop act from Denver. Kind of a cool story: they won a battle of the bands and next thing you know they had a huge hit going viral [2007's "Handlebars"]. We took them on tour around that time. They're a really politically active band, like the Anti-Flag of this hip-hop world they were in. They were doing a song at [Colorado recording studio] the Blasting Room, which is our home turf, and asked if I would come in and sing. I went through Jamie [Laurie's] lyrics as he explained the song: "The same way we frame war as strength, I want to frame that it's strong to be peaceful, and brave to not walk blindly into a war that can last 20 years." That's how we came up with that term "White Flag Warrior." It ended up being a single, and we did a video for it out in Joshua Tree, California. Every time they roll around Chicago, I'll go up and sing it with them.