Premiere: League Of Space Pirates Combat AI Mania In Video For “Robot Love Plot”
Sci-fi varlets League Of Space Pirates are back with a new single to regale listeners with tales of 25th-century rebellion and mischief that poses a central question: what happens when robot sentience evolves beyond vacuuming our living rooms to demanding our undying love? “Robot Love Plot” is a futuristic rock rollercoaster through the realms of artificial affection and submissive defiance. Out everywhere on streaming platforms today, this brash new song also comes with a hypnotic new music video, which The Auricular is proud to premiere with an exclusive stream below.
Filmed on location at Studio Two Three and directed & edited by Noah Scalin, the video finds the band performing valiantly in front of an AI projection (fueled by Midjourney and guided by Pete Humes) which showcases the eerie dominance and subversive allure of artificial intelligence. The song opens up with a futuristic take on The Clash’s galvanizing cry “Know Your Rights,” twisting the liberated punk creed into a cathodic contract that looks to bind the band in electronic entanglement. “Robot Love Plot” propels the listener through a defiant rock track where rebellious guitars clash with the rhythmic pulse of synthesizers, echoing the struggles of futuristic existence that may be unavoidable.
Framed within the fictional battle between Captain Orlok’s marauding troupe and the omnipresent corporation Übercorp, “Robot Love Plot” is a breakneck rock onslaught that catapults the listener into a speculative future where love is not just complicated — it’s algorithmically entangled. In that sense, this audacious single from the galactic mavericks serves not just as an immersive fantasy, but also a rebellious anthem that comes in the wake of totalitarianism movements over the last several years, as well as the rising infatuation of profit over people.
Robotic imagery fills the lyrics (“Drag and drop my heart \ Algorithmic programming \ It’s not a bug \ Full stack compiling me“), but listen closer and you can feel the modern-day malaise driving the song. In this world, emotions are treated like lines of code, subject to a meticulous and calculated design that looks to sap every last bit of human spontaneity. Push aside the futuristic imagery and the allegory on late-stage capitalism becomes clear: it’s a dystopian rock rebellion echoing the anxieties of a society entrapped in the relentless pursuit of productivity and control.
League Of Space Pirates is a collaborative sci-fi art collective that has released several albums and singles as well as novels, comic books, and more since its inception in 2010. Led by artist Noah Scalin, the seven-piece group infuses the techno-rock sound of conceptual bands like The Protomen with the costumed shock-rock spirit of local legends GWAR to deliver an experience that transcends conventional musical boundaries.
“Robot Love Plot” is the band’s first single since “Space Pirates” was released in 2020, ending a three-year drought of cosmic fun from the band. The band will ride the wave of their new single with two special concerts coming up in October. On Friday the 13th, they will be performing at Red Vein in Ashland from 8-10 PM, which is free after admission into the haunted showcase. (For more information, click here.) On Tuesday the 24th, the galactic knaves will be venturing to In Your Ear studios to perform at Shockoe Sessions Live! Tickets are $15 to view the stellar mayhem in person, or you can watch it live on the internet via a YouTube livestream. (Tickets are available here or bookmark the livestream here.) If this new song is any indication, you do not want to miss these interstellar rapscallions performing their space odyssey in person. Trust us — it’s an expierence you won’t soon forget.
“Robot Love Plot” is available now to stream and purchase (click here.) For news on upcoming releases and shows, make sure to follow the band on Instagram and bookmark their website.
