Kevin Bronson on June 16th, 2023

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“Rabbit” is the lead track on Long Beach quintet Fellow Robot’s new album, “Misanthropioid” — a rabbit hole of a record if ever there was one.

It’s genre-splattering sci-fi rock and a continuation of the ideas behind main man Anthony Pedroza’s 2016 novel, “The Robot’s Guide to Music.” That book, in fact, has been adapted into a graphic novel, illustrated by Josh Wolf.

The record was made during the pandemic, with the band collaborating long-distance with producer Andrew Scheps, whose credits include work on Grammy-winning albums by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Adele and Ziggy Marley.

“It’s our soundtrack to the last few years,” Pedroza says of the record. “It’s a diverse take on the perception of emotion, especially regarding how we feel about our fellow humans.”

In the (15-issue) graphic novel, readers get “a glimpse of a dystopian future and a glimmer of hope and optimism in the past. … Fellow Robot [the 140-year-old protagonist] and his human brother, Frank Jensen, are diametrically opposed and throughout the run the debate of nature vs. nurture is explored. ‘Fellow Robot’ is the tale of how a machine became a hero, and how a man became a villain.”

Meanwhile, the spectacular video for “Rabbit,” which nods to recent years’ social protests, is the work of sisters Michelle and Justine Prebich (see also: “Tools of War” from 2018 and “Cemetery Song” from 2020).

By the end, you might want to follow the rabbit, too.

||| Watch: The video for “Rabbit”

||| Also: Stream “Misanthropioid” in its entirety

||| Previously: “Promises”