This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply. Emily Driskill, writing on Medium: My biggest fear now is that Brand New will tour again in 2018. Quite frankly, in any other job, in any other industry — Jesse would have been fired and blacklisted. But this is the music industry and Brand New clearly doesn’t have a fucking HR department. […] How do we change any of this? I know holding yourself and others accountable is paramount. I know supporting Women Of Color and LGBTQ artists in the music and touring communities is of the utmost importance. I know boycotting or picketing shows of artists who don’t speak out against abuse of power in the industry is necessary. Expand - View Original
"I know boycotting or picketing shows of artists who don’t speak out against abuse of power in the industry is necessary." Is this referring to bands who are affiliated with predatory bands/musicians or is it this suggesting to boycott any band that doesn't devote some of their time on stage to talking about said issues? Two completely different things that the sentence didn't make clear.
The concept of the music industry having an HR department, (or the idea of touring musicians being regulated), is actually fascinating.
Scary how many of these women have come forward with very similar experiences. Brand New should stay gone.
I'm not the author & can't speak for her but I interpreted that as the former (artists that have turned a blind eye to or enabled the abuse around them).
Some artists do give to organizations like RAINN but when it comes to their musical career, they focus on the music. This is typically done with smaller bands and maybe they don't showcase their beliefs because they don't think their small audience would care or that they don't have a large amount of influence, but what would the call be in a situation like that? Demand that they share their thoughts and actions?
She’s most likely talking about heavy hitters who continue to tour and associate with outted abusers, a misuse of platform and complacent endorsement of the bad behavior of their peers. No one is coming after Joe Schmoe garage band because they don’t talk about sexism on stage every night. Though I do think it’s worth pointing out that female and femme aligned bands are basically expected to do all of this work and activism, so maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Joe Schmoe to take five minutes to tell his audience to respect others. Just my two cents.
I've stayed away from this topic because Brand New has never done a thing for me, but this dude is a used diaper of a human being and should never be allowed near any stage or microphone again.
Brand New was my favorite band. I had to stop supporting them after jesses Facebook post. The worse part is the silence that’s why I think their done forever, it’s also a cheap way to go out. Fuck people’s lives up then disappear. Give me a break. Maybe will see a random tour in 5+ years. But the days of them playing massive tours are long gone. Unfortunately we also have to look at reality, people with power and money will continue abusing their power. Jesse’s not the first and he won’t be the last. The scene will never be clean.
The scene is still full of people who grew up in a music culture that didn't point this stuff out as much. If bands and artists continue to be called out then the people growing up now to form bands in the next 5 years could probably make a pretty safe scene. That would require predatory musicians and bands being completely shut out, though, and the current state of the scene still isn't ready to give some of them up....yet.
Emily brought this up years ago and it fell on deaf ears, and many of those who did hear it claimed she was making it up. Glad folks are taking her and her words to heart now.
I agree with you. It’s not impossible to clean up the scene it’s just going to take a lot of work and some uncomfortable conversations. As more people speak out it slowly starts to expose the creeps. I knows there’s a whole culture on the road that I know nothing about, and I’m sure I would be sick to my stomach by some the stories and the stuff that stills goes on as we speak.
Two Alleged Victims of Brand New’s Jesse Lacey Detail Years of Sexual Exploitation of Minors | Pitchfork Emily shared her story back in November.
I get 95% of my music-related news from this site so I wasn’t aware of her or her story until it was reported here today (unless someone posted it in the Brand New thread and I over looked it). It’s incredibly unfortunate that so many women were treated this way for so long and that it slipped right under the noses of fans like myself while we tossed our money at Lacey.
All good! Wasn't in any way trying to suggest you should've seen it. I think I get all my music news from this site and Twitter.
So sad on so many levels. Who the hell would choose to tour with them if they fired up the machine again? Anyone who did would face such a backlash - and rightly so.
Is there anything Jesse or the band could do that would let us enjoy them again? Like if Jesse’s statement was completely honest and acknowledged everything the victims said? When he released it people were really mad about how crappy it was. What if it was perfect? Would that be enough? Is there a path to redemption for these things? Does Jesse have to turn himself into the police and serve jail time? Can we listen to their music then? Can we go to the post jail brand new shows?
I realize its extremely callous to the pain and suffering of the victims. I get that like intellectually but not really in my heart I guess.