I rarely listen to AF these days (and probably less-to-never in the future), but I remember moving to Montreal in the fall of 2004, which of course was Funeral season, and going to see Constantines/Jim Guthrie/Sea Snakes at Main Hall (RIP!!), where they played the album on repeat over the PA while the crowd sang along, a thing I have never witnessed before or since. Pathetic and shitty that Win ended up exploiting that genuine wave of excitement and admiration in the most cliched, predictable asshole rock star manner possible.
Ugh fuck this Wild that the dude who wrote a ten minute song about the ills of technology in modern society culminating in the lyric "I unsubscribe" has been sliding into the DMs of 18 year olds this entire time
the whole thing makes me angry - even before we get to the fact he was using his power and status to sexually misconduct women way younger than him he was cheating on his wife! that in itself is so fucked up. ugh what a fucking loser.
also is it just me or is it always bad when you have to provide two fucking statements about your allegedly sexual misconduct?
well I don't think the story will be buried per se - it's Pitchfork but I do think they'll just ignore it.
If history is any indication, they'll stay together and their next album will be all about cancel culture
You can have whatever opinions you want on their music, but saying “their music sucks!” in relation to sexual misconduct allegations is never productive.
Not that i listened to this band much anymore, but definitely wont be now. Hate the manufactured feeling of the statement/response from Win & Regine. Gonna be real disappointed if Dan doesn’t announce his departure soon.
Okay so Arcade Fire emerge in the early 00s overwrought and dramatic, ride that style to increasing popularity, struggle mightily to update their sound losing all momentum, then the front man is outed as an abuser. It's official, Arcade Fire are emo. Screw Win Butler. Believe victims. Support victims. Always.
Yeah if the Me Too movement has taught artists one thing, it's to deny and keep going. Those who admit it are (rightly) ostracised and their careers basically over. Which is good. But those who deny it allow for certain fans (a bigger % than we'd like to imagine) to take their side and allow them to continue working.
If the artist is big (and white) enough, it doesn’t matter. Louis CK admitted his abuse and still sells out Madison Square Garden.
Ugh god this is awful. Even with their many missteps musically, I still always held a weird, special place for them in my heart where I believed they’d find their way back some day. But this…nah, that’s that. Win’s statement is awful awful awful and it would seem he’s done quite the number in manipulating Regine along the way. He has a VERY clear pattern of coercion and abuse and yet here he is in his statement with one excuse after another for every beat. He sounds like a child making objectively false narratives to explain away the misdeeds to his parents when it’s overtly obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes and ears what actually happened here and the pithy explanations are laughable if not entirely infuriating. The closing lines of their most recent album are, “When everything ends, can we do it again?” The answer’s no, pal. It’s over. Fuck.
I will never understand why grown ass men in their 30s use their power imbalance with fans to prey on vulnerable young people and can’t take “no” for an answer
Some users here will still be like "well, how likely is it for people outside of this website to know this information" Ala any number of examples over the years and still continue to support them, unfortunately. Shitty situation for sure. Seems like every year now there's another handful of bands that I have to delete from my library due to incidents like this.
What a gaslighting predatory dirtbag. His statements and refutations in this article are so frustrating and so shameless. Just brazenly trying to reshape the narrative and discredit his victims while putting on the guise of someone who is “sorry.” Dude and his band can go to hell.