Swans: Classic or Dud?

Village Voice says he did it:

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/as-a-woman-who-loves-swans-i-believe-larkin-grimm-8336936

He was a guru to the article's author as well, which is an odd coincidence.

It did occur to me that if he were on trial, he'd be utterly fucked. Just quote his lyrics and it's obvious he's a monster. VV author goes that route a bit.

Weirdly, there's no Thomas Sayers Ellis thread. What's up with him, actually?

xp No one is trying to "win" anything; I think some of us are merely trotting out the old "we don't know, and neither do you" chestnut, which is a logical and reasonable and grown-up reaction to this situation. A real jury in a real world would seize on Larkin's whole "See? I'm accusing a white guy now" stuff, as well as her response in that--what are we calling it?--"puff piece" in which she seems to suggest that the split with the label was amicable. These two things alone make her far less "reliable" imo than some very reactionary and sanctimonious people here are willing to admit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOrOT2QKl30

'Reactionary'

I hope people on that jury would be smart enough to understand the difference between a rapist's artistic practice and the facts regarding the rape.

Regarding your moderate curiosity, dlp, I never blew in here with an "I'm Larkin's Friend" because it's simply not relevant. I'm friends with rapists, too. Somebody upthread stated "who would ever come forward and admit they're a rapist?" I would, absolutely, if one of my sexual partners told me publicly or privately that he felt the sex we had was non-consensual. In the aftermath of the Ghomeshi accusations, two Facebook friends came forward to state that they had, in the recent past, been accused of rape, privately, and gone through an accountability process with the people they'd raped and the community the rape had affected. They talked freely and openly about the event, the process, their feelings about the process, and their victims voiced their support for their transparency and courage in publicly admitting their crimes.

"We don't know and neither do you" = "I don't take the events that this accuser is stating as fact". Even when, in this case, the rapist admits to sex. We do fucking know, you unreasonable child. Two people, accuser and accused, have corroborated that sex happened, and one calls it a mistake, and the other calls it rape. "His penis was in me". What do you want? A sex tape?

Anyway this has nothing to do with Swans at this point, a band I've never thought to give a shit about except for Michael's exemplary production work on albums by US Maple and Larkin Grimm

Being a friend is pretty pertinent.

What is up with the accusation that kicked this all off? That seems to have vanished. US Maple>Swans we agree.

are you still arguing this?

DFTT

God, dlp, please JUST STOP TALKING.

i sort of wish there was a thread where we could talk about political strategy & tactics wrt this stuff. like whether or not it's really wise/productive to demand that all would-be allies close ranks and publicly "believe the accuser" whenever rape allegations are made. i totally get why that approach might seem attractive (compassionate, necessary, decent, etc). but the brute-force insistence strikes me as potentially counterproductive and kind of depressingly anti-intellectual besides. maybe the anti-intellectualism is politically expedient, i dunno...

this isn't the place for it, and given past experience, i can't see any thread i start on the subject going well. so, i guess that's that. ftr, i have no inclination at this point to doubt larkin's account and am kind of revolted by the not-so-subtle attempts of certain posters to cast her as a liar.

i don't get why ftgi being her friend is relevant?? i'm not her friend, i had no idea who she was until i saw ned's posts on fb about this, and i totally believe her.

the thing is, there is no culture surrounding men being accused of sexual assault but there IS a culture surrounding women being sexually assaulted and then accused of lying about it. it's called... rape culture. and you are a part of it now, even if you weren't before.

even if incontrovertible proof came out that their was proper consent, i wouldn't regret immediately and consistently believing larkin's story.

I don't think dip knows what 'rings true' means.

But then again, he should just shut up.

but the brute-force insistence strikes me as potentially counterproductive and kind of depressingly anti-intellectual besides. maybe the anti-intellectualism is politically expedient, i dunno...

it's compensatory, to be sure. it has bothered me on occasion (very very rarely) and only in cases when the accuser and accusations are obviously delusional and false, (based on personal knowledge of the person in question).

This is pretty much where dlp reveals himself to be a cheap troll & nothing more, fgti drops some very real stuff about friends in his life that have raped and that aftermath and all you do is play high school social studies class mock trial lawyer:

Being a friend is pretty pertinent.

What is up with the accusation that kicked this all off? That seems to have vanished. US Maple>Swans we agree.

― dlp9001, Wednesday, March 2, 2016 9:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Honestly never heard of prison abolitionism. Just been reading a little about it. I suppose most in the movement aren't in favour of scrapping it entirely?

Gira's ex-wife Siobhan Duffy, who figures heavily into Grimm's account of what happened between her and Gira, has been speaking out on Facebook in defense of Gira.

http://observer.com/2016/03/i-stand-with-kesha-why-men-should-address-musics-rape-culture-problem-right-now/

She posted a link to the article above with a note to see the comments, and sure enough, she shared her side of the story: http://i.imgur.com/ywakzna.png

"Hello. My name is Siobhan Duffy and I am Michael's ex wife. The wife married to him (together for 12 years) while Larkin and Michael worked together. It is shameful what Ms. Grimm has done. Michael is not a rapist. And we will be making a more official statement soon with proof of either her instability and her intent to ruin Michael's life work. Michael and I divorced in 2011. In 2013 Larkin wrote me on Facebook messenger (not a public post) which starts... "Dear Siobhan, I'm Sorry, I'm sorry,i'm so, so sorry for being an immature manipulative untrustworthy whore,losing my way,being constantly high, and not follwoing my conscience when you welcomed me into your home." She goes on to tell me about the drunken night of fooling around that never included coitus. And many people that worked with both Larkin and Michael reveal that she was bragging about it at the time and finding it laughable that he was afraid his wife (me) would find out. She taunted him with telling me. When she wrote to me and spoke to Michael about it, I asked him to remove her from his label out of respect of me. Larkin claims that when she confronted him with rape, which never happened, he removed her from the label. Another false statement. And this one Facebook post has brought his 30 plus career and his name into question? It seems the media does not fact check anything anymore. Making false claims of rape can ruin someone's life, but also it undermines every true report of rape. And as seen from above, Larkin is now trying to capitalize on the current hot topic of rape in the music industry. She even mentions Kesha in her FB post. Yes Larkin, you finally ogt your name in Billboard, but at what price to Michael and his family? Check your FACTS.

And I would like to add that Michael Gira is one of several men being accused by Larkin Grimm of sexual misconduct, all of whom terminated their working relationships with her. Who is the problem?"

Both, this keeps turning into more and more of a mess. Up to this point, I thought Grimm had been handling herself with a remarkable grace and clear-headedness, and to my outsider's perspective, it didn't seem like she would have any reason to lie about what happened. But this statement from Duffy really complicates things. It contradicts most of Grimm's account, and sketchier still is that a comment Grimm left on one of her posts about Duffy asking if it was safe for Gira to be around his daughter after Grimm told her Gira raped her has been deleted. Since this is the internet, naturally someone managed to take a screenshot of it...it was up for days. I remember reading it and feeling sick to my stomach. http://i66.tinypic.com/de613.jpg

"Who is the problem?" indeed

Again without wading into speculation about what the actual ~truth~ is, I would like to point out that everything in your post is circumstantial evidence or stuff about the victim's character, except "She goes on to tell me about the drunken night of fooling around that never included coitus" (Siobhan's words--significantly, this is the exact point in the letter where she stops quoting Larkin) which you have interpreted as "contradict[ing] most of" Larkin's story although it's already been made clear throughout the thread that not all parties agree about the definition of "coitus" (&, I would probably add, of "fooling around"). To then connect this to a "sketchier still" deleted (and therefore unverifiable) facebook comment, provided with minimal context (...but she deleted it, so she must be a liar!), is equivocation of the commonest sort.

Question for my fellow SWANS fans....

Regardless of how this is all going to shake out (and will we ever know the full story?), do you feel you're able to continue to listen to Gira's music objectively anymore? I honestly haven't spun any since this story broke (nor have I felt compelled to), but I was quite looking forward to the purported tour-de-force the impending album has been promised to be. Regardless of your stance on the allegations, can you listen to his music without associating all of this?

I have mostly avoided Swans and AoL music since the allegations. I have found Xiu Xiu to be an acceptable substitute

This 'proof' is really taking it's time, huh?

Swans are a band I only feel the urge to listen to once or twice a year under the best of circumstances. I last listened to them several months ago. By the time I'm in the mood to listen to them again, absent an actual criminal trial or something similarly attention-getting, I will probably have forgotten all about this.

Swans are awesome, I'll probably listen to them today

i haven't really gotten into this thread at all but i think that posts by fgti, justine, sarahel, and others are excellent and i am inclined to support grimm in this whole thing. the character assassination shit and calling out grimm's alleged mental illness or whatever as reason to be suspect of her statements is really fucked up.

i rarely listen to swans to begin with but i think it is safe to assume that a significant chunk of the artists i listen to have probably done something like gira did, and fgti's outstanding post about drinking, rape, consent i think highlights how common this really is. you can throw out your swans albums if you want but if you think the other artists in your collection are "clean" then you are fucking naive

Bowie's 1987 rape charge is a good analogue - he said/she said, where he says it was consensual but she didn't and he throws round phrases like 'attention seeker' and 'ridiculous'.

In fact, his example is potentially worse because at least in Gira/Grimm there seems to have been some kind of relationship at the back of it acknowledged by both parties whereas Bowie's was a drink/drug fuelled one-off event.

Also, her claim was easier to refute - she also said Bowie explicitly told her post-assault that he had given her AIDS.

plus bowie & the underage

gimme some reggae

no immediate plans to listen to swans cuz winter

user "dispossessed" has made exactly 1 post to ilxor.com

wtf is even going on itt

i am not a big swans guy but i went to see them on the last tour
parts were pretty cool like overwhelming sound
but parts felt just really flat and oppressive and dull like a 90s pink floyd show or something

you just described "To Be Kind"

even if incontrovertible proof came out that their was proper consent, i wouldn't regret immediately and consistently believing larkin's story.

― just1n3, Thursday, March 3, 2016 2:45 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OK, now this is the most idiotic thing I have ever read

who is this terrible poster?

xp fortunately nobody ITT cares what you think, at all

maybe I was just referring to the 'there / their' confusion, which my ten year old niece seems to have licked but not the person arguing to discredit a man forever despite the testimony of three credible women and no further accusations against the accused

you've gone from blind to cruel to petty

for absolute starters you need to ditch the 'no further accusations' bit ffs

there are other boards where your oh-so-fresh typo gags and arbitrary assigning of which women are credible and which aren't will be welcome, try to find them

wow there are some v toxic posters itt huh

fucking hell mods fucking lock this fucking thread

You gotta be sitting me.

The "poor grammar = UNRELIABLE" method?

Is this a BBcode message board in 2002

might be a good idea esp after the mystery poster upthread

For all the people like Wimmels who are incapable of walking away from a conversation to which they have so little to contribute: it is my sincere hope that your stubborn persistence here attests to a nagging kernel of doubt, buried far beneath the glib surface of your rhetoric & the arrogant confidence you place in a manifestly untrue & self-serving worldview; and that this seed may yet grow into a flourishing beanstalk of earth-shattering revelations & beckon you to undertake a journey of self-discovery that someday, in a few years, leads you to reread the things you wrote here & shake your head sadly in disbelief.

OK now we can lock the thread

you've gone from blind to cruel to petty

this reads like an Elvis Costello lyric

also why is this thread still a thing

Oh wimmelpaws