rolling #metoo thread for sexual harassment in the music industry so no one misses out when artists we don't give a fuck about like Tim Westwood and Bassnectar get caught

Why are people so keen on shitting on/refuting the utility of education about consent? It makes you look like you don’t think it matters. You would be better served by spreading the word.

― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Thursday, September 1, 2022 7:07 AM (five hours ago)

totally -- some of my work is basically in "harm reduction" (not related to sexual assault) and the education/prevention aspect to that concept is a major thing! Like, what LL is talking about is a way to improve prevention of shitty things happening to people. Like, I feel that we are all compassionate, thoughtful people that agree that sexual assault (et al) is bad, and that we want to reduce, if not eliminate the bad things. I know I have a tendency to be impatient with radical idealism that doesn't focus on praxis and prevention/harm reduction, and I am trying to not take out a bunch of IRL frustration on this thread.

This is pretty niche electronic music scene but Asquith who runs the Lobster Theremin label has been accused of grooming and sexual assault by the artist INEZ.

Resident Advisor pulled their first attempt to cover this because they tagged the accuser and posted her picture.

Lobster Theremin founder Jimmy Asquith has been accused of coercing, grooming and sexually assaulting Glasgow artist INEZ. He denies the allegations. https://t.co/XrwhhNGHzB

— Resident Advisor (@residentadvisor) October 3, 2022

ugh, I don't really know anything about the personnel or personalities behind this label, but it's recently been a big favorite of mine. Very disappointing to find out this what they are.

Yeah tbh I had words with someone who posted “everything on this label sucks!” Like no some of it is quite good for the fairly formulaic genre styles they generally stick with. Idk is UKG the new magnet for all the d-bags from the d&b scene? I’m so out of the loop.

(In no way meant to defend the accused in case that wasn’t totally clear.)

I hope there's a way this ends with this asshole removed from the loop but all the many musicians still having a supportive label.

Most of the musicians are already doing their best to drop any association with him or his label from what I’ve seen.

I hope there's a way this ends with this asshole removed from the loop but all the many musicians still having a supportive label.

I think it's the opposite, everyone else who was working for the label left, and now he's running it himself. I saw a near-comical number of producers say they were pulling their upcoming releases, but it can be complicated to pull back catalog without the label's cooperation depending on how digital distro is done.

I had only a passing familiarity with the label, saw the name a lot but that's about it. From all the stories coming out he certainly sounds like a shitty dude.

it's a shame because they were putting out a ton of music across a pretty wide range of styles, and there was quite a lot of good stuff from up-and-coming producers, I hope these musicians end up being able to continue elsewhere

I could do without all the nu trance crap. (Incidentally he also ran the biggest techno meme page on Instagram afaik.)

They have a lot of imprints/sub-labels that are not obviously connected too, like a friend released on this one: https://cheekymusicgroup.bandcamp.com/

right, their releases are all over the place (although I'm sure I've liked plenty of the nu trance stuff), but I totally understand the urge to say I never liked them in the first place

which seems to be a common response every time something like this happens

Plenty of his artists have complained of poor business practices, opaque money finagling in the wake of this. I like some of the music they’ve put out, but im not gonna miss the involvement of that Asquith dweeb

I mean, I’m pretty sure every artist on Lobster Theramin has released records on other labels… if that’s really the first thing that you think of when you hear about this shit.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rex-orange-county-charged-six-counts-sexual-assault-london-1234608276/

More Win Butler accusations

https://pitchfork.com/news/fifth-person-details-arcade-fire-frontman-win-butlers-allegedly-manipulative-toxic-behavior/amp/

Nick Carter, an incident from 2001

https://www.tmz.com/2022/12/08/nick-carter-sued-sexual-battery-alcohol-minor-backstreet-boys/

https://www.loudersound.com/news/jani-lanes-ex-says-warrant-singer-was-drugged-and-raped-by-fellow-musician

This is actually a few years old, and is a blind item, but I just learned Jani Lane was the victim of sexual assault early in Warrant's career.

Worth mentioning that all charges against Rex Orange County (linked above) have been dropped.

rapper shy glizzy: https://www.thefader.com/2023/01/03/shy-glizzy-accused-of-sexual-misconduct

tom sachs, shoe jerk off

https://www.curbed.com/article/tom-sachs-studio-employees-office-culture.html

shockingly someone who proudly displays a swastika, one that would probably be described by them as "ironic", turns out to be a raging asshole

omg this is the same person as the awful executive assistant job ad?!!!

Many workers grew desperate to please, doing their best to find him his “italicized apples,” which several former employees say was his description of Fuji apples that are slanted.

We gotta bring back guillotines.

saw a Sachs exhibit/artist talk fifteen-ish years ago and I couldn’t tell if he was slightly clever or on the verge of being fully up his own ass

neither of which necessarily lead to abusive cult, but there was this strong “this stuff is interesting because i did it” vibe that was kind of off-putting

fwiw he had the Neistat brothers as his traveling installation assistants at that point. one of them turned into a weird vlogger guy shortly after

Yeah, I had to work with him for one of his bigger shows and all of this scans. I'm honestly surprised there's not more damning material in there but hopefully this emboldens more people to come forward. I know a couple people interviewed for this and was asked to reach out to the reporter with my own gripes but didn't have the time. But yeah, he's a misogynistic, racist piece of shit.

Not to be all thread police, but I don't think this guy is a musician.

https://www.insider.com/chris-brown-is-tired-of-people-bringing-up-rihanna-assault-2023-2

In February Chris Brown said his assault on Rihanna was a mistake he made when he was 17, and people should stop bringing it up now

And the numerous subsequent (https://thebrag.com/chris-browns-timeline-of-violence-towards-women/) violent assaults against women were a mistake he made when he was 18 and 19 and 20 and 25 and people should stop bringing it up now

not to mention he never actually apologized for it

guys, he said stop

He was also 19 years and 9 months old when the Rihanna attack happened. I guess he means he was abusing her even earlier?

nothing says remorse like asking people to shut up

If there's a better way to demonstrate zero personal growth than to throw a temper tantrum and whine about the unfairness of the world each time your teenage "mistake" is brought up, then it's a way Chris Brown will never learn, because Chris Brown will never learn anything.

Chris probably has a very specific misunderstanding of why it's wrong to beat a dead horse.

Ugh, was just googling the Shoegaze/Dreampop/Electronic band Sweet Trip and found this deeply upsetting Reddit post where the top comment is from one member's husband. He talks about how Roby Burgos had a long unhealthy obsession with the other member and sexually assaulted her a year ago. They were promoting the release of their reunion album, which unbeknownst to her at the time of its creation was apparently secretly a love letter to her. What an absolute shithead. I doubt I'll ever be able to listen to their music again.

Dustin Sheehan aka Dusty Grave, from Stellar Corpses

https://i.ibb.co/3kKp4dx/FB-IMG-1680990734410.jpg

xpost -- I'd heard about that horrible Sweet Trip story some months back but wasn't aware how public it was.

Their younger (discord/rym-friendly) fans all seem to be very familiar with it as far as I can tell although it hasn't stopped ST's still-rising popularity in those circles (again afaict). I was interested why that was and a friend, a major fan, said something along the lines of VC continuing to promote or discuss/celebrate the group has extended their longevity like so.

my impression was that it very much did have an impact on their popularity in those circles (this stuff only became known last year, after they broke up again & well after they'd become rym favourites) but those sort of circles are not always the most progressive (to say the least) so there's certainly a contingent of remaining fans who don't care/will actively try to cast doubt on the situation etc.

Paul Oakenfold Faces Sexual Harassment Suit By Ex-Personal Assistant; Grammy-Nominated DJ Allegedly Repeatedly Masturbated In Front Of Plaintiff
https://deadline.com/2023/06/paul-oakenfold-sexual-harassement-allegations-grammy-nominated-dj-major-remixer-1235399650/

A-lister DJ and Swordfish soundtrack composer Paul Oakenfold has been accused of sexual harassment and workplace violations by a former personal assistant.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in LA Superior Court by an individual identified only as Jane Roe, a 24-year-old woman. The plaintiff alleges that two companies run by CEO Paul Stepanek — New Frequency Management and Stepanek Management– Oakenfold, and various John Does violated her employment rights.

Seeking a variety of damages in excess of $25,000, the five-claim complaint declares that shortly after taking a job in October 2022 at the management companies, she was assigned to be Oakenfold’s personal assistant for $20 per hour. Jane Roe worked out of the home of the Grammy-nominated DJ who has remixed such artists as U2, Madonna, Britney Spears and the Rolling Stones.

Starting on Jane Roe’s first day, for a total of four separate dates, Oakenfold allegedly exposed himself and masturbated in front of her. On one date in November 2022, the DJ allegedly did so four times in a single day.. He also allegedly once performed the act in her vehicle according to the filing

I've been calling that guy a jerkoff for years

gross

Swordfish soundtrack composer

was assigned to be Oakenfold’s personal assistant for $20 per hour

the low wage makes this even more slimy.

To be fair this was 2009, but my first job in NYC paid LESS than $20/hour. And I had to have a computer that I paid for. No benefits either. And I was "lucky." (I knew other people who had to make do with unpaid internships.) Job never did anything for me either, I got stabbed in the back and started over in a different sector that was more aligned with what I wanted to do. Regardless labor exploitation is a royally shitty practice in this country, all the more egregious when you consider the enormous income gap.

fair enough, but this was last year and he's literally a multimillionaire.

oh yeah: the dirty fucker is married too.

worried that i'm going to have to stop wearing my oakenfold bomber jacket :(

https://cdn.launchcart.com/u17645/19128/1611909426-9851758e-4fbb-4e83-b1e0-3dede4f7c113.jpg