PWR BTTM

[phantom_power]

Well, that escalated quickly

[SteveDave]

Everyone loves PWR BTTM
Five minutes later
We regret to inform you that one of PWR BTTM is a sex pest and possibly a Nazi

[Monsieur Verdoux]

I didn't think it was possible that someone's whole music catalogue could be entirely removed from all online services overnight as the result of bad behaviour on the part of the artist. Has that ever happened before?

[phantom_power]

Alleged bad behaviour at the moment. I don't have the energy or will to go through the whole thing but it seems like a lot of this seems to have stemmed from some Facebook and Twitter posts. He has been found guilty by all and sundry already and now the band are utterly fucked.

These sorts of allegations shouldn't be taken lightly but it seems the response has been swift and without mercy. I suppose that is to be expected from the sort of fans they seem to attract

[Cuellar]

Woah, what?

edit: It can't JUST have come from that facebook post, right? There must be more to it than that.

[phantom_power]

I don't know. As I say I haven't looked too deeply into it but can't find much other than that and a few tweets. I had to stop though because there were too many people deliberately over-reacting about him being pictured with a swastika drawn in the sand from years ago and discussion about what personal pronouns he uses

[Cuellar]

I don't know. As I say I haven't looked too deeply into it but can't find much other than that and a few tweets. I had to stop though because there were too many people deliberately over-reacting about him being pictured with a swastika drawn in the sand from years ago and discussion about what personal pronouns he uses

I know right. I also found a tweet that had more screenshots of conversations over email/facebook. One of the allegations is that their dad was creepy at a show. Hmm.

[DrunkCountry]

From what I hear on the industry grapevine, the guy accused is a well dodgy cunt who has to a degree appropriated¹ & exploited the identity/gender politics boom/audience in the hipster ranks in the US & has been enabled by those closest to him (incl. his band partner & father). Video shoots & whatnot have apparently been clouded in inappropriate & uninvited sexually aggressive behaviour. Originally an allegation was made regarding rape in a private FB group & that was eventually 'leaked' & tweeted or Instagrammed by someone close to the person who made the first allegation. Since that went viral a number of other people, all unknown to each other, have come forward with similar accusations. The band reacted with a standard 'shocked' denial & a statement saying this was the first they'd heard of anything & invited anyone with grievances to contact them privately to discuss them. The initial accuser then pointed out (& provided proof) of having notified the other band member & various other people close to the band some time ago. Issues & accusations had also previously been raised, by the same people & other unconnected people, with band members & other bands who had toured with them or were about to tour with them on their new LP tour. Most people sat on the accusations, thinking they were salacious gossip &/or unfounded (given, as someone said) the hysterical nature of some of the fans they attracted &, in one case, a band who (now regretting their decision) confused a career opportunity with confronting the allegations head on. It's all been compounded by the fact that he set up & was very vocal about 'safe spaces' at their gigs, where some people were also complaining of inappropriate behaviour & sexual advances made by him & his father. Add to that a historical dodgy (homophobic, racist, misogynistic) stand-up/comedian 'career' while in college (the origin of the swastika in the sand pic + numerous pieces of evidence & testimonies to support this) & an air of general misogyny & creepiness reported by many who knew him at the time. A full timeline of the accusations from then & now was collated by the person who 'leaked' the tweets via a specifically set up Twitter account, explaining in detail a historical pattern of accusation/denial/requests to discuss issues privately etc. & it went viral from there. A lot more people have since come forward to level similar accusations, which led to a touring band member quitting (who had been approached previously by someone accusing the guy of sexual inappropriateness), support bands quitting the tour, their management dumping them & finally their label kicking them into touch. I have no idea if this was accidental or carefully planned to coincide with the release of their 2nd LP but it's killed it & their career dead.

¹ _{There's also a historical grievance against the band for appropriating black culture, which by all accounts led to a boycott by a section of the black community}

[JesusAndYourBush]

Oh, on reading this thread I assumed this to be a jolly jape where everyone makes shit up and everyone plays along.  A bit of creative writing if you will.

But on Googling I discover it's all real!

[phantom_power]

Fair enough. That seems fairly damning, though does contain a lot of "from what I hear"s. I was just amazed at how swift the backlash was from allegation to album being pulled, tour being cancelled and band being dropped. It seemed to take a matter of days, when this sort of thing usually takes months

[Cuellar]

Fair enough. That seems fairly damning, though does contain a lot of "from what I hear"s. I was just amazed at how swift the backlash was from allegation to album being pulled, tour being cancelled and band being dropped. It seemed to take a matter of days, when this sort of thing usually takes months

Yeah, it is pretty amazing, considering the sort of shit other artists get up to.

I guess when you're (relatively) small time, there's less momentum behind you so it's easier to get dropped.

[phantom_power]

It doesn't help that as has been said the band lean heavily into the "safe space" thing so have been sort of hoist by their own petard

[DrunkCountry]

It was super swift, which leads me to believe there's much more to it than has been made public. At the end of last year (was it?) a 'name' music PR company based in the US but with global clients suffered a similar fate when one of their co-founders was accused (at a general meeting) of long-standing sexual harassment & inappropriate behaviour by one of his victims. Most of the staff quit on the spot & almost all of their clients disappeared within days of the news spreading, even though the co-founder resigned/was 'sacked' the very next day. I don't think they've ever recovered even though no one remaining with the firm was accused of anything (not even enabling by association) or had anything to do with the guy. People distance themselves very, very quickly these days as your reputation is most of your foot in the door; the music industry over there (at all levels) is confused as fuck when it comes to sexual/gender politics — half of it still stuck in the anything-goes '80s while the other half is embracing the new found freedom of identity expression & empowered decision making.

[Dr Syntax Head]

From the look of them I don't think music will suffer for them being fucked off out of it

[hewantstolurkatad]

...

Thanks for the summary! It especially helps explain why their response went down so poorly, I was taking their response as basically the only approach they could take (cos denying it really isn't an option with the audience they've courted).

What I'm getting from that is that the main reason the response has been so big and so swift is a lot more down to how the collected allegations, regardless of whether the more severe ones are legit or not, at the very least make it seem like they're either:
1. Bandwagon jumpers who enjoyed being praised for saying the right things but made no effort to live up to the standards they set
2. Deliberately conning their target market by telling them exactly what they want to hear rather than actually meaning it


There's another angle we can maybe focus on in a bit of how these guys were legit kinda close to breaking through a little bit* despite being pretty fucking shite. As far as I could ever see, all this band had was their pro-LGBT issue image. Their songs are the most forgettable things

*_{(they've been all over the place the past few months and the new album was collecting decent reviews across a level of publications that would imply things were expected of them)}

[Norton Canes]

VWL DSRDR

[jobotic]

Who are Power Bottom?

[Norton Canes]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PWR_BTTM

They should do one more gig, just to see what kind of people turn up.

[Cuellar]

There's another angle we can maybe focus on in a bit of how these guys were legit kinda close to breaking through a little bit* despite being pretty fucking shite. As far as I could ever see, all this band had was their pro-LGBT issue image. Their songs are the most forgettable things

I've always thought they were quite good, and better musicians than they let on. They did seem to be, at best, pretty annoying people though.

[Shit Good Nose]

They should just call themselves Power Bottom and have done with it - didn't bother the Scissor Sisters, did it.


How come I can still get Gary Glitter's greatest hits on Amazon no problem?

[DrunkCountry]

All their stuff has been pulled at the behest of their ex-record label. The platforms themselves would have continued selling it if it hadn't been for those interventions.

[DrunkCountry]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PWR_BTTM

They should do one more gig, just to see what kind of people turn up.

Up until a couple of days ago I believe they were planning on continuing whatever parts of the tour they could; don't know if that's still happening but that's what the intention was a couple of days ago.

[Vodka Margarine]

This is wildly disappointing if all true. Heaven knows we need more young bands willing to stick their necks out and fight the unswimmable tide of post Sheeran greyness and political apathy. That it's ok to be different, to upset the status quo and understand the importance of using the privilege and oxygen of your publicity to challenge and thrill in equal measure. Now, I've heard PWR BTTM and they're not for me but I'm particularly saddened if there's a wrong 'un in this band of all bands.

[Cuellar]

Maybe they can take over from Milo as the alt-right's gays of choice?

[hewantstolurkatad]

Their second response is pretty much exactly what I expected, an extremely convoluted attempt at denying the actions without denying them because denying them is about the biggest no-no they could do in a lot of their former fans eyes.

[kngen]

It certainly puts some of this rather cringe-inducing article about 'safe space' culture influencing DIY punk gigs into perspective.

When I went to my first PWR BTTM show last year in London, everyone was dancing and laughing ,,, A very masculine type of aggression is being rejected here, in order that minorities – women, trans people, people of colour and so on – are able to feel free.

Yeah, feel free to molest people! (And gas jews, probably ...)

[Avril Lavigne]

I think The Bloodhound Gang predicted this sort of behaviour in their timeless classic 'I Wish I Was Queer So I Could Get Chicks'.