I think it's just a case of melody+voice both kind of sounding like him, if it was only one of them I might not have picked up on it but now I felt it very strongly, as some people put it.

This fucking sucks on so many different levels. Sad day.

pitchfork.com/news/arcade-fires-win-butler-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-by-multiple-women-frontman-responds/

Even if what Butler is saying in his statement is 100% right, it is so sad. 30 plus year old man is acting like stupid instagram 18 year old kid.

That's a difficult read. Devastating as a fan to read. But full support and respect to his victims, you cannot underestimate the amount of trauma these things can do to individuals. In my line of work, I've caseworked individuals where even what is perceived as 'slightly inappropriate' is often a trigger for mental decline contributing to rough sleeping, so the repercussions are massive. A lot of what is said there is quite scary.

Sad day. Not that it matters at all, but that's the band's reputation absolutely ruined.

Ezra Furman raises an age old debate about whether an artist's heinous crimes distorts and destroys the art in the process? What's everyone's opinion?



I think I read a response that was quite interesting - if the crime betrays the contents of the music, then it definitely tarnishes the music.

If I'm thinking about Arcade Fire, I'd say it does tarnish their music. So much about their music, especially their live shows, was about that sense of community and togetherness and the music reflected a universal sense of belonging and acceptance, like most of the great live acts. Anyone could go to their shows and I saw that at the Edinburgh Castle gig in 2011. I think you need to believe in the person who communicates that to make it really work. I just couldn't believe that from someone who'd sleaze up and harass younger girls.

On the other hand, if that's the way the argument should go, is it fair that they get tarnished and the likes of Bowie, whose crimes are arguably more disturbing but whose music does not have any much in the way of moralistic sentimental value, get off scot free because the so called purveyors of taste dictate the agenda on this? And that notorious paedophile Michael Jackson's music is unharmed because, hey, he sang about being bad anyway?

I’ve seen a lot of recent criticism of Pitchforks reporting/handling of the story on a couple of news podcasts and articles. It mainly focuses on the quote and text references in the story being reported. Some things are alleged by the women but not confirmed by supplied text messages by victims but are basically assumed as facts via the writer. Why are the most horrific parts of all 4 encounters missing in their supplied screenshots? You’d think those would be saved above all. That does seem strange to me. Win admits all of these hookups happened just not to the degree each women has described. He gave Pitchfork 65 screenshots of all encounters. None of his side is represented in the story. Keep in mind I’m not defending Win at all. I’m just curious from a journalistic nature since that is my work background. Three of the women claim Win went too far in their relationships and one claimed sexual misconduct. I’ve now seen this misreported on various outlets as 4 sexual misconduct acts which is not what what is claimed in the story. Two of the three women admit to keeping their relationship and hangouts going post incidents as well. Lot going on here. He said, she said cases are so damn hard to get a handle of.

Who knows. He says he’s always had an open marriage. He does admit to using his social media outlets to meet women who are fans of his band/music. The 4 women in this story and then another 4-5 he also claimed to have relationships. Is using IG DMs the new band hookup method? 21st century groupies?

I thought that the basketball story was all that was negative about the band. I never digged deeper than Reflektor and Funeral(pretend Everything Now the album didn't exist). I guess I'll never do now.

I didn’t like end of the empire until I saw it live. Definitely has EN vibes. Especially the “unsubscribed” and “season 5” parts.

Did you see them on this tour? Got to see them at mgm music hall in Boston.

Understandable. Got mine and airplane tickets before the story broke. Was surprised they didn’t postpone the shows.