Fireworks - Higher Lonely Power (January 1, 2023) Album • Page 33

With all due respect, the reason I'm in this thread in the first place is because I loved this band until everything with JJR went down. It totally ruined their music for me along with a significant amount of other bands/musicians in the scene, and it's really, really jarring to see them being celebrated so much for this album when there are other bands that basically no-one posts about because of the JJR situation. I just wanted to call attention to it without being passive-aggressively replied to and the situation being swept under the rug once again.

 

How would you (and others that bring JJR up) like this to happen? I'm genuinely asking, not trying to be a jerk. If someone has a summary, I'll be happy to edit my first post in the thread to provide as much detail so people know before diving into the album.

In these instances where there's a gray area (from what I can tell, this is mainly just that members of FW stayed friends with JJR after his incident. Four of them follow him on IG, but JJR hasn't posted there in three years now) it seems the thread is just full of people talking about the album, then separate posts about the issue. When those posts don't get engagement, people say the issue is being swept under the rug. When they do engage with the posts, it always goes south, in this thread and others. What's the answer? Here's the last thing Jason said on the issue in 2019 by the way.

 

You know it's a great album when you can't pick a favorite song. It would be really cool to see them get some new fans from this. They deserve it.

 

There's two conversations trying to happen here, with completely different vibes, and it's super disorienting. It's like the forum version of whiplash.

 

I thought that was what the accountability thread was for.

 

Listening to OCL for the first time in a minute.

"Height marks on a door frame from when a year brought welcome change. Now it all just feels the same."

This band nails one liners.

 

Man, being a passive-aggressive dick is surely a great way to diffuse the situation and get the conversation back to good vibes. Certainly nothing can go wrong with an attitude like that.

 

Fwiw, we've had this conversation a hundred times in other threads and I genuinely don't think there's an answer, at least not one that's going to please everybody. My best advice is to make your own decision when it comes to listening to and posting about artists that associate with JJR and don't be shocked if it's occasionally brought up as a reminder. No one's forcing you to engage with posts you disagree with and if you don't have the restraint to not be a jerk about it just because you like the band, use some discretion and move along.

If you think I actually care whether anyone listens to this album or TWY or whoever, that's truly not the case. But I do think the issue is prominent enough in our scene to warrant occasional discussion, and I think people should be able to handle that discussion appropriately, especially when the rest of the thread is like unanimous praise anyways.

 

People should be able to discuss these things in an album thread for the band without it turning into a passive aggressive defensive argument. A lot of us talking about these issues used to love the band and these discussions shouldn’t be limited to one thread to be viewed inside an echo chamber because fans of the band can’t deal with any sort of critical discussion without getting defensive.

 

If you say so.
I'd prefer the album threads to be about the album but oh well. All good.

 

I think the post that Romy made is the absolute best way to handle the situation. "Hey, in case you didn't know, this band was involved with shady shit" and then they linked to the post that describes the situation. Absolutely no need to engage with the post if you don't care or if you have nothing to say on it. No one is sitting around quoting every person talking about the album to shame them. Stop being so weird.

 

oh ok.

 

Well, they’d be about the album if the band stopped being friends with rape apologists. Maybe you should blame the band for that and not people bringing up valid criticisms.

 

Has nothing to do with yours or anyone's opinion/criticisms. Like I said, IMO there's an accountability thread for that.
Moderator says different.
Its all good.

 

I honestly don't know, but it does seem very odd to me that Fireworks are seemingly getting a free pass for this and are being met with universal acclaim on the site, when other bands (State Champs, FYS, TSSF etc.) seem to have been somewhat (justifiably) ostracised by their associations/actions regarding JJR/Harry Corrigan. I thought the bare minimum was at least to point back to these conversations for anyone who genuinely hadn't seen previous posts on the matter just to call back to it.

 

I'll agree, it's not consistent. If Nick from TWY is still buddies with JJR then it makes it even more confusing since they just won AOTY for the site.

EDIT: We really don't like to look at it this way, but how much a site collectively likes a band plays into these discussions. Blink 182 having Skiba in the band is pretty problematic at best, and there's no way this site would distance themselves from Blink for something like that because they like them too much.

 

The defense that people will use for TWY is that they fired JJR from being their tour manager or whatever he did.

 

it's impossible to police who people are friends with. Kevin Devine and Jesse Lacey are still close. Phoebe Bridgers and Evan Stephens Hall are still close. I don't see people bring those two cases up and with good reason. I eventually stopped caring about guilt by association because it just never fucking ends. Harry Corrigan is the rapist in this scenario. I'm not getting involved beyond that. pick your battles, y'know?

 

I think it crossed the line when they paraded HC around their farewell shows in the midst of all of the shit still happening. Unforgivable for me. The discussion about remaining friends/friendly with abusers is obviously complicated and not something I am paying too close of attention to anymore.

My gripe is how powerful HC and JJR remain in the scene, and the fact that this group is 100% complicit in allowing that power to remain.

 

Im worried that the baby thinks people can’t change

 

I don't know what your baby has to do with this thread.

 

I understand the reference but there are so many people who use the deflection of "well maybe they changed" or whatever. Frankly, the damage is done. Both scumbags are in relatively popular bands. HC is in a band with the lead singer of one of the most popular bands in the scene. It's over, they had their chance to take a stand or distance themselves and they did not, they had him backstage (and according to some reports onstage) at their shows. I don't really give a fuck if they're not posting pictures with either of them now (they were within the past 2-3 years, tbc).

I think to try and make the complaints of many people in this thread out to be "they're privately friends with bad people" is missing the larger picture.

EDIT:
I'm obviously getting redundant here. Nothing new has come of the situation with this reunion. Hopefully they use their reclaimed popularity in a positive way.

 

Like I also get the reference, but come on lol. What is this? Was this really the right time?

 

This is basically where I’m at for what it’s worth. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s still in the back of my mind for sure. I just can’t be surprised that the dudes who wrote the “I’ll go to the bottom with you” song about sticking with your friends are still friends with JJR.

 

For a record that is very squarely focused on the harmful effects of the Church, they do strangely align in the practice of covering up sexual abuse to maintain power and influence.