Jesse Lacey Releases a Statement • Page 12

Brand New Cancel Remaining Tour Dates | Pitchfork

 

Specifically? The two bands I mentioned were completely random - they probably came to mind because they were recent-ish. If you look at threads about other people who have had similar accusations against them the fallout was WAY more harsh.

 

Reading the words of the accuser is beyond disgusting. Guess they were off a year when they said Brand New would be done in 2018.

 

Jason Tate or anyone at Chorus FM. Will there be a podcast on this? I’d love to hear your thoughts in that type of setting seeing as you and a lot of us here have been huge fans of the band and huge supporters of them for so many years now.

Thanks man, this sucks all around for everyone. It’s super shitty when the people and/or bands you love, look up to or care about let you down so badly. I don’t think I’ll spin another Brand New record. It’s all ruined for me.

 

First and most important is all the victims here and them speaking up and getting the help they need and to point out sexual predators. That a side, I always wonder about the other band members when stuff like this comes to the surface in any band. Part of me wants to think that maybe other members often know but continue to move forward in the band anyways and I am sure that other members are completely in the dark and legit have no clue any of this has gone on. I know rumors and where there is smoke there is fire analogy but if that was my job and my income it legit does effect everyone. Again, the most important thing here is ANY Victim and believing them first. I just wondered what you guys thought is on this?

 

I guess an accusation just came up about one of the guitarist in With Confidence. Knuckle Puck dropped them from the remaining tour dates within the hour of the news breaking. With Confidence has kicked him out of the band and already changed their profile picture to the remaining three members. This is how these situations should be handled.

 

I’ve thought about this a bit over the weekend. If the other band members knew this was going on then the whole band can just disappear. If they didn’t I wonder what they’re thinking. If I was a part of the band and had no idea I’d want to put out a small statement or something to clarify that I had no clue this was going on. Cause right now everyone can just speculate if they did or didn’t know about things.

 

I saw them last night and with his stage banter I thought to myself, this guy is a fucking loser haha. I can't believe he's out of the band a few hours later. Kudos to all involved in this situation for handling it the way it should be handled.

 

I saw this. I love With Con so much and am so proud with how they handled this. Luke is easily replaceable.

 

I'm not surprised he skipped over addressing the allegation.

I was assaulted when i was a teenager, and I can guarantee the person who did it to me either doesn't remember, or doesn't have a vivid recollection of it like i do. It was a life changing event. Believe survivors.

 

I'll speculate and say that what Jesse released in the statement and what the band knew was that he was garbage but *not* that kind of garbage. Looking back on this with the statement and everything - we know why they were so secretive. It wasn't about building an ethos or doing their own thing. It was Jesse protecting himself from the legal consequences of his disgusting behavior.

 

Would be nice if the president of the united states was also held accountable for allegations...

 

Of course it would. But Politics are even more corrupt than the music/film industry

 

Sorry if this has already been said by others but there is just too much to read through. For me, this is such a messed up situation because it’s the first occurrence of anything like this that I feel I actually have any attachment to and I can imagine it’s the same for many people on this forum. Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein etc, whilst I like the things they have put out in their career I don’t have the emotional attachment I have to Brand New. For me, TDAGARIM is the greatest album of all time, I have seen them plenty of times and their gigs are some of the best live experiences I have ever witnessed. Friendships have been built on that band and I could not wait to see them live with their new (very impressive) stage set up they have had recently. I don’t know how I will feel when I listen to them again. I will, maybe not for a while and it may not feel the same but it is not easy to separate your emotions and suddenly dislike music that has been so important in your life. I’m sure for all of us there is a little bit of guilt as building the band up to be this god like entity has probably fuelled Jesse Lacey’s narcissism. There are some things that do interest me when I think about this though. Obviously he has been someone who shunned the spotlight and the band have done very little public press over the years which means we have never seen much of what sort of a person he is, maybe now we know why. Also, the way the band has treated fans generally, the not sending out lyric books for 10 years, the random releases, weird cryptic messages and generating mass hysteria in their weird aloof ways, whether intentional or not, now feels more like a manipulation of fans and a weird way of controlling them in the way Jesse has controlled women, rather than being original, creative and innovative.


Clearly Jesse is a d1ck. I have not read too much about his actions but I have seen some of the posts by the women involved and whilst most of the one’s I have seen are not people who are underage, his treatment of women in general is clearly atrocious and he should be ashamed and vilified for that. He sounds like some big-time, big-headed kid at school who thinks he is the best thing since sliced bread and that these women should worship him. Whether he is a predator that preyed on underage girls I don’t know and we probably never will, it could be just likely that it was any woman, but that the fan base who attended his shows at that time happened to be young. I know a lot of that is speculation but there has clearly been a lot of manipulation involved and what he did was clearly just for his own selfish motivations and to satisfy his narcissism. He knew how to play these girls and used that to his own advantage. It will ruin his legacy and whatever he had planned after Brand New will now be effected and he will probably not be able to continue in the music/entertainment business. For that he only has himself to blame.


What also makes this hard is that our society tells us that we pay for our crimes and after rehabilitation should be allowed to re-join as a normal member of society, so if he has sought help and changed as a person in those 15 years, part of me feels like he should be cut some slack, however we don’t have any evidence of this and even though no recent accounts appear to have surfaced (yet) we do not know if this behaviour has still continued recently. At least he has admitted he has a problem and while I don’t think whatever he said in a statement would be good enough he could have done a worse job. None of us want to be judged for the mistakes of our past and we have all made mistakes as young people which we are not proud of but no matter how much you don’t want it to, things like this taints your image of a person.


It does also interest me that a lot of people are saying they will never listen to this band again because of this. Now I am not saying I don’t feel that way or that it is wrong to do so, however, there was a time, the 80s especially, when bands were very open about their womanising and that was synonymous with being a ‘rock star’. You only have to look at a lot of old documentaries and music videos to see it and there are interviews and autobiographies in which people openly discuss the things they have done. For example, I have read Ronnie Woods autobiography and some of the things he discusses in that involving the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart are definitely comparable behaviour to Jessie and at times reek of sexual harassment but for some reason I have never heard of anyone saying they will never listen to their music ever again because of it. Their behaviour actually seems to be celebrated. What I am saying there is that I do feel like if we looked in to a lot of the bands we have loved over the years, this would be very prevalent.


At the end of the day I still don’t properly know how I feel about the band and their music. That band is not just Jessie. It will take ages to sink in and until I try listening to them again I won’t know but I don't want to feel guilty if I still like the music. I can't help what emotional attachment I have to the music as it has done a lot of good things for me. What it does though is ensures that I won’t embrace anything by Jessie Lacey in the future, whenever I am asked about an album of Brand New’s my answer will most likely be along the lines of “I love(d) that album, but their singer is an awful person”. That will now be Jessie’s legacy. Hopefully the women affected have been able to come to terms with what happened and move on. And if not, will do so in the future, especially now this is out in the open.

 

Every person that came forward said that it started when they were underage and the manipulation last years. He groomed minors.

 

I agree. Sadly, I've been through a similar situation, so I never jump to the conclusion that surrounding people/band members enabled or were aware of things like this going on.

I had a "friend" (guy I had grown up with) who became very shady when it came to women (always cheating on his girlfriend, stringing other women along, making attempts to message his friends' exes immediately after a breakup, etc.) We became increasingly aware of his behavior through word of mouth but the best we could do was call him out over his actions, though he was so sneaky about everything that it was hard to actually prevent him from doing anything. We always assumed this was the extent of his actions, but each time we thought he hit a new low, we would find out more and more shocking information despite being around him all the time. Eventually, he left town for a while when we were about 20 or so...which was odd. We found out that he had been caught texting a couple of middle school girls (so 14-ish). The school got involved, they basically threatened him with legal actions, etc. We had no idea he was ever up to anything like that.

TL;DR - Guy I grew up with had similar tendencies with mistreating women that developed into messaging minors. We were around him all the time and were still clueless. Do not keep in touch with him anymore.

 

I've had this thought a few times over the past couple weeks. It's absolutely insane where we are today, with all of the victims coming forward and action being taken against the abusers. Only a year after electing a man who was literally on video admitting to sexual assault as President of the United States.

If the election were this year, would recent events have made it so that video absolutely killed his presidency? Or was it his presidency that has helped women start to come forward more?

 

God bless you jesse. thanks for sharing and spilling your guts. there’s no weakness in forgiveness. i hope and pray you continue to seek out repentance, compassion and love for the rest of your life. they help us heal when we are totally broken. much love dude.

 

But nothing about the victims? Ok then.

 

We would not seeing this tidal wave of accusations and men being outed as abusers without the election last year. Let's see how Alabama reacts with Roy Moore and how things go in 2020.

 

Where was your God the last 15 years

 

I agree with the emotional attachment to the music. that's tough.

he was grooming minors. there's 3 reports that I've seen ages 14, 15, 17. this was not a "one time thing" 15 years ago, he strung them along for years, up until 2009 is the latest that I've seen. that time period puts it lasting from when Deja came out until after Daisy. that's a long time.

I think I'm a pretty forgiving person, had this been an indiscretion that happened once a long time ago and made amends among other stuff that would be 1 thing, this is a pattern of behavior that lasted years, he hurt multiple girls, not women, and they are still feeling the effects of his abuse.

the fact that bands in the 80s did similar things doesn't help. if anything that should show you that this stuff was prevalent then and it's still prevalent now, if we let these things go unnoticed and don't care about stuff like this then what's going to happen when our kids are going to shows? which band is going to take advantage of the next generation? who's going to go after my daughter or son?

 

Your last paragraph is spot on. It feels really weird and gross that he has a daughter named after David Bowie, who also engaged in sexual activity with minors.

 

Following up because some folks in here wanted to me to address the subreddit more directly:

***PLEASE READ*** A note from the moderators. • r/brandnew

 

2) FOR FANS: Let me again be clear: fans are not the true victims here. That being said, you are absolutely allowed to feel a full spectrum of emotions about this, with intense, visceral pain included. Some people want to burn or donate their merch, sever ties, and jump ship. That is their right. Some people hold memories and the music close—perhaps they have been saved from self-harm by Brand New or have their lyrics or symbols inked onto their skin. That is their right. Some people want to wait, think, internalize, discuss civilly and give it time. That is their right.

The point is that there is no RIGHT reaction to all this, so do not over exert yourself trying to find one and try your best to not chastise someone for what is a personal decision. It’s okay to step away for a bit. This band might be a big part of your life, but they are not your entire life. If you’re struggling emotionally and mentally, dig down into something else that brings you peace and happiness. We’ll be here when you get back.



like this a lot