Young and in the Way accused of sexual assault, dropped by Psycho Vegas, part with Deathwish, breaking up

The Trumpbullplex booking collective posted a statement on Facebook accusing members of Deathwish-signed North Carolina hardcore band Young And In The Way of sexual assault, and urging the Psycho Las Vegas and 71Grind IV festivals to drop YAITW from their lineups. A few hours after the post went live, Psycho Las Vegas dropped the band “due to recent developments.”

Young And In The Way have posted their own statement in response, denying the accusations, but also saying that because they “can’t prove [their] innocence,” they are breaking up and no longer on Deathwish. It reads:

An accusation of sexual assault has been made against members of our band.

As a band and as individuals, we are disgusted that someone was sexually assaulted at an event that we were a part of. We applaud the victim’s courage to talk about it and we support her decision (and right) to name her aggressors. We stand by what we said when we learned about this incident – no member of our band was responsible for this crime. Let us be very clear – our response to this accusation is not an attempt to discredit the victim, we believe her, we’re sorry this happened to her, and we support her. But it was not us.

Victims’ voices can and should be amplified, and we are not sure there’s any decent way to respond to an accusation like this without accepting fault. We can’t accept fault, but we also can’t prove our innocence. That we could even be suspected of such a crime brings us to the end of the road. YAITW is no longer on Deathwish Inc and will not be playing anymore shows. There is nothing left for us to say.

Lastly, do not attack the victim. There is no room for that here.

We reached out to Deathwish for further clarification, and they replied, “In light of the recent allegations against YAITW, Deathwish Inc. has severed ties with the band and is no longer working with them. We’ve spoken with the women who have come forward, and want to make it clear that we stand with the survivors. We hope that sends an echo far and wide that predatory behavior and sexual assault is not and will not be tolerated in our music scene.”

Trumpbullplex’s statement begins:

I’m sharing this information both privately and publicly knowing full well that any misinformation could have severe negative effects on my business and personal life, and thus am choosing to do so knowing with full confidence that all of this information is 100% accurate. Myself and the victims involved were all huge fans of the band before this event occurred, and our only motive in sharing this information is to ensure that known sexual abusers are blacklisted from the community that supports them to send a message that these actions are not tolerated.

A little over three and a half years years ago (late summer 2014), the band Young and In The Way stayed at my house after a festival in Detroit. I was a sponsor for the event, and had also assisted in a food pop-up during the event. Several friends came over afterwards, one of them being another band that had performed. (By the time these incidents occurred, the other band was already asleep in my basement, so I am agreeing to keep them confidential, as well as the names of two of the victims and any identifying information for their own safety.)

Late into the evening, several sexual assaults occurred between members of YAITW and three different house guests. One guest was asleep. The other was cornered in a bathroom by multiple members.

Incident #1: victim 1 had the door to the bathroom opened up on her by their front man while she was peeing. He pulled his dick out and told her “You know you want it, come on, suck the dick of a rock star. You already said we’re your favorite band.” Her and her friend left immediately afterwards.

Incidents #2 and three happened sequentially.

My then partner (Victim 2) was in the bathroom herself about an hour later when three of them walked into the bathroom and immediately shut the door behind them. One of them stood in front of the door so she couldn’t open it and shut the lights off and she said she immediately felt several pairs of hands trying to go both down her pants and up her shirt. She had to physically fight them off and came running into my bedroom. I was already asleep and I woke up to her curled up at the foot of my bed and sobbing. I was asleep myself at the time and didn’t know what had happened, so I lifted the covers so she could fall asleep next to me and spent a half hour consoling a crying woman who couldn’t even form words.

Victim #3’s account has been temporarily removed as she wants to add/modify information for accuracy.

The statement also reads that Trumbellplex tried to get Taake (“both my ex and I are huge fans of Taake”) to reconsider their tour with YAITW in 2015, but that “Taake’s response was ‘We don’t care, keep this drama off the internet.'” Taake have been in the news this month, as they are getting shows cancelled due to Nazism and Islamophobia accusations.

You can read the rest of Trumbellplex’s statement here.