i post this shit to the list cos i think it's relevant and cos people
keep asking me if i've heard anything "more concrete." this has nothing
to do with my opinion either way. this can be found at:
http://www.thestranger.com/NEWS/city2.html, which i guess is seattle's
online newsmagazine. if you don't wanna read this then don't, and don't
email me bitching about it. sorry it's so long, though.
xoxo nicole
Immodest Mouse
SINGER ACCUSED OF RAPE
by Samantha M. Shapiro
Check out the discussion thread dedicated to local
band Modest Mouse at punkrock.net, and you'll
read over 30 pages of hot-tempered commentary
that begins, "Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse raped
a girl in Seattle last week... DON'T LET HIM
RAPE AGAIN." Then there was the cryptic
reference on MTV a few weeks ago to the Murder
City Devils cancelling their tour with the band.
What gives?
It turns out Modest Mouse -- more specifically,
Brock -- is at the center of an underground
controversy surrounding a 19-year-old woman who
claims he date-raped her in February. Brock couldn't
be reached for comment, but his manager denies the
allegations.
According to police reports and an interview with
the alleged victim, Brock met the woman at the Cha
Cha Lounge on February 16. At the end of the
night, after a few too many, Brock offered to walk
her home. The woman says that upon reaching her
apartment, she realized she didn't have her keys.
Brock suggested that she stay at his house in
Ballard.
After calling several friends, trying to line up an
alternative, she took his suggestion. At his house, the
two kissed, but when he started to undress her, she
told him she didn't want to have sex. "I said 'this is
not okay. I don't want to do this,'" the woman
recalls. She says Brock forcibly entered her at that
point.
She says she pushed him off several times and told
him "I don't want to do this." When she realized that
he wasn't going to stop, she says, "I sort of left my
body and went somewhere else."
Strangely enough, the woman says that after
intercourse, Brock "freaked out" and asked her how
well she knew members of the Murder City Devils.
She said she knew them well, and he responded,
"It's a good thing I stopped before things went
overboard, right? You don't think I'm a dick, do
you?"
With no place to go -- the woman says she "felt
trapped" -- she spent the night at Brock's house. He
gave her money for a cab home in the morning.
At first the woman didn't report the incident, but
talked about it with friends, most of whom work in
the music industry. It wasn't long before word got
around. "Within two days people knew in L.A. and
New York," she says. "It was on the Internet." The
Murder City Devils canceled their show with
Modest Mouse at Boise State University and all
subsequent tour dates.
Chad Quierolo, the Devil's booking agent, said that
"the Murder City Devils know the girl very well, and
they've known Isaac for a long time. They think
she's credible. They believe her and they don't ever
want to play with Modest Mouse again." Quierolo
said other bands he represents also don't want to
play with Modest Mouse until "things get sorted
out."
Damage to the band's reputation hasn't stopped
there. According to Jef Hoskins, who runs in the
same circles as Modest Mouse and the woman,
"When it first happened people were wanting to
physically fight about it and they're still arguing.
There's a lot of tension between even my closest
friends and me. If they've heard his side, they think
she wanted to be with him but changed her mind
after the fact. I've heard third-hand stories that they
got up the next day and spent all day together. I
wish the people it affects would communicate with
each other. The wrong people are discussing it the
wrong way."
The 19-year-old woman, who initially "just wanted
the story to go away," has been emboldened by
similar tales from friends (though not involving the
Modest Mouse singer). "My friend was saying that a
guy in [another band] raped a woman a few years
ago in Oregon and it was gossip for weeks, but she
didn't report it and now they're playing Gap
commercials. It's like it didn't happen for them, they
never had to deal with it, but she had to go through
all the shit and live with it."
So she decided to speak out. "He's a rock star and
he's got a big head and he probably thought 'this girl
is so stoked just to be at my house.' And when I
wasn't into it he thought 'fuck you, I'll do whatever I
want because I can.' But he didn't know who he
was messing with."
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