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Allison Weiss and Rob Lynch to Resume U.K. Tour Sans Front Porch Step

January 7, 2015 — Leave a comment

After announcing she would not be touring with Front Porch Step following the allegations against him, Allison Weiss has now let her fans know that the tour will go on as planned, but without Jake Mcelfresh.

Taking to Facebook earlier in the day, Weiss revealed that thanks to some serious behind-the-scenes work, she and fellow tour mate, Rob Lynch, will be going forward with the United Kingdom tour that they thought had been derailed by all the controversy.

Read her statement below:

“After some hard behind the scenes work by some very god people, I’m SO happy to announced Rob Lynch and I will still be touring the UL together as originally planned!!

Unfortunately, our former tour mate Jake McElfresh (Front Porch Step) has dropped off the dates due to a very sensitive personal situation. Though this news almost derailed the whole tour, Rob and I have just learned that the two of us will still be able to play the originally scheduled shows*.

Despite the upsetting nature of the recent events, Rob and I feel that these shows will be even more special than before. We’ve chosen to celebrate the power and unity of live music, and focus all of the positive energy brought into our lives through this scene.

We would love if you would join us to make these 10 days the best they can be!

Lastly, we’d like to thank everyone for all of the support you’ve sent our way in the past week.

We could do this without you.

Love,

Allison (and Rob!)”

As for Mcelfresh, last weekend the musician voluntarily suspended all of his upcoming tour dates following the petition against him for allegedly sexual harassing underage girls. These suspended dates include the Vans Warped Tour which means the petition accomplished what it set out to do.

Warped Tour Founder Speaks About Front Porch Step Controversy

January 2, 2015 — Leave a comment

As the Front Step Porch accusation controversy keeps progressing, Vans Warped Tour founder, Kevin Lyman, has once again taken to the internet to speak about the petition started to get Jake Mcelfresh (aka Front Step Porch) taken off the tour due to allegations of sexual harassment against underage girls.

Lyman, who had previously posted on Twitter that the situation at hand would be examined and addressed when he returned from his vacation, has revealed that he would be returning earlier than expected to “deal with the situation that had been brought” to his attention.

As if having to cut your holiday vacation short to deal with a major controversy wasn’t bad enough, it looks like a lot of bands are trying to cash in on the drama by asking him if they can replace Mcelfresh on the tour.

So many have been taking advantage that Lyman has had to ask them to stop asking and posting request to do so on his social media accounts.

We should also point out there has been no official word on his decision or towards which side he’s leaning towards.

A few days ago, Mcelfresh posted statement online in which he said that he was aware of the accusations against him and would be taking step to address the situations at hand. As for his record label, Pure noise Records which were the first to comment on the matter, they have not released any statement since their initial response a few days ago.

At current time, the petition against Mcelfresh has reached over 10,000 supporters.

Front Porch Step Issues Official Statement About Allegations

December 31, 2014 — Leave a comment

It’s been more than 24 hours since news broke that a petition had been started to get Front Porch Step taken off of the 2015 Vans Warped Tour line-up.

Now, Front Porch Step himself, Jake Mcelfresh, has issued a formal statement about the matter at hand.

“I am aware of the serious allegations and sensational things being posted on the internet about me and my personal life. While this is personally difficult to experience, I am taking the appropriate, meaningful, and objective steps to address the severity of these things and the horrendous words being used. I would truly hope that others who have or will propagate these serious allegations will do the same.”

For those not familiar with the situation, the petition on Change.org was started to get Mcelfresh taken off the 2015 Vans Warped Tour after allegations were made against the musician that he had sent vulgar messages to underage girls. The accusation also states that once the girls had asked Mcelfresh to stop, he would continue with the sexual statements and harassment.

Mcelfresh’s record label, Pure Noise Records released a tweet yesterday informing followers that they were not at liberty to speak about the situation because of the legality of the issue.

Kevin Lyman, founder of the Warped Tour also tweet late in the evening yesterday, advising followers that at that precise moment, he could not speak about the matter because he was on vacation, but once he returned to the States, he would make sure that the issue would be examined, thoroughly.

Currently, the petition has garnered almost 8,000 electronic signatures as can be seen below.

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Petition Issued to Get Front Porch Step Off Of Warped Tour 2015

December 31, 2014 — 1 Comment

UPDATE 2: 

In the early morning hours, Jake Mcelfresh tweeted his followers that he was aware of what was happening and that he would be making a statement about the accusations.

 

UPDATE 1:

Kevin Lyman has issued a quick tweet about the allegations against Jake Mcelfresh. Don’t expect any answers because the Warped head honcho is currently on vacation with his family.

 

While Pure Noise Records were riding a high yesterday with the release of their Winter Sampler and new album announcements from some of their acts in the new year, today brings some bad news for the record label.

A petition was started on Change.org asking Vans Warped Tour creator Kevin Lyman to drop the act from their 2015 line-up. Lyman and company posted on the official website that Mcelfresh would be one of the acts next year.

According to the description of the petition: “There have been multiple instances of Jake Mcelfresh talking to underage girls and sending them vulgar photos. He has been asked to stop by these girls every time and continues with the sexual statements and harassment.”

In a tweet to their followers, Pure Noise has issued a simple statement that they are not able to speak about the matter due to the “serious legal nature” of it.

Read a tweet from the record label below.

As of now, Mcelfresh has not responded to the accusations, but considering Pure Noise has already announced they cannot further discuss the matter, we don’t think he’ll be commenting on the accusations any time soon.

Being that it is not our place to take sides, only report the story as it happens, we will be leaving the link to Change.Org here and if you feel the need to add your name to the growing list of backers, you are more than welcomed to do so.

Panic! at the Disco Call Westboro Baptist Church’s Bluff

July 21, 2014 — Leave a comment

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For a band that calls Las Vegas home, Panic! at the Disco surely called the Westboro Baptist Church’s bluff.

Last week, the Westboro Baptist Church, one of the most detested, despised and obnoxious group of people in the world, released a parody of Panic! at the Disco’s hit, debut song, “I Write Sins, Not Tragedies.” Considering that the group of anti-everything had not only announced plans to do that, they had also announced plan to picket the band’s Kansas City, MO, we were all expecting the song to come out, which by the way is horrible.

We’re pretty sure that the WBC expect all the hate, but one thing we are sure they did not expect was for Panic! to announce that they would donate $20 to the Human Right Campaign for every member of the WBC that would show up at the show to picket.

Check out the interaction between the band and the WBC after the original tweet was posted, yesterday, in which the band not only called their bluff, but also burned them in a response.

Metallica NOT Wanted at Glastonbury Festival By Many

June 4, 2014 — Leave a comment

metallica

Metallica might be icons and legends in the music world, but it seems that no one wants them at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. The annual festival which takes place in the UK, revealed that the rock band would be the third and final headliner for this year’s show, but it’s becoming more evident that none of the attendees or artists associated with the festival, want them to be there.

The Arctic Monkeys, who headlined the show last year and Mogwai, who will be performing at this year’s show, have said not-so-nice things about the icons.

Arctic Monkeys’ frontman Alex Turner, told Time Out London “I’m not sure it adds up,” he began. “I know we’d buzz off it, but fundamentally could you have Metallica in the hippy nucleus?”

While Mogwai referred to the legendary metal band as “shite” even insulting the band’s drummer, Lars Ulrich by saying that his drumming is “unbelievably bad.”

But that’s not even where it ends. A group of Glastonbury attendees have now created a Facebook page encouraging the festival to remove Metallica from the line-up.
This petition all began as a response to frontman James Hetfield’s involvement in an upcoming film about bear hunting. At this present moment, the page had gathered 15,000 members. The page’s mission, as written by them states, “Metallica’s lead singer James Hetfield is a big game hunter and promoter. This is incompatible with Glastonbury Festivals ideals.”

Meanwhile, it doesn’t look like those petitioners will be getting their way anytime soon. The festival organizers have continued to defend their decisions. “There’s a huge swathe of people who love Metallica to bits and just think they’re absolutely amazing,” Glastonbury founder, Michael Eavis said in an interview. “They’re worthy headliners.”

Can’t we all get along? Isn’t that part of the hippie ideals?

Train Refuses to Play Boy Scouts’ Jamboree

March 4, 2013 — Leave a comment

Train

Train has made it known now that they are against the Boy Scouts of America. The band were scheduled to perform at this year’s jamboree which would be taking place in July with “Call Me Maybe” crooner, Carly Rae Jepsen, but the band are pulling out. According to Queerty, the band made a statement against the longstanding and recently troubling ban on scouts being from the LGBQT community.

A recent petition by Derek Nance, a gay Eagle Scout, on Change.org urged the band to make this decision after GLAAD signed on for the cause this past Friday. The band wrote the following on their blog, explaining the situation to fans:

“When we booked this show for the Boy Scouts of America, we were not aware of any policy barring openly gay people from participation within the organization. Train strongly opposes any kind of policy that questions the equality of any American citizen. We have always seen the BSA as a great and noble organization. We look forward to participating in the Jamboree this summer, as long as they make the right decision before then.”

Currently, the petition is waiting for Jepsen to make a statement about whether she would go ahead and do the Jamboree of if she, like Train, will pull out. In case you were one of the few who hasn’t seen the “Call Me, Maybe” video, it features a male couple kissing in it. Jepsen has also spoken out about how she would always support gay marriage.