It’s starting to feel like rarely a week goes by without someone from the alternative music scene being accused of some form of sexual misconduct. Anyone who believes the string of accusations being thrown around in 2015 is just a trend is stupid. The problem is real, and fortunately for us there are a few bands who know how to react when these problems arise.

ROMP, the most recent signees to Bad Timing Records, are the latest band to have a member accused of sexual assault. According to a post made by member Madison Klarer on the group’s official Facebook page earlier today, the band recently learned that their drummer, Mitch, had allegedly been involved in some form of sexual misconduct with a female within the alternative community. Klarer and her band mates responded by removing Mitch from their group, which has forced them to cancel all upcoming tour dates, and by promising to donate all future 2015 proceeds from their recent EP to RAINN. You can read Klarer’s original statement below:

Good morning everyone. Unfortunately, I have a really hard announcement to make. It came to our attention last night that our (now-former) drummer, Mitch, has been accused of being involved in an incident involving sexual assault. As a woman in the punk scene I feel the utmost responsibility to make this public knowledge. We would like to apologize to the victim for our support of this individual and we regret that we’re only just finding out about this now. Mitch will no longer be playing in ROMP. The rest of our summer tour dates have been cancelled and all proceeds from our EP Sorry, Not Sorry will be donated to RAINN for the rest of 2015.
I’d like to provide my personal email in case anyone would like to talk to me directly about this as it is an extremely important issue to me.

Madison_Klarer@fitnyc.edu

Thank you for reading this. – Madison

We have been watching ROMP for the better part of a year and know the members who remain to be amongst the greatest people anyone could hope to meet. These kind of setbacks are every young band’s nightmare, but I think the band is being smart with their response. I don’t know what more they could possibly do at this point to make amends, but there is a chance the current hype around them diminishes just a bit as news of this incident spreads throughout the music community at large.

How do you feel about ROMP’s response? Comment below and let us know.

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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