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Music

Pinegrove's Evan Stephens Hall Discusses "Sexual Coercion" Allegation

In a profile at Pitchfork, Jenn Pelly investigates the events that led up to the band's hiatus. Their second LP, 'Skylight,' is now due out on Friday.

Indie rock band Pinegrove announced last November that they would be "taking some time off in general" after lead singer and primary songwriter Evan Stephens Hall was accused of "sexual coercion." The statement that announced the hiatus, written by Hall and posted to Facebook, was lengthy, vague, and difficult to parse, but the band did indeed disappear (save for a note this January confirming that they had no immediate plans to return.)

That changed this morning with an article at Pitchfork, written by Jenn Pelly, which attempts to answer questions about the allegation, Hall's response, and Pinegrove's activity since. One takeaway is that the hiatus is over—Skylight, the follow-up to 2016's Cardinal, is set to be released this Friday, and the band will play a string of shows later this year.

But the piece goes far deeper than that. It combines reporting from a profile that Pelly was writing on Pinegrove last year, before the allegation surfaced, and interviews she conducted with Hall and his bandmates this year. Pelly also dives into the way that the initial allegation was mishandled by Sheridan Allen, the founder of mental health resource Punk Talks. (SPIN's Anna Gaca first reported on Punk Talks and the Pinegrove allegation in April). Pelly doesn't speak directly with the person who alleged that Hall coerced her, but there is some clarification on the matter from the "mediator" between Pinegrove and the alleged victim.

You can read the piece in full at Pitchfork.

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