Ottawa band in Beyoncé album mix-up dropped by label amid sex assault allegations
An Ottawa punk band that rose briefly to fame this week after a German vinyl pressing plant mistakenly put its songs on copies of Beyoncé's Lemonade album has been dropped from its own label over allegations of sexual assault.
Magic Bullet Records announced late Tuesday it was dropping the band Zex from its roster of artists, "effective immediately," for what it alleged in a statement were the "ongoing and recent accounts of sexual assault" by the band's guitarist, Jo Capitalicide.
There are no allegations under Capitalicide's name filed at the Ottawa courthouse.
The abrupt action comes just days after the band was thrust into the limelight when several European vinyl copies of Beyoncé's 2016 album were mispressed, with the intended side A replaced by the first five songs from Zex's Uphill Battle.
The record label also cited "routine boycotts" by promoters, venues, and record stores among its reasons for dropping the band.
Guitarist says allegations 'untrue and hurtful'
Reached on Tuesday evening, Capitalicide confirmed the band was dropped by its label, but he called the allegations of sexual assault "completely untrue and hurtful."
The band had been riding a wave of unexpected attention after the vinyl mix-up.
The story of Beyoncé fans playing the vinyl album and instead hearing an obscure Canadian punk band was picked up in Vanity Fair, Variety, Billboard, the Guardian and newspapers and broadcasters across Canada.
Columbia Records later issued a statement, blaming the mistake on human error at the Celebrate Records plant in Germany.
Gab Hole, the bass player for the band, had been joking earlier Tuesday — before the band learned it was dropped by its label — that he found it bizarre that "one guy's mistake" at a factory would cause what he called an international incident.
