Filipino indie rock band Sud is in a hell of a lot of hot water now thanks to their infamous cover for Pulp Magazine’s August issue. The cover shows the band portraying vintage-styled pornographers, with vocalist Sud Ballecer holding a camera appearing to film two women in their underwear. Behind-the-scenes photos show the women being intimate on the bed as the crew films on.
It’s 2016, people. Doesn’t take a genius to tell that this was bound to go haywire online.
After Pulp released the photo of the band on the evening of August 1, naturally, local netizens took to Twitter to voice out their opinions. Aaaand they’ve got a point–misogyny and the objectification of LGBT are never cool.
But the most prominent of the cover’s opposers is independent synth-pop artist BP Valenzuela, giving a little more than her own two cents as a woman in the music industry.
BP went as far as to tweet a screencap of Sud allegedly flirting with her publicly via Twitter.
Some Sud members were far from silent, most notably Jimbo Cuenco. Jimbo and BP eventually found themselves in a very, very public Twitter spat (which, we unfortunately didn’t get to screencap after Jimbo deleted a handful of his tweets).
Meanwhile, while all the sh*t was hitting the fan, frontman Sud Ballecer himself probably just wanted a breather and tweeted a photo of appreciation for his (adorable) dog.
Sud fans bit back, claiming people were “overreacting” and that the cover was only fit for the band’s lyrics—which mostly talk about passion and sex. Some said the cover was a parody or satire.
As far as official statements go, we have this one from Pulp Magazine publisher Vernon Go.
K, Mr. Go.
Late last night, SUD finally responded with a statement that was both apologetic and unapologetic at the same time:
Regardless of whose side you’re on, or if you’re even taking sides in all this mayhem, take this as a PSA that misogyny and female objectification need to be booted back into the Middle Ages. And picking fights on Twitter ain’t that cool (but it’s slightly more fun for everyone else).
Photos from Pulp Magazine and MYX