They just don't know how to admit they're wrong.

There are few things as certain about the Australian music industry than how utterly cooked Sticky Fingers have been behaving since they returned from their ‘hiatus’. It's gotten so bad, in fact, that they've been called the Donald Trump of the Australian music industry.

The Northern Beaches Sydney band has been marred by controversy in recent months since they announced their return to music after taking a year off to, well, do who knows what? If they had reflected on what led to the hiatus in the first place, perhaps they’d be handling the current situation with more self-awareness.

But let’s take it back a few steps to revisit why they took that hiatus in the first place and why they’re in hot water again.

The hiatus

In 2016, the band’s lead singer, Dylan Frost, was accused of threatening Indigenous artist Thelma Plum, and also got into an altercation with Indigenous band, Dispossessed.

At the time, Plum made a public accusation, and spoke to the Sydney Morning Herald about the incident saying, “I 100% thought I was going to be punched in the face but luckily each time he swung his friend was standing in the middle. I have now gotten to the point where I fail to understand why people make excuses for him."

At the time, neither the band nor Frost made explicit statements in response to the allegations, however, shortly after announced via Facebook that they were going on “indefinite hiatus” in order to deal with “some internal issues in the band.”

For some time we've been dealing with some internal issues in the band. They've heightened to the point where it's not... Posted by Sticky Fingers on Sunday, December 4, 2016

Frost also wrote his own post on the band’s Facebook page, apologising for his “unacceptable” behaviour, and claimed that he had been struggling with alcohol addiction and being diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia. However, again, he didn’t explicitly make reference to the allegations levelled against him.

In recent times my behaviour for a large part has been unacceptable – I’m writing here and now with a heavy heart... Posted by Sticky Fingers on Sunday, December 4, 2016

The return

After this, the band spent all of 2017 on hiatus and then announced in March this year their return with a performance at Sydney’s Bad Friday Festival. Speaking to Triple J’s Hack about their return, they said “We’ve had some time to reflect on this. A year is a long time. We’ve been seeking help, and we’ve actually spoken to a lot of strong voices in the community.”

Junkee reported that, when pressed, Frost himself literally said, “boys will be boys...shit happens, man.”

Let’s just take a moment here to pause and say aloud: what the fuck? Surely if you actually sought out help and advice you wouldn’t still be blaming your alleged poor behaviour on your fragile masculinity? It’s this nonchalance in regards to the (very serious) allegations against them that characterises their subsequent behaviour as well.

Fresh allegations

They went on to perform at Bad Friday, have announced a new world tour and, would you believe it, are dealing with a fresh batch of allegations against Frost.

This time, as reported by the Australian last week, Frost was asked to leave Kelly’s Bar in Newtown following a verbal altercation with transgender model and writer, Alexandra V. Tanygina, where he allegedly called her “crazy”, a “floozy” and “bitch”.

Inside the Australian Music Vault Inside the Australian Music Vault

Speaking to The Australian, Tanygina said, “Dylan was a million per cent intoxicated, he was absolutely wasted.”

According to Tanygina, he also claimed that he hated transgender feminists, he was Maori and his mother was a feminist, so, you know, he can’t be racist or sexist.

Social media mess

It’s all pretty awful stuff, and, can you believe - it gets worse! Because these men can’t seem to help themselves, bassist Paddy Cornwall took to his own social media accounts to weigh in.

Posting a photo of the band holding their gold and platinum awards, Cornwall captioned the photo “‘IM GOING TO RUIN YOUR CAREER’ - said a fellow “artist”...ta VERY much to all those who have stuck it through with us & haven't bought into all the bullshit! We bloody LOVE ya.”

Cornwall also posted a screenshot, that has since been deleted, of an Instagram direct message from Thelma Plum to his girlfriend about her complicity in supporting the band and accused Plum of abusing his girlfriend in the caption.

Cornwall then proceeded to engage with people calling him out in the comments, refusing to take accountability for the actions of the band or any kind of wrongdoing on their behalf. He posted an Instagram wishing Frost a happy birthday, saying, "I WILL RIDE WITH U. 4eva."

And if this wasn’t bizarre enough, Cornwall followed with an Instagram Live of him getting his tattoo of the Aboriginal flag coloured in and changed to, wait for it, the ying yang symbol. We get it dude, you’re from the Northern Beaches.

This social media performance, and the general trend in their responses to the allegations of superficially apologising and trying to subsequently move on, reeks of entitlement, toxic masculinity and an inability to genuinely reflect upon their behaviour.

What is worse, however, is the fact that they have sold out the world tour. The people who are criticising them the loudest are progressives and the media. While they continue to claim that the people accusing them of wrongdoing are just ‘crazy’, their fans are allowed to believe they can support this band with a clear conscience.

It is, as Phoebe Loomes wrote in Tone Deaf this week, akin to the phenomena surrounding the rise of Trump. While the media write them off as misogynistic and awful, mainstream society continue to embrace them as ‘underdogs’.

I would change this, however, to suggest that rather than being the ‘Trump of the Australian music industry’ - they’re probably more similar to Taylor Swift in her ability to co-opt the negative press around her and repackage it as a comeback narrative to make profit.

Noisey writer Shaad D’Souza noted wisely last month that Sticky Fingers are just proof that Australia is yet to properly embrace #MeToo. So long as men are not held accountable for their trash attitudes, behaviour, we will still have a - very long - way to go.