Kevin Bronson on July 29th, 2020

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Rebecca Coleman, the original keyboardist in Long Beach indie-rock band Avi Buffalo, has accused frontman Avi Zahner-Isenberg of rape.

In a post Monday on the Instagram account of her current project Pageants, Coleman described in detail the “toxic relationship” that led to her departure from the band in 2010. Included is an incident at a supposed photo shoot after which, she says, Zahner-Isenberg told her “I know, I raped you and stuff, I’m sorry.” Another incident took place while the band was on tour.

Coleman further details a tumultuous relationship that began when both parties were teenagers. Zahner-Isenberg was just 17 in 2009 when Avi Buffalo signed to Sub Pop, which released two of the band’s albums, in 2010 and ’14 before the band broke up the following year. Coleman says the pair began dating in 2008. Coleman acknowledges that upon leaving the band that she “signed a contract not to talk negatively about Avi/Avi Buffalo, etc.,” adding, “I do not know if this contract still stands up, but honestly I do not give a fuck. Time’s Up.”

An email asking Zahner-Isenberg for comment has not yet been answered.

View this post on Instagram

Releasing this personal information into the world was a decision that took me ten years to make. Hoping I can feel a little lighter now 🍃 Last slide is a song I wrote called Night and Sun for my project at the time, Family Blankets, about what had happened the day of the “photoshoot” and him cheating on me. I played this song alone on Demolisten KXLU (5/15/09) but Avi and Devin joined me on guitar on other tracks. I thought I had to have him play on my music in order for it to be “good”. Looking back now it really didn’t add much. Avi was pissed I played this song. #avibuffalo

A post shared by ✿ Pageants ✿ (@pageants__forever) on Jul 27, 2020 at 9:38am PDT