| Whirr | |
| Landscape: | yes |
| Alias: | Whirl |
| Origin: | Modesto, California, United States |
| Years Active: | –present |
| Current Members: |
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| Past Members: |
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Whirr is a shoegaze band from Modesto, California. The group formed in 2010, originally as Whirl, but had to legally change its name after a woman performing acoustic covers of Black Sabbath songs trademarked the name and threatened a lawsuit. Whirr's shoegaze sound is often compared to My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. Founding guitarist Nick Bassett also played in the band Deafheaven surrounding and including the release of their 2011 album Roads to Judah.
Whirr self-released a demo cassette and the EP Distressor before signing to Tee Pee Records in 2011. The band released June that year, followed by their 2012 debut album, Pipe Dreams. The latter was met with a generally positive reception from music critics.
Whirr released the Around EP on July 9, 2013, and toured to support it that August with the band Nothing. As a result of touring together, members of Nothing and Whirr formed a side project called Death of Lovers, and Whirr and Nothing released a split EP. Bassett then joined Nothing on bass and toured with them. Bassett also started a new indie pop project with former Whirr vocalist Alexandra Morte called Camera Shy, while guitarist Joseph Bautista joined Best Coast as a touring member.
On September 23, 2014, Whirr released their second studio album, Sway, on Graveface Records.
On October 25, 2019, Time Well Recordings announced that Whirr would be releasing their third studio album, Feels Like You.[1] Initially intended as a vinyl only release, the album was made available through the band's website as a limited pressing of 650 copies which sold out within the first day. Following this, the album was leaked online and the band opted to do an official digital release made available on Bandcamp.[2]
On February 14, 2023, Whirr announced the release of a live album – titled Live In Los Angeles. Orders of the album came with two new songs recorded in January 2023 at Earth Analog Studios Muta and Blue Sugar.[3]
Whirr became notorious for being inflammatory toward its own fans on social media, an action that the band described in a 2014 interview as "weeding out the pussies".[4] After Pitchfork writer Ian Cohen gave Bassett's other band Nothing a mixed review, the band wrote on Facebook, "Ian Cohen is still a retarded pussy and pitchfork still don't know what they're talking about".[5] A fan-created Tumblr page documented Whirr's instances of insulting its fans. When given an offer to apologize, Bassett refused and said that if Whirr alienated its entire fanbase, he would "be stoked that we didn't suck anyone's dick as a band and were just real dudes being real."
On October 19, 2015, a series of derogatory remarks towards the Washington-based hardcore punk band G.L.O.S.S. were posted on Whirr's Twitter account, including one that read: "[G.L.O.S.S. is] just a bunch of boys running around in panties making shitty music".[6] The transphobic nature of these tweets resulted in a backlash on social media; Graveface, who released the band's Sway, and Run for Cover Records, who released three of their EPs, severed ties with the band.[7] Bassett admitted to posting the first tweet toward G.L.O.S.S. (which read: "Lol @ G.L.O.S.S."), in response to hearing a rumor that the band was only permitting certain types of people to attend their shows and buy their merchandise.[8] According to Bassett, the remaining tweets were posted by a friend of the band and did not reflect the views of band members. Whirr posted a public apology to their Twitter account the following morning and claimed to have severed ties with the person responsible for the offensive tweets.[9]
In an interview with Bassett by Eli Enis of Chasing Sundays, he expressed remorse over the behavior the band used to have on their social media accounts as well as the G.L.O.S.S. incident, where he revealed that the person responsible for the offensive tweet was a close friend of the band who used to be in charge of their merchandising at live shows. Bassett also offered an apology and stated that him and the rest of members of Whirr are not transphobic.[10]
Current members
Former members
Former live/session musicians