Underground shoegaze outfit Whirr have managed to ruin their careers in a matter of just a few hours, which has to be some kind of record. As some readers will remember, it took Lithuanian producer Ten Walls almost a day to do the same thing.
As Stereogum reports, Whirr have been dropped by their record label over a series of transphobic comments made via the group’s official Twitter account.
The Bay Area group began their (since-deleted) tirade by addressing G.L.O.S.S., a punk group from Olympia, Washington, fronted by transgender singer Sadie Switchblade. Whirr labelled the group “boys running around in panties making shitty music”.
“There is literally nothing not hilarious about that ‘band’,” Whirr’s tweets continued. “Oh no, wouldn’t want a couple of disowned sons after us,” they wrote in response to one commenter, before mocking the the high rate of suicide in the transgender community.
“lol attempting suicide. If you’re gonna do it, do it right the first time,” the band wrote. “Nah, that’s an actual stance on suicide. My mom commited suicide why can’t all these trans kids get it right?”
The band followed up the crass tirade by retweeting angry responses from Twitter users. As Stereogum notes, it’s par for the course for the group, who’ve gained notoriety for their aggressive and offensive social media persona.
Speaking to Noisey, guitarist Nick Bassett said the band aren’t concerned about losing fans as they are “weeding out the pussies”, adding, “I’d be stoked that we didn’t suck anyone’s dick as a band and were just real dudes being real. If we weren’t selling records anymore, that would be a wrap for us.”
— Whirr (@free_whirl) October 20, 2015
Well it appears as though that time has come. Run For Cover Records, the band’s label, announced they have dropped Whirr, disassociating themselves from the band entirely. And they’re not the only label to do so.
“We as individuals and as a label are accepting of all people and require the same from the bands and people we work with,” the label tweeted. “We will not be working with Whirr from this point on and do not support that behavior in anyway. We will post a full statement tomorrow.”
Fellow label Graveface Records, who have put out Whirr releases in the past, have also cut ties with the band. “There are no contracts at Graveface so there’s no booting anyone off,” the label said on Facebook.
“Simply enough I will not be releasing records by anyone I know to be hateful, especially in regards to all of this.” Meanwhile, G.L.O.S.S. frontwoman Sadie Switchblade has started a Twitter just to fire back at Whirr.
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“Your band is nothing but background music for Pitchfork-reading GoogleGlass enthusiasts and NPR liberals,” Switchblade tweeted. “When ur listening to Mumford&Sons in the Sprinter van on the way to SXSW pour out a craft beer for me plz.”
The controversy has prompted the band to respond, with Bassett issuing a statement via Twitter in which he insists the tweets were not sent out by the band but by a friend of the group whom they had given access to their Twitter account in the past.
However, the apology has not swayed Run For Cover, who told Pitchfork Whirr was never officially signed to the label in the first place. “It doesn’t change anything. We were aware of the information in Whirr’s statement when we made the decision,” they said.
“Although the band is not signed to our label, and never have been, we have decided to not work with them in the future, and stop selling their releases we did have a hand in.”
“Also, despite being at a financial net loss with Whirr and Camera Shy, we will be donating $3,000 to a TBA non profit in support of equal rights for LGBTQ.”
