Label Drops Whirr Over Transphobic Tweets
Bay Area shoegazers Whirr just Tweeted themselves out of a label deal. Alternative Press reports that whoever controls the band’s Twitter account spent the weekend heaping scorn upon the really great Olympia, Washington trans-feminist punk band G.L.O.S.S. (who released a truly powerful demo earlier this year). Before long, they moved onto talking shit about trans people in general, using the sort of shitty, bullying invective that’s so common among anti-social justice online warriors. Here’s what they had to say:
Lol @ G.L.O.S.S
— Whirr (@free_whirl) October 17, 2015
@toothlessmile there is literally nothing not hilarious about that “band”. — Whirr (@free_whirl) October 17, 2015
@samufiser misogyny is hating women. g.l.o.s.s. Is just a bunch of boys running around in panties making shitty music.
— Whirr (@free_whirl) October 19, 2015
This is G.L.O.S.S. pic.twitter.com/SLhelrKz7Q — Whirr (@free_whirl) October 20, 2015
@samufiser @graveface_recs @rfcrecords that’s not a real word, it can’t be.
— Whirr (@free_whirl) October 20, 2015
@Jacobhellas @samufiser oh no, wouldn’t want a couple of disowned sons after us. — Whirr (@free_whirl) October 20, 2015
@smeefcentral thanks for the heads up, chump.
— Whirr (@free_whirl) October 20, 2015
@kaylasananjou lol “act of violence” — Whirr (@free_whirl) October 20, 2015
@briannaocs we could put on dresses.
— Whirr (@free_whirl) October 20, 2015
@elohellie lol attempting suicide. If you’re gonna do it, do it right the first time. — Whirr (@free_whirl) October 20, 2015
@elohellie @ShieldExhile nah, that’s an actual stance on suicide. My mom commited suicide why can’t all these trans kids get it right?
— Whirr (@free_whirl) October 20, 2015
@elohellie lol attempting suicide. If you’re gonna do it, do it right the first time. — Whirr (@free_whirl) October 20, 2015
Pretty cool how they jumped straight from band beef to suicide there. They also retweeted all the angry things that people had to say about them afterward. This kind of activity is par for the course with Whirr, who have gained notoriety for their aggressive and offensive social media presence. In an interview with Noisey last year, guitarist Nick Bassett commented on their internet activity: He said that any lost fans were a result of “weeding out the pussies,” called their critics “absolute morons,” and, when asked if they reached a point where Whirr couldn’t sell any more records because of their behavior, responded: “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.”
But last night’s activity ended up being one step too far: Run For Cover Records, the band’s label, immediately decided to drop Whirr and disassociate themselves from the band entirely:
We as individuals and as a label are accepting of all people and require the same from the bands and people we work with…
— Run For Cover (@rfcrecords) October 20, 2015
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. — Run For Cover (@rfcrecords) October 20, 2015
G.L.O.S.S. is awesome and crucially important and we need more bands like them.
— Run For Cover (@rfcrecords) October 20, 2015
Meanwhile, G.L.O.S.S. frontwoman Sadie Switchblade started a Twitter just to fire back at Whirr:
@free_whirl I just made a Twitter solely to fuck w/u 💁 #thisisthesingerofgloss #willactuallyeaturliverwithfavabeans — SadieSwitchblade (@trannyterrorist) October 20, 2015
@free_whirl r u just sad u missed the boat on punk and play music for people with Macklemore hair who blog about bacon-infused bloodymarys?
— SadieSwitchblade (@trannyterrorist) October 20, 2015
@free_whirl Kawakami will be resurrected to personally disgrace you and remove the Disclose shirt from your corpse #poseonthepunknomore — SadieSwitchblade (@trannyterrorist) October 20, 2015
@free_whirl “boys in panties” > boys with clean flannels and backstage laminates who hate women because they know women are superior to them
— SadieSwitchblade (@trannyterrorist) October 20, 2015
@free_whirl G.L.O.S.S. is tight AF also — SadieSwitchblade (@trannyterrorist) October 20, 2015
@free_whirl your band is nothing but background music for Pitchfork-reading GoogleGlass enthusiasts and NPR liberals
— SadieSwitchblade (@trannyterrorist) October 20, 2015
@free_whirl when ur listening to Mumford&Sons in the Sprinter van on the way to SXSW pour out a craft beer for me plz — SadieSwitchblade (@trannyterrorist) October 20, 2015
Alright y’all this goofy tranny tires of wasting her breath on a little bitchboy Spotify-subscriber, I’m gonna go eat a frozen pizza TTYL ??
— SadieSwitchblade (@trannyterrorist) October 20, 2015
This is all deeply obnoxious and depressing, but turn it into a positive by checking out that G.L.O.S.S. demo. UPDATE: Whirr blame last night’s tweets on a friend who had access to their account. Bassist Nick Bassett apologizes for “letting things get to this point” and says he will manage the band’s Twitter and Facebook going forward:
pic.twitter.com/y7A54EFqRp — Whirr (@free_whirl) October 20, 2015
UPDATE 2: Following the above statement, Graveface Records — who have also put out Whirr releases in the past — disassociated with the band as well. “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.”
Graveface supports positive action and equality. We have zero interest in working w/ hateful people. Donate here: https://t.co/IP8KBjZ4H0
— Graveface Records (@graveface_recs) October 20, 2015
UPDATE 3: Here’s a statement from Run For Cover via Pitchfork in response to whether or not their apology changes anything:
Frankly, no, it doesn’t change anything. We were aware of the information in Whirr’s statement when we made the decision. 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.
We will be posting what organization later today, we just didn’t want to jump the gun on that decision.
