WHIRR

US punk band dumped by label over transphobic tweets

Alasdair Belling

Independent record labels Run for Cover Records and Graveface Records have dumped label affiliates Whirr overnight in response to a series of transphobic tweets.

The Tweets concerned fellow punk rockers G.L.O.S.S, who are fronted by a transgender singer. According to the band’s Twitter, G.L.O.S.S were “just a bunch of boys running around in panties making shitty music”, as well as drawing comparisons between G.L.O.S.S and the Buffalo Bill character from ‘Silence of the Lambs’. The tweets were deleted, but due to the wonders of the internet, they can be found at Stereogum. They’re pretty horrible, and essentially end in the band suggesting that trans people should commit suicide.

In response to the tweets, Run for Cover Records tweeted the following:

G.L.O.S.S singer Sadie Switchblade, with whom the tweets concerned, also took to Twitter to hit out against the statements by the band:

Graveface Records then took to Facebook, stating that “Graveface supports positive action and equality. We have zero interest in working with hateful people”, along with a link to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Whirr’s bassist Nick Bassett has since posted an apology on Twitter, claiming that that band had “…let a good friend…have free reign of the Twitter account,” and that “The comments made last night do not reflect any member’s personal views.”

It seems to be a case of too little too late however, with Run For Cover stating that the apology “doesn’t change anything.”

Speaking to Pitchfork, the company made the following statement:

“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.”

Three lessons here kids. 1) Don’t let a “friend” take control of your FB account. 2) WATCH WHAT YOU POST ONLINE. Most important, 3) Transphobia is fucking disgusting.