Whirl is truly a great name for any shoegazing band, undoubtedly due to its certain truth in advertising quality. The term “whirl,” unfortunately, was ruined for me from my first job at 16 – Fazoli’s. During my tenure as breadstick bitch, it was my duty to begin the shift by mixing the garlic butter, which was made mostly from some gnarly yellow gelatinous shit called Whirl. The main selling point, displayed prominently on the label in in one of those explosive talk bubbles, was “no need for refrigeration.” A dairy product that did not need to be preserved with refrigeration. Neat. Yummy.

Charming and whimsical anecdotes aside, this Whirl from beautiful Emeryville (they have an Ikea!) on the East Bay has produced and quietly released an EP of such gorgeous enormity that all memories of my career in fast Italian cuisine have been repressed. The elements of true-to-cannon shoegaze are all here on Distressor - swirly guitars, anthemic melodies, and piercing treble. What makes Whirl different is their presentation – releasing such a large sound onto cassette tape to give their destructive ground swells a restrained, muted, and beautifully wonky vibe. Imagine hearing Slowdive’s Just For a Day for the first time after a nasty case of tinnitus.

These dudes are going to be up to some more trouble in the near future, so go see about their Bandcamp (while artfully done under the Justice Stewart “I know it when I see it” principle, some parts of the United States will consider the album cover and theme to be NSFW, though I guess you’re already looking at the album art right now lolol).

MP3 :::
Whirl – Meaningless