Whirr - Raw Blue (2025)

California rock band Whirr start with the dreamy, mysterious sonics of classic '90s shoegaze and add louder guitars, heavier drums, and deeply submerged vocals to their specific take on the sound. The band started out as a side project for Deafheaven guitarist Nick Bassett, but grew into an identity of its own on albums like 2014's Sway and 2025's Raw Blue.
Whirr began in 2010 in Modesto, California, originally dubbed "Whirl" for a short time before changing their name due to copyright troubles. Joined by bandmembers Joey Bautista, Byanca Munoz, Sergio Miranda, Loren Rivera, and Eddie Salgado, Bassett quickly started releasing music through smaller avenues, starting with a 2011 EP entitled Distressor, followed by a few singles and cassette releases before their proper debut album, Pipe Dreams, arrived in 2012. Whirr toured internationally, gaining fans with their guitar-heavy shoegaze revivalist sound. In 2013 they issued another four-song EP, the languid and drifty Around. By 2014, Bassett had also joined shoegaze band Nothing, original drummer Miranda had left Whirr (to be replaced by Devin Nunes), and the group released its second full-length album, Sway. That same year the group released two split EPs, one in the spring with Anne and one in the fall with Nothing. A third full-length, Feels Like You, was released in 2019, intended initially as a vinyl-only release, but ultimately distributed through digital channels as well. Things were fairly quiet for Whirr for a few years, then in 2023 they released the live album Live in Los Angeles, which included two new studio songs. The next year they followed with their fourth proper studio LP Raw Blue.~Fred Thomas