Ferniture Presents & Make Your Maze presents:
Hello Whirled, The DOJD, Gun Itt, Regulation 7
Hello Whirled album release and 10th Anniversary
Monster Speedway
Philadelphia
Oct. 4, 2026
The brainchild behind Hello Whirled is one Fern Spizuco. Fern is not not your average songwriter. Last weekend at Monster Speedway, she was celebrating a new self-titled release, "Hello Whirled," marking album number 60 for her. That's right, 60 albums as Hello Whirled, and their 164th release total under the same name. An artist like Scott Walker or D'Angelo will come around and put out an album once every 10 to 15 years, and Hello Whirled is the inverse of this. Most people would struggle to write this amount of material, but the forces that drive Fern waste no time. There is a website that archives and documents all the Hello Whirled releases and points to the giant cauldron of influences molding their sound over the years. Under the "recommendations" tab on this site, you can click to see an exhaustive list of over 400 bands and artists that Fern has picked to represent where her influences and interests come from, and I really think I can hear many of those listed coming through in the music. To get us somewhere in the hemisphere of describing Hello Whirled's sound, think along the lines of Guided by Voices, Cleaners from Venus, The Soft Boys, multiple bands from different eras of shoegaze, plus some grittier influences like Cabaret Voltaire or Rudimentary Peni. Although their list of influences may seem like a lot, I think a lot of musicians have a dense backdrop of artists holding sway over their style — the difference being that most don't consciously list it in such detail. Something I've seen Fern write about and also mention live is that the good thing about having so much music is you can just "ignore all the bad ones and listen to the good ones and you'll still have a lot on your plate."
The show started with a humor-heavy one-two punch of Regulation 7 and The DOJD. Regulation 7 are a funny electronic duo. I've seen them listed as "thrift rock," which I think actually kind of works as a description as they seem to use different styles and familiar melodies depending on what they feel suits the song, all the while using a drum machine, keyboard and guitar. My personal favorite was a track where they describe scornfully confronting "Mr. Softee" about his "shit fetish." The DOJD (The Death of James Dean), in contrast, is a complete and loud live band. The lead singer, Claire, who is a bit of a wild card, was wound up and talking before the band started and told the audience that she's noticed at shows that people sometimes talk outside while the bands play instead of watching their performances. Claire explained that she wanted to make sure that didn't happen during Hello Whirled's set, so suggested everyone get that over with while The DOJD played. She preceded to kick everyone out of the basement, absconding them to the next room, living room or the front porch. Being scorned and asked to NOT to watch the band and only getting to hear them through the wall was absolutely a first for me. I tried getting footage sneaking around the door left cracked open, but soon Claire slammed the door shut completely. Everyone in the back room, including myself, were commenting on how great they sounded through the wall. Eventually we were all invited back inside for the last song. Before beginning the final song, the guitarist Remi said they'd lost their purple pick. One of the other bands offered a similar purple pick, but Claire shot that down, saying it wasn't the right one before exclaiming, "fuck it, were done." The band began packing up.
As Hello Whirled set up, they actually seemed to desire that everyone come in and watch them. They had brought in a new drummer (Leda from the great Philly band Lola.5) and also announced that it was their last time playing with Amelia, one of their guitarists. The set had a loud, laid-back feeling to it that fit well with Fern's songs. With some of the newness of the material and the new drummer, you could feel them gauging each other, but the songs seeme to work well with some looseness and the band had a distinct quality live. Their set was cut slightly shorter by request from the house so that the last band Gun Itt could get a couple songs in before nine p.m.
I've written praise of the band Gun Itt here before. The duo are strikingly complex and their rolling arpeggios and adjacent rhythms are really something to behold live. Their songs are short, highly melodic, rhythmic and somehow also easily digestible. You don't have to be in awe of the math to enjoy them playing. The audience seemed really moved and delighted by their performance; they had three quick songs before the house curfew which was just enough of a taste to see what they could really do.
The show was an odd but really fun mix and had a friendly vibe to it. Maybe it was the bonding experience of being kicked out by The DOJD, but the crowd was really cool and supportive and the music felt fresh and different. This is the kind of show that makes me appreciate DIY spaces. Cheers to ten years of Hello Whirled.
