Swirlies is an American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band formed in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

in 1990. Since their first records in the early 1990s, the band has released studio and home recordings that blend

shoegaze Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volu ...

and

twee pop Twee pop is a subgenre of indie pop that originates from the 1986 '' NME'' compilation '' C86''. Characterised by its simplicity and perceived innocence, some of its defining features are boy–girl harmonies, catchy melodies, and lyrics about lo ...

with

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to ...

and

lo-fi music Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...

. Swirlies released five studio albums between 1993 and 2003. The band have since assembled to tour occasionally with a roster of musicians led by founding guitarist/songwriter Damon Tutunjian.

History

1990–1991: Formation and early releases

Guitarists Seana Carmody and Damon Tutunjian met each other in Spring 1990 through mutual friend named Rusty Nails, a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

fanzine A fanzine (blend of '' fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share t ...

publisher who wanted to start a

Go-Go's The Go-Go's are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. Except for short periods when other musicians joined briefly, the band has had a relatively stable lineup consisting of Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboards, Belind ...

cover band. Formed in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...

, Tutunjian, Carmody, Nails, and drummer Jason Fitzpatrick learned two songs before abandoning their original objective in favor of writing originals. Under the name Raspberry Bang, the group released one song on a 7-inch record compilation to benefit

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...

. In November 1990, Tutunjian's high school friend Andy Bernick was enlisted to play bass and

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

student Ben Drucker was recruited to play drums. The band began writing and recording songs characterized by shifting tempos, loud

vibrato Vibrato (Italian, from past participle of " vibrare", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms o ...

guitars played through numerous effects pedals, Tutunjian and Carmody's melodic vocal interplay, and occasional bursts of screaming and other noise. They completed their first 4-track demo in December 1990, and played their first show on January 25, 1991. Because of the band's practice of alternate guitar tunings, Bernick took to playing tapes or static from an old

AM radio AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transmi ...

to fill time while Carmody and Tutunjian adjusted their guitars. In 1991 Swirlies made some 8-track

home recording Home recording is the practice of recording sound in a private home instead of a professional recording studio. A studio set up for home recording is called a home studio or project studio. Home recording is widely practiced by voice actors, narrat ...

s, which saw issue as the band's debut single "Didn't Understand" first self-released as a cassette and then on

7-inch vinyl In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separate ...

Slumberland Records Slumberland Records is an American independent record label, formed in 1989 in Washington, D.C. and based in Oakland, California. The label has released recordings by Velocity Girl, Honeybunch, Lilys, Stereolab, Evans The Death, St. Christoph ...

. A split double-single with Boston

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, artists indulge in extrem ...

band Kudgel followed, and the group entered the studio to record another single and compilation tracks for Boston's Pop Narcotic label.

1992–1993: ''What To Do About Them'' and ''Blonder Tongue Audio Baton''

In 1992 the band signed to

Taang! Records Taang! Records is an independent record label with a roster of hardcore punk, punk rock, Oi!, power pop, ska, indie rock, psychedelic, and ambient artists and bands founded by Curtis Casella in Boston, Massachusetts in 1983. History Taan ...

and released the eight-song mini-album '' What To Do About Them'' culled from a mix of previously available and unreleased home and studio recordings. Musician/cartoonist

Ron Regé, Jr. Lavender Diamond is an American, Los Angeles-based band, fronted by singer Becky Stark. History While living in Providence, Rhode Island, Stark began performing as Lavender Diamond in a play that she and puppeteer Xander Marro wrote, created ...

contributed artwork to the album's cover as well as

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...

recordings that were woven into the record's sequence. The band also set to work recording their first LP, around which time shifts in Swirlies' personnel began to occur. Ben Drucker only drummed on a third of the new album's studio tracks, and for the remaining songs his parts were handed over to a pair of session drummers. In January 1993, Andy Bernick departed to pursue

ornithology Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

for the remainder of the academic year and Damon's former roommate Morgan Andrews was brought in to fill in on bass guitar and assorted noises. It was this lineup that toured to support '' What To Do About Them'' and that appeared in the video for "Bell" from '' Blonder Tongue Audio Baton,'' which had already been completed but was not yet released. Named for an obscure piece of

vintage musical equipment Vintage musical equipment is older music gear, including instruments, amplifiers and speakers, sound recording equipment and effects pedals, sought after, maintained and used by record producers, audio engineers and musicians who are interested ...

, ''Blonder Tongue Audio Baton'' made use of

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. ...

, Moog, and other analog artifacts that the group had unearthed in the studio. During sequencing the band threw in numerous lo-fi compositions, soundbites, and rants, and collaged together an album jacket from arrays of found images and objects that matched the album's eclectic aesthetics. Hailed for melding "the high waters of shoegaze creativity and the mounting currents of indie rock", ''Blonder Tongue Audio Baton'' quickly rose to prominence in the American

noise pop Noise pop is a subgenre of alternative and indie rock that developed in the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom and United States. It is defined by its mixture of dissonant noise or feedback with the songcraft more often found in pop music. Shoegazi ...

canon. After a semester of birding, Bernick returned and Swirlies enjoyed a brief period of performing as a

quintet A quintet is a group containing five members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single ...

made up of two guitars, two

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

s and a drum kit until Andrews left in June 1993 to become a radio DJ. At this point '' Blonder Tongue Audio Baton'' was released, and the band embarked on their first nation-wide tour with the original line up of Bernick, Carmody, Drucker, and Tutunjian. Later that year Swirlies released the ''Brokedick Car'' EP which contained remixes of songs from ''Blonder Tongue'' alongside a couple of outtakes. In Fall 1993, Ben Drucker was replaced by Anthony DeLuca on drums, and the band did a series of short tours on the East Coast college circuit. In January, 1994, the band did their first tour of Europe, which included a session recorded for ''

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

''. Directly after the tour, Seana Carmody left Swirlies to lead the pop group

Syrup USA Syrup USA were a four-piece indie pop band from Boston, Massachusetts, that formed in 1993 and disbanded in 1998. The brainchild of lead singer and guitarist Seana Carmody (formerly of Swirlies), their sound blended elements of 1960s pop and syn ...

1994–1999: ''Sneaky Flutes'' and ''Salons''

Christina Files joined Swirlies on guitar, synths, and vocals in early 1994, and that summer the band began work on their next album. After being branded both "

"' and "

chimp rock Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...

" early in their career, the band was exploring new musical directions and invented a name for their ethos, emblazoning it in the title of their 1995 EP, ''Sneaky Flutes and Sneaky Flute Music''. The seven-song mini-album was a forerunner to their full-length masterwork, 1996's '' They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in the Glittering World of the Salons''. The album added more synth-driven

and a few dance beats to their foundations in angular noise pop, drawing some reasonable comparisons to

Stereolab Stereolab are an Anglo-French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group's music combines influences from krautrock, lounge and 1960s pop music, often incorporating a re ...

and their

Krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music, a ...

forbearers. More member changes occurred during this time: In 1995 DeLuca left and Gavin McCarthy manned the drum kit for two U.S. tours before moving on to work in his own group

Karate (; ; Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the influence of Chinese martial arts, particularly Fuj ...

. Swirlies briefly played as a trio before Adam Pierce stepped in to play drums. Files left Swirlies to play with

Victory at Sea ''Victory at Sea'' is a documentary television series about warfare in general during World War II, and naval warfare in particular, as well as the use of industry in warfare. It was originally broadcast by NBC in the United States in 1952–19 ...

and was replaced in 1997 by guitarist Rob Laakso. In 1998 the group

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

ed songs from the ''Salons'' sessions for the album '' Strictly East Coast Sneaky Flute Music'' featuring collaborations with producer

Rich Costey Rich may refer to: Common uses * Rich, an entity possessing wealth * Rich, an intense flavor, color, sound, texture, or feeling **Rich (wine), a descriptor in wine tasting Places United States * Rich, Mississippi, an unincorporated commu ...

DJ Spooky Paul Dennis Miller (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is an American electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics " illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntabl ...

, Soul Slinger,

Mice Parade Mice Parade is an American shoegaze band from New York City, led by percussionist Adam Pierce. ''Mice Parade'' is an anagram of Pierce's name. Biography Adam Pierce started Mice Parade as a solo project while he also played in groups including ...

, various friends of the band, plus an abundance of

field recordings Field recording is the term used for an audio recording produced outside a recording studio, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It also applies to sound recordings like electromagnetic fields or vibra ...

as had been tradition on other Swirlies releases.

2000–2003: The Yes Girls and ''Cats of the Wild''

Swirles continued as a four piece under the Damon-Rob-Andy-Adam arrangement into the new millennium. Swirlies offshoot The Yes Girls (the core lineup but with

Lavender Diamond Lavender Diamond is an American, Los Angeles-based band, fronted by singer Becky Stark. History While living in Providence, Rhode Island, Stark began performing as Lavender Diamond in a play that she and puppeteer Xander Marro wrote, created ...

's Ron Regé on drums) toured the U.S. with Timonium, and in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

as an opener for Mew on their ''

Half the World is Watching Me ''Half the World Is Watching Me'' is the second album by Danish alternative rock band Mew, released on their own record label Evil Office in 2000. The album was originally printed in about only 5,000 copies, but has been reissued twice for wi ...

'' tour. The endeavor culminated in the release of the home-made album ''Damon Andy Rob Ron: The Yes Girls'' in 2000 on Sneaky Flute Empire/Pehr and a limited edition live album on Sneaky Flute Empire. The band began to settle into being an outfit with a cast of guest musicians who revolved in and out of the group to accommodate other members' academic, career, and family commitments: Seana Carmody, Vanessa Downing, and Damon's sister Kara Tutunjian often joined onstage for live vocals, Mike Walker and Tarquin Katis occasionally sat in for Bernick on bass, as well as Ken Bernard and Kevin Shea for Adam Pierce on drums. Deborah Warfield joined the band as vocalist circa 2000, also playing guitar and keyboards live. Swirlies eventually released ''Cats of the Wild, Vol. 2'' on Bubblecore Records in 2003, collecting new material alongside revamped studio versions of Yes Girls songs, plus outtakes from Swirlies' early 90s recordings.

Subsequent activity

The group, though sometimes sparse in regards to output, has never disbanded. They played a few shows in the northeastern U.S. in 2009 and 2011, toured the Eastern Seaboard and

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. ...

in 2013 with

Kurt Vile Kurt Samuel Vile (born January 3, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He is known for his solo work and as the former lead guitarist of rock band the War on Drugs. Both in the studio and during liv ...

, with Elliott Malvas on bass in lieu of Andy, and in 2015 Swirlies co-founder Seana Carmody rejoined the group for a two-week tour of the eastern U.S. and Canada to commemorate the band's 25th year of existence. In 2016,

Joyful Noise Recordings Joyful Noise Recordings is an independent record label from Indianapolis, Indiana. The label was founded in 2003 in Bloomington, Indiana by Karl Hofstetter, who also played drums on many of the label's first releases. Joyful Noise maintains an a ...

released a new Swirlies song (Fantastic Trumpets Forever) on

flexi disc The flexi disc (also known as a phonosheet, Sonosheet or Soundsheet, a trademark) is a phonograph record made of a thin, flexible vinyl sheet with a molded-in spiral stylus groove, and is designed to be playable on a normal phonograph turntabl ...

, and Taang! Records reissued the ''Blonder Tongue Audio Baton'' LP on vinyl. In 2017 they toured the west coast in the U.S. and in 2018 the south and east coast of the U.S. in support of the Philadelphia-based rock band

Nothing Nothing, the complete absence of anything, has been a matter of philosophical debate since at least the 5th century BC. Early Greek philosophers argued that it was impossible for ''nothing'' to exist. The atomists allowed ''nothing'' but only ...

Other releases and projects

Since their earliest demo tape, each Swirlies appearance has been marked with "This is Swirlies number __" in order of its release. In addition to their "official" releases, Swirlies have produced a number of cassingles, CDs, and free downloadable albums on their own Sneaky Flute Empire label. Beginning in 2005 the band began to curate recordings of live performances and radio sessions in limited runs under the name "Swirlies' Magic Strop." The first three of these of these were issued via their website as

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Orig ...

-only albums, including a mock rock opera about Meg Zamula, a former writer for ''Pitchfork''. In 2015, the band's 1994 ''

Peel Sessions John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

'' were issued on a 7-inch called ''Orce vs. Dragon'', and in 2018 the band put out a 12-inch EP called ''Magic Strop Tonight'' compiling tracks from the Los Angeles radio show ''Part Time Punks'' and new studio songs from their "Fantastic Trumpets Forever" single. Bassist Andy Bernick maintains a label and website called Richmond County Archives that publishes material from the band's periphery. The site also serves as Swirlies' official web presence. A Swirlies tribute album, ''Sneaky Flute Moods: A Tribute to the Swirlies'', was released online by Reverse Engine in April 2012.Sneaky Flute Moods release announcement at Free Music Archive
posted by curator Dave Merson Hess on April 8, 2012. Singer/guitarist Damon Tutunjian produced Mew's debut album and performed in some capacity on their first five albums. He also produced a number of tracks for The Wicked Farleys debut 7-inch and first LP. He played guitar in the original incarnation of

Lansing-Dreiden Lansing-Dreiden is an American band and art collective based in New York City. Lansing-Dreiden was founded in Miami, Florida. Their body of work includes music, multimedia artwork (in the form of drawings, collages, sculpture and video), and t ...

in the late 1990s and in the Danish band Ghost Society in 2010. In 2013, he joined Swedish band I Am Super Ape on bass guitar and synths and produced their single "Monki", featuring

Mark Lanegan Mark William Lanegan (November 25, 1964 – February 22, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, and poet. First becoming prominent as the lead singer for the early grunge band Screaming Trees, he was also known as a member of Queens of the ...

on vocals. He recently produced the debut album for the Swedish multi-instrumentalist Majken.

Members

Original lineup (1990-1993) *Damon Tutunjian – guitar and vocals *Seana Carmody – guitar and vocals *Andy Bernick – bass guitar and radio *Ben Drucker – drums Current members *Damon Tutunjian *Andy Bernick *Seana Carmody *Deborah Warfield *

Rob Laakso Rob Laakso is an American musician, record producer and engineer, best known as the recording partner of indie rock musician Kurt Vile, and as a multi-instrumentalist in his backing band The Violators. Laakso is also a multi-instrumentalist in the ...

*Elliott Malvas *Wesley Bunch *Matthew Seabass *Viktor Hober *Anna Bergvall * Adam Pierce Other erstwhile members *Mike Walker *Morgan Andrews *Doro Tachler * Ron Regé Jr. * Anthony DeLuca *Baby Tonts *Christina Files *Gavin McCarthy *Ken Bernard *Kara Tutunjian *Vanessa Downing *Junko Hemmi *Tarquin Katis *

*Avery Matthews * Kevin Shea *Matt Sheppeck Tutunjian is the sole Swirlie to play with the group for its entire duration while other members have come and gone, sometimes coming back again. Partial timeline ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:90 top:0 right:0 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1990 till:12/31/2017 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:3 ScaleMajor = increment:3 start:1990 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1990 Colors = id:v value:red legend:Vocals id:g value:green legend:Guitar id:b value:blue legend:Bass id:d value:orange legend:Drums id:k value:purple legend:Keyboards id:sam value:lavender legend:Samples id:alb value:black legend:Studio_album id:ep value:gray(0.5) legend:Extended_play id:live value:gray(0.8) legend:Live_album id:bar value:gray(0.9) LineData = layer:back at:09/01/1992 color:ep at:01/01/1993 color:alb at:10/01/1993 color:ep at:12/01/1995 color:ep at:04/01/1996 color:alb at:07/01/1998 color:alb at:07/01/2000 color:alb at:07/01/2003 color:alb at:04/01/2005 color:live at:10/01/2005 color:live at:07/01/2009 color:live BackgroundColors = bars:white PlotData = width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(12,–4) bar:Damon Tutunjian from:start till:end color:v bar:Damon Tutunjian from:start till:end color:g width:3 bar:Damon Tutunjian from:01/01/1993 till:end color:k width:7 bar:Seana Carmody from:start till:12/31/1994 color:v bar:Seana Carmody from:start till:12/31/1994 color:g width:3 bar:Seana Carmody from:01/01/1993 till:12/31/1994 color:k width:7 bar:Seana Carmody from:06/01/2015 till:08/31/2015 color:v bar:Seana Carmody from:06/01/2015 till:08/31/2015 color:g width:3 bar:Christina Files from:02/01/1994 till:12/31/1996 color:v bar:Christina Files from:02/01/1994 till:12/31/1996 color:g width:3 bar:Christina Files from:02/01/1994 till:12/31/1996 color:k width:7 bar:Rob Laakso from:01/01/1998 till:end color:g bar:Rob Laakso from:01/01/1998 till:end color:k width:3 bar:Deborah Warfield from:01/01/2000 till:end color:v bar:Deborah Warfield from:01/01/2000 till:end color:g width:3 bar:Deborah Warfield from:01/01/2000 till:end color:k width: 7 bar:Andy Bernick from:start till:08/31/1992 color:b bar:Andy Bernick from:start till:08/31/1992 color:sam width:3 bar:Andy Bernick from:06/01/1993 till:end color:b bar:Andy Bernick from:06/01/1993 till:end color:sam width:3 bar:Morgan Andrews from:09/01/1992 till:06/30/1993 color:b bar:Morgan Andrews from:09/01/1992 till:06/30/1993 color:sam width:3 bar:Ben Drucker from:start till:12/31/1993 color:d bar:Anthony Da Luca from:01/01/1994 till:12/31/1995 color:d bar:Gavin McCarthy from:01/01/1996 till:12/31/1996 color:d bar:Adam Pierce from:10/01/1997 till:end color:d bar:Ron Regé Jr. from:start till:end color:sam bar:Ron Regé Jr. from:01/01/1999 till:12/12/2003 color:k width:7 bar:Ron Regé Jr. from:01/01/1999 till:12/12/2003 color:d width:3

Selected discography

Albums

* '' Blonder Tongue Audio Baton'' LP/CD/cassette (Taang! 1993) * '' They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in the Glittering World of the Salons'' (Taang! 1996) * '' Strictly East Coast Sneaky Flute Music'' CD (Taang! 1998) * ''Damon, Andy, Rob, Ron: The Yes Girls'' (Pehr/Sneaky Flute Empire 2000) * ''Cats of The Wild Volume 2'' CD/MP3 (Bubblecore Records 2003)

EPs

* '' What To Do About Them'' mini-LP/CD/cassette (Taang! 1992) * '' Brokedick Car'' 12-inch EP/CD/cassette (Taang! 1994) * '' Sneaky Flutes and Sneaky Flute Music'' mini-LP/CD (Taang! 1996) * ''Buffay: Damon Sez I’m Durdy'' (Sneaky Flute Empire, 2013) * ''Magic Strop Tonight'' 12” (Sneaky Flute Empire, 2018)

Singles

* "Didn't Understand" 7-inch release (Slumberland Records, 1992) * ''Error'' 7-inch (Pop Narcotic, 1992) * ''Brokedick Car'' 7-inch version (Taang! 1993) * ''Swirlies' Magic Strop: Orca vs. Dragon" 7-inch (Richmond County Archives/Sneaky Flute Empire, 2015) * "Fantastic Trumpets Forever”

(Joyful Noise Recordings, 2016)

Split releases

* ''A Kinder Gentler Genocide'' (Swirlies appeared under the name Raspberry Bang) 7-inch compilation (Wasted Effort, 1990) * ''Free Tape'' (cassette with

Dropdead Dropdead is an American hardcore punk band based in Providence, Rhode Island. They have been active in the punk scene since 1991, having been formed in January of that year. The band's songs are generally short and very fast-paced, with few last ...

, Fast Forward, 1991) * ''Red Fish Dreams'' 2×7″ split with Kudgel (Cinderblock/Villa Villa Kula, 1992) * ''Working Holiday Series: November'' split 7-inch with Pitchblende (Simple Machines, 1993) * ''Vents of the Ocean Floor'' split 7-inch with Iris (Bubblecore Records, 1996)

Online releases

* ''Swirlies' Magic Strop: At the Salon of WBCN'' 12×MP3 (Sneaky Flute Empire, 2005) * ''Swirlies' Magic Strop: Winsome Zamula's Hammer of Contumely'' 8×MP3 (Sneaky Flute Empire, 2005) * ''Swirlies' Magic Strop: Gavin's March To The Sea'' 16×MP3 (Sneaky Flute Empire, 2009)

Compilations

* '' Strictly East Coast Sneaky Flute Music/ They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in the Glittering World of the Salons'' 2×LP (Taang! 1998) * ''Swirlies Magic Drive: Välkommen Till Ponyklubben'' mixed format

flash drive A flash drive is a portable computer drive that uses flash memory. Flash drives are the larger memory modules consisting of a number of flash chips. A flash chip is used to read the contents of a single cell, but it can write entire block of cell ...

(Sneaky Flute Empire, 2013)

Music videos

* “Bell” (1992)

Appearances in other media

Swirlies are mentioned in the 2016 novel, ''Our Noise'' by Jeff Gomez, appearing in a fictitious record review written by the book's protagonist. In 2018 a Swirlies poster made an appearance in the

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television seri ...

TV series ''

Castle Rock Castle Rock may refer to: Geography Islands * Castle Rock (Alaskan Island), an island off the coast of the U.S. state of Alaska * Castle Rock, Hong Kong (螺洲白排), an island of Hong Kong, part of the Po Toi Islands * Castle Rock (Massachusett ...

'' based on short stories by

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high ...

and set in the 1990s.

References

Sources

Biography
on VH1

External links

Official band siteRichmond County Archives site
{{Authority control American noise rock music groups Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts Musical groups from Boston Slumberland Records artists