Swirlies
Encyclopedia
Swirlies is an shoegaze band from Boston that formed in 1990. They have often been compared to My Bloody Valentine.
icon/filmmaker Rusty Nails
who was recruiting members for a Go Go's cover band. Nails, Tutunjian, Carmody, 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" compilation. Shortly afterwards, Carmody and Tutunjian parted ways with the group and began focusing on their own material, inspired in part by the newly emerging shoegaze movement in England.
Tutunjian's high school friend Andy Bernick was enlisted to play bass and an M.I.T. student named Ben Drucker was recruited on the drums. The band began writing and recording songs characterized by shifting tempos, loud vibrato
guitars played through numerous effects pedals, Tutunjian and Carmody's melodic vocal interplay, and occasional bursts of screaming and other noise. Some of their 1991 home recording
s saw issue as the band's first single "Didn't Understand," which was self-released as a cassette
and then as a 7" record by the Slumberland
label.
label Taang! records and released the seven-song EP What To Do About Them culled from previously released and unreleased home and studio recordings. The album featured cover art by cartoonist Ron Regé who also contributed lo-fi recordings that were incorporated in the record's sequence. The band also set to work recording their first LP
, around which time shifts in the Swirlies' personnel began to occur. Bernick departed to pursue ornithology
for the academic year and was replaced by Morgan Andrews on bass guitar and other noises. After a year of birding, Bernick returned and Swirlies enjoyed a brief period of performing as a quintet
made up of two guitars, two bass guitar
s and a drum kit. Andrews left in mid-1993 to become a radio DJ, and Ben Drucker was replaced by Anthony DeLuca soon thereafter. A year later Carmody left to lead Syrup USA
, and Christina Files took over guitar and vocal parts. DeLuca departed in late 1995, and Gavin McCarthy manned the drum kit for two U.S. tours and then moved on to work in his own group Karate
. Swirlies briefly played as a trio
before Adam Pierce stepped in to play drums. Files left Swirlies to play with Victory at Sea
and was eventually replaced by guitarist Rob Laakso.
, Pop Narcotic, Simple Machines, and Nervous Records, among others. In addition, the band has produced a number of cassingles, CDs, and free, downloadable albums on its own Sneaky Flute Empire label, including a rock opera addressing harbored feelings of enmity towards Meg Zamula, a former writer for Pitchfork.com. Bass player and keyboardist Andy Bernick releases Swirlies-related and other material on the Richmond County Archives un-label, whose guiding principle is the collection and presentation of free music in its natural, chaotic state (NOT to be confused with "lounge music"http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/22208/Swirlies_Cats_of_the_Wild_Vol_2).
Swirlies offshoot The Yes Girls (the current lineup but with Lavender Diamond
's Ron Regé on drums) toured the U.S. with Timonium and Denmark
as an opener for Mew
on their Half the World is Watching Me tour; endeavors which culminated in the release of both a limited edition album on Sneaky Flute Empire/Pehr and a limited edition live album on Sneaky Flute Empire. Singer/guitarist Damon Tutunjian produced Mew's
debut album and has performed in some capacity on all of their albums.
Bernick and Tutunjian have been with the group for its entire duration. Numerous other members have come and gone.
Formation and early career
Guitarists Seana Carmody and Damon Tutunjian were introduced by native Bostonian punkPunk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
icon/filmmaker Rusty Nails
Rusty Nails (filmmaker)
Rusty Butt aka Rusty Osgood is an American director, writer, editor, and actor. He is best known for his feature film Acne, a black-and-white horror film about a pair of teenagers who wake up to find themselves mutated into horribly strange creatures...
who was recruiting members for a Go Go's cover band. Nails, Tutunjian, Carmody, 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" compilation. Shortly afterwards, Carmody and Tutunjian parted ways with the group and began focusing on their own material, inspired in part by the newly emerging shoegaze movement in England.
Tutunjian's high school friend Andy Bernick was enlisted to play bass and an M.I.T. student named Ben Drucker was recruited on the drums. The band began writing and recording songs characterized by shifting tempos, loud vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato 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 of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
guitars played through numerous effects pedals, Tutunjian and Carmody's melodic vocal interplay, and occasional bursts of screaming and other noise. Some of their 1991 home recording
Home recording
Home recording is the practice of recording in a private home, rather than in a professional recording studio. A studio set up for home recording is called a "project studio" or "home studio". Home recording is practiced by indie bands, singer-songwriters, hobbyists, podcasters, documentarians,...
s saw issue as the band's first single "Didn't Understand," which was self-released as a cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
and then as a 7" record by the Slumberland
Slumberland
Slumberland Furniture, Inc. is a furniture retailer in the Midwestern United States, founded in 1967. Originally the company specialized in mattresses and La-Z-Boy recliners. Today Slumberland has 114 stores in 10 states. It is America's top seller of La-Z-Boy upholstery and the top seller of...
label.
Signing and member-swapping
In 1992 the band signed to the Boston hardcoreHardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
label Taang! records and released the seven-song EP What To Do About Them culled from previously released and unreleased home and studio recordings. The album featured cover art by cartoonist Ron Regé who also contributed lo-fi recordings that were incorporated in the record's sequence. The band also set to work recording their first LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
, around which time shifts in the Swirlies' personnel began to occur. Bernick departed to pursue ornithology
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
for the academic year and was replaced by Morgan Andrews on bass guitar and other noises. After a year of birding, Bernick returned and Swirlies enjoyed a brief period of performing as a quintet
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 unit....
made up of two guitars, two bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
s and a drum kit. Andrews left in mid-1993 to become a radio DJ, and Ben Drucker was replaced by Anthony DeLuca soon thereafter. A year later Carmody left to lead Syrup USA
Syrup USA
Syrup USA was a four-piece indie pop band from Boston, Massachusetts. They formed in 1993 and disbanded in 1998. The brainchild of lead singer and guitarist Seana Carmody , Syrup USA blended elements of 1960s pop with the bombastic panache of 1990s rock and splashed heavy helpings of synth-pop all...
, and Christina Files took over guitar and vocal parts. DeLuca departed in late 1995, and Gavin McCarthy manned the drum kit for two U.S. tours and then moved on to work in his own group Karate
Karate (band)
Karate was an American band, formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1993 by Geoff Farina, Eamonn Vitt and Gavin McCarthy. In 1995, Jeff Goddard joined the band as bass player, and Vitt moved to second guitar...
. Swirlies briefly played as a trio
Trio (music)
Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
before Adam Pierce stepped in to play drums. Files left Swirlies to play with Victory at Sea
Victory at Sea (band)
Victory at Sea was an America Indie Rock band formed in 1996, from members of bands the Swirlies and Spore, in the Boston, Massachusetts region. It consisted of vocalist/guitarist Mona Elliott, bassist Mel Lederman and drummer Christina Files...
and was eventually replaced by guitarist Rob Laakso.
Recent and current activity
Since 1997, Swirlies have more or less maintained the Damon-Rob-Andy-Adam arrangement, while also taking on various guest members. The group, though sometimes sparse in regards to output, has never officially disbanded. In January 2009, the latest iteration of the Swirlies (Damon, Andy, Adam and Rob, joined by Deborah Warfield) played three shows in the northeastern U.S. with Gregory and The Hawk and others.Releases
Swirlies released four albums and two EPs on the Taang! label before moving on to Bubblecore Records for 2003's Cats of the Wild Volume 2. Singles have also been released by SlumberlandSlumberland Records
Slumberland Records is an American independent record label formed in 1989 in Washington, D.C. area and currently based in Oakland, CA. The label has released recordings from artists including Velocity Girl, Honeybunch, Lilys, Stereolab, St...
, Pop Narcotic, Simple Machines, and Nervous Records, among others. In addition, the band has produced a number of cassingles, CDs, and free, downloadable albums on its own Sneaky Flute Empire label, including a rock opera addressing harbored feelings of enmity towards Meg Zamula, a former writer for Pitchfork.com. Bass player and keyboardist Andy Bernick releases Swirlies-related and other material on the Richmond County Archives un-label, whose guiding principle is the collection and presentation of free music in its natural, chaotic state (NOT to be confused with "lounge music"http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/22208/Swirlies_Cats_of_the_Wild_Vol_2).
Swirlies offshoot The Yes Girls (the current lineup but with Lavender Diamond
Lavender Diamond
Lavender Diamond is a Los Angeles-based Folk/country-pop quartet known for its light-hearted, often winsome sound; its simple, romantic lyrics; and the charismatic, whimsical stage presence and ethereal vocals of frontwoman Becky Stark.-History:...
's Ron Regé on drums) toured the U.S. with Timonium and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
as an opener for Mew
Mew (band)
Mew is a Danish alternative music band consisting of Jonas Bjerre, Bo Madsen, and Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen. Bassist Johan Wohlert was also a founding member of the band, but left in 2006...
on their Half the World is Watching Me tour; endeavors which culminated in the release of both a limited edition album on Sneaky Flute Empire/Pehr and a limited edition live album on Sneaky Flute Empire. Singer/guitarist Damon Tutunjian produced Mew's
Mew (band)
Mew is a Danish alternative music band consisting of Jonas Bjerre, Bo Madsen, and Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen. Bassist Johan Wohlert was also a founding member of the band, but left in 2006...
debut album and has performed in some capacity on all of their albums.
Original lineup (1990-1992)
- Damon Tutunjian – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Seana Carmody – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Andy Bernick – bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and radioRadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space... - Ben Drucker – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
Current members
- Damon Tutunjian
- Andy Bernick
- Adam PierceMice ParadeMice Parade is an indie/shoegaze band from New York City led by percussionist Adam Pierce. Mice Parade's albums were all initially released on Pierce's record label, Bubble Core Records and Fat Cat Records...
- Rob Laakso
- Deborah Warfield
- Mike Walker
Other erstwhile members
- Morgan Andrews
- Mike Walker
- Doro Trachler
- Ron Regé Jr.Ron Regé Jr.Ronald J. Regé, Junior is a cartoonist and musician from Plymouth, Massachusetts.-Artistic career:Regé began publishing his own minicomics while attending Massachusetts College of Art in 1988. He has since been published by Highwater Books, Fantagraphics, Buenaventura Press, McSweeney's and Drawn...
- Anthony DeLuca
- Baby Tonts
- Christina Files
- Gavin McCarthy
- Ken Bernard
- Kara Tutunjian
- Vanessa Downing
- The Ghost of Christmas Past
- Junko Henmi
- Tarquin Katis
- Kurt VileKurt VileKurt Vile is a guitarist and singer born in 1980 from the Philadelphia suburb of Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. He was signed by Matador Records as a solo artist in May 2009....
- Avery Matthews
- Kevin SheaKevin SheaKevin Shea is a jazz drummer. He is most well known for playing in the New York City improv and experimental music scenes...
- Matt Sheppeck
Bernick and Tutunjian have been with the group for its entire duration. Numerous other members have come and gone.
Albums
- What to Do About Them compilation EP (Taang! 1992)
- Blonder Tongue Audio BatonBlonder Tongue Audio BatonBlonder Tongue Audio Baton is a 1993 album by Swirlies, released on CD, LP and cassette. The majority of the album was recorded in the summer of 1992 at Q-Division, Boston with engineer/co-producer Rich Costey...
LP (Taang! 1993) - Brokedick Car EP (Taang! 1994)
- Sneaky Flutes EP (Taang! 1996)
- They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in the Glittering World of the Salons LP (Taang! 1996)
- Strictly East Coast Sneaky Flute Music LP (Taang! 1998)
- Damon Andy Rob Ron: The Yes Girls LP (Pehr/Sneaky Flute Empire 2000)
- Cats of The Wild Volume 2 LP (Bubblecore Records 2003)
Singles
- A Kinder Gentler Genocide (Swirlies appeared under the name Raspberry Bang) 7" compilation (Wasted Effort, 1990)
- Didn't Understand 7" release (Slumberland Records, 1992)
- Error 7" (Pop Narcotic, 1992)
- Red Fish Dreams Double 7" split with Kudgel (Cinderblock, 1992)
- Working Holiday Series: November split 7" with Pitchblende (Simple Machines, 1993)
- Vents of the Ocean Floor split 7" with Iris (Bubblecore Records, 1996)
See also
- Trollin WithdrawalTrollin WithdrawalTrollin Withdrawal were a band from Boston, Massachusetts that existed between 1992 and 1995, whose lo-fi musical style had its roots in indie rock, classic rock and hip hop music...
, anti-band all of whom have appeared on Swirlies recordings - Fat DayFat DayFat Day is a Boston-based noisecore band. Formed in Cambridge, MA in 1992 , they were associated with bands like Swirlies, Kudgel, and Trollin Withdrawal who formed the core of the Boston chimp rock scene. Fat Day released three LPs and several EPs on their own 100% Breakfast! label, as well as an...
, authors of Cats of the Wild [Vol 1] - Chimp rockChimp rockChimp rock is a term coined in the early 1990s by members of the Boston-based band Kudgel, and "popularly" applied to various bands at a time when lo-fi recording was gaining credibility in the independent music industry.The word "Chimp" implies a primitive or unschooled approach...
, term that predated "sneakyflute music" - Syrup USASyrup USASyrup USA was a four-piece indie pop band from Boston, Massachusetts. They formed in 1993 and disbanded in 1998. The brainchild of lead singer and guitarist Seana Carmody , Syrup USA blended elements of 1960s pop with the bombastic panache of 1990s rock and splashed heavy helpings of synth-pop all...
, Seana Carmody's post-Swirlies band