Guitarists Seana Carmody and Damon Tutunjian met in Spring 1990 through mutual friend Rusty Nails, a punk fanzine publisher who wanted to start a Go-Go's cover band.

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.

In January 1993, Andy Bernick departed to pursue ornithology 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.

Named for an obscure piece of vintage musical equipment, Blonder Tongue Audio Baton made use of Mellotron, Moog, and other analog artifacts that the group had unearthed in the studio.

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 canon.

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.

[4] 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.

The album added more synth-driven electronica and a few dance beats to their foundations in angular noise pop, drawing comparisons to Stereolab and their Krautrock forebears.

[7] 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.

In 1998, the group remixed songs from the Salons sessions for the album Strictly East Coast Sneaky Flute Music, which featured collaborations with producers Rich Costey, DJ Spooky, Soul Slinger, and Mice Parade, various friends of the band, and an abundance of field recordings as was tradition on earlier Swirlies releases.

[9] The band began to settle into being an outfit with a cast of guest musicians revolving in and out of the group to accommodate the 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, and Ken Bernard and Kevin Shea sometimes replaced Adam Pierce on drums.

[13] 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."

In 2013, he joined Swedish band I Am Super Ape on bass guitar and synths and produced their single "Monki", featuring Mark Lanegan on vocals.