The Swirling Eddies are a band that began as an anonymous spinoff from the band Daniel Amos, along with new drummer David Raven.

For each Swirling Eddies release, band members adopted pseudonyms for the liner notes; "Camarillo Eddy" (Terry Scott Taylor), "Berger Roy Al" (Tim Chandler), "Gene Pool" (Greg Flesch), "Arthur Fhardy" (Rob Watson), "Spot" (Jerry Chamberlain), and "Hort Elvison" (David Raven). These pseudonyms were dropped for their third album, "Zoom Daddy". Over the years new Eddies appeared on the bands albums including "Prickly Disco" (Gene Eugene), Picky Swelly, Newt York Newt York, Derry Air, and Judy Ism. "Guest Eddies," a term used for musicians that contributed musically to one of the bands projects also made appearances on nearly every album. The list of "Guest Eddies" includes Buckeye Jazzbo, Miracle Babe, Mary Baker Eddy, Jeb McSwaggart, Mike Roe, and Eddie DeGarmo.

Other characters, and pseudonyms associated with the band over the years include the fictional manager Morty Allen, jr., Sweaty & Bloated Management, Lounge Singer Nick Deletchi, Presty Gomez, Rockabye Sweetheart, Lenny Wagonmaster, Wildfire Friz the Shasta Man, Blue Joe Roundabout, the Silky Smooth Scrubby Muffin, The Grimmace Groove Dough Boy, The Hot Trottin' Dictator, Simeon Krease, and Coco the Talking Guitar.

The band released its debut album on Alarma Records in 1988 entitled Let's Spin!. 1989's Outdoor Elvis featured the band's first two radio hits, "Driving in England" and "Hide the Beer, the Pastor's Here!". The title track included classic lines such as: "It's said he croons when the moon's above, singing tenderly 'Hunk of Burning Love.'" The band's documentary video, Spittle and Phlegm was released the following year.

The Eddies' stage shows are rare and unusual, to say the least. Since the band was formed in the late 1980s, they have only performed about six or seven live concerts. In 1990, the band performed at The Cornerstone Festival in drag, belting out covers like "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar", The Animals' "We've Got To Get Out Of This Place", The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World".

In 2004, the band began to work on their first album of original, new material in ten years entitled The midget, the speck and the molecule. The first new song to surface, a rough mix of "Giants in the Land," was made available in March of 2007 exclusively to people that preordered the album before it was finished. The recording sessions ended in May of 2007 and the album was released on July 23, 2007