Production
The album was the band's first released by a major record label, being issued on Epic Records. Despite the fans' common concern that the switch to a major record label would change the band's unique sound, Isaac Brock assured fans that this would not be the case, "I don't think the new album is at all overpolished or anything. We spent more time getting crazy sounds than making things sound polished."
The album was produced by Brian Deck, who first met the band on a concert in Detroit, "We ended up on a bill together at The Magic Stick in Detroit, and we got along really well, we hung out till the end of the night—and maybe consumed a fair amount of beer together.” says Deck. Deck and Brock fell out of touch shortly thereafter, but reconnected a few years later, when Brock invited Califone (which included several members of Deck's band Red Red Meat) to hit the road as Modest Mouse’s opening act.
The album was the first project to be recorded in Clava Studios in Chicago. When Modest Mouse band members arrived for the recording the studio was not completely finished. Though Deck was mostly producing under Perishable Records at the time, and the studio was built mostly for Perishable projects, Deck had no problems producing under Epic Records. Despite being under a major label the band "remains largely self-managed and still drive themselves across the country on tour," and Brock was fairly involved in the mixing process. Deck said of Brock's involvement that, "By the end of making the record, he was able to mastermind some cool maneuvers with plug-ins and Pro Tools...It wasn't so much that he was mixing, but he could look at a song, understand the musical event that he wanted to make happen, understand the tools at his disposal, relate it in a way that I could understand, and make it happen pretty quickly."
In the middle of recording, Brock was attacked by a group of ruffians hanging out at a park across the street from where the band were staying in Chicago and broke Brock's jaw.“It laid him up in the hospital for a week,” Deck says. “Then his jaw was wired shut for two or three months.” Because Brock was unsure if he would be able to sing, the album is largely instrumental and experimental.
The recording for the album took 5 months, beginning in July 1999 and running until November 1999.
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