The band consists of accordionist Jeremy Barnes, who was previously the drummer for Neutral Milk Hotel and Bablicon, and violinist Heather Trost.

While Barnes lived in Chicago, he found himself in a Ukrainian area with many people from Eastern Europe and began to develop an interest in Romanian folk music.

[2][3] It provided the soundtrack for the documentary Zizek!, directed by Astra Taylor, which features Slovenian cultural theorist Slavoj Žižek.

They were chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England.

This quotation comes from William Shakespeare's Hamlet probably written in 1600; I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.

The original quote was changed from "Handsaw" to "Hacksaw" to reference the Aksak meter that is prevalent in Balkan and Turkish music.

The Tobias Smollett translation, however, reads, "...therefore, let every man lay his hand upon his heart and not pretend to mistake an hawk for a hand-saw; for, we are all as God made us, and many of us much worse.