The group had little mainstream success (scoring a few hits on college radio), despite tours with Iggy Pop and music videos on MTV's Headbangers Ball and 120 Minutes (notably for "$10 Bill", featuring a number of little people).
(Tod and Puleo had earlier played in a short-lived Providence, Rhode Island group, Dig Dat Hole, with guitarist John Rose).
The A./Puleo/Ouimet lineup was captured on the "Headkick Facsimile" 12" EP, which was released in a small pressing by the Japanese record label Supernatural Organization in 1989 (later reissued by the group's own Subvert Entertainment in 1994 with the addition of the song "Robert Tilton Handjob" from the "Piece Man" 7").
Natz sang occasionally, and various members wrote songs, but Tod remained the group's primary singer and songwriter.
A different review notes that "Tod A. is the Andrew Vachss of underground rock, telling stories of pathetic losers and maniac outsiders who believe they are the sane ones",[4] while Black and Sprague note that Release finds Cop Shoot Cop "sneaking surreptitiously toward the mainstream".
Tod claimed the group had been treated poorly by Interscope, and refused to allow the company to issue their final album.
Coleman has recorded as "Phylr" and "Here" (with Teho Teardo), Puleo played with both Congo Norvell and Swans as well composing for film, and Jack Natz most recently teamed up with Stu Spasm to handle bass duties for a reformed Lubricated Goat.
More recently, Coleman and Puleo have collaborated with film and theater actor and writer Michael Wiener on a project called "The Children...", releasing a self-titled CD and performing a number of show-events typically integrating projections and theatrical elements, and occurring in nontraditional venues such as multimedia dinner theaters and churches.