While in Skin Yard, Norman also briefly joined Soundgarden, and collaborated with Chris Cornell on a lesser-known band, the low frequency power trio Bass Truck.

Gruntruck made a video for the song "Not a Lot to Save" with Henry Shepherd (brother of Soundgarden bassist Ben) directing, and Robert Jett Barkley as Director of Photography.

The track "Tribe" was made into a music video and appeared on the soundtrack of the film PCU, also earning an enthusiastic reception on MTV and rotation on the show Headbangers Ball.

Shortly thereafter, a video was made for Crazy Love, which garnered generous airplay on MTV and a rare snark-free mention on the show Beavis and Butt-Head, where a stunned Butthead mused, "I must be hallucinating now.

The lineup of Ben, Tom, Alex and Josh released a three-song EP, Shot, on Betty Records in 1996, with Endino and King producing for a third time.

However, at a showcase in Los Angeles with A&R representatives from nearly all of the major labels in attendance, the music industry was uniformly perplexed by singer Ben's decision to perform with his back to the audience and the band remained unsigned.

In 1997, the original lineup was reunited after Norman and Tim rejoined to play extensively in local venues, and the band began working on new material together as well as with a side project called Mona Diesel.

These new songs were the foundation of what was envisioned as their breakthrough third album, and the original lineup began a two-year journey recording in five different studios in and around Seattle with both Jack Endino and Martin Feveyear (Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age) producing.