Music videos were filmed for the singles "On a Rope," "Born in '69" and "Young Livers," and the band embarked on extensive tours of the US, UK and Europe.

During these tours the band gained a reputation for a series of interesting and, at times, seemingly ludicrous gimmicks and stage antics which included holding raffles during live performances, spinning a large game show wheel to determine set lists, onstage fire breathing, annual Halloween and New Year's shows, and the wearing of coordinated and progressively more ornate stage costumes.

The EP The State of Art is on Fire and LP Hot Charity had preceded the album that year, and singer/guitarist John Reis would later refer to these three records as a "trilogy".

The Australian copy had "Pushed", "My Arrow's Aim", "Lorna Doom", "Shucks", "Cloud Over Branson", and "Feathered Friends".

Using the extensive recording budget granted them by Interscope, the band employed numerous guest musicians, a string section, additional engineers and mixing sessions, and experimented with several instruments they had not used before.

to consist of one cohesive body of music, with traditional silence between track separations replaced with string, woodwind, and brass passages.