[1][2] In the mid 1990s, John Hollenbeck, Ted Reichman, and bassist Reuben Redding had a weekly gig at an internet café known as "alt.coffee" in East Village of New York City, playing as the "Refuseniks".
One night, a woman named Claudia approached the three, expressing significant enthusiasm for the band's work and promising to tell her friends about the Refuseniks and return for future performances.
[3] Hollenbeck soon enlisted three new people in 1997[2] to form a quintet to play at alt.coffee, inviting saxophonist and clarinetist Chris Speed, bassist Drew Gress, and then-unknown vibraphonist Matt Moran.
Ratliff complimented Hollenbeck's ability to write for a quintet, and noted how Moran and Speed's parts as vibraphonist and clarinetist, which he says are related instruments, sometimes diverged from their unison.
He theorized that the high-brow style of the music, complete with clashing tones and Hollenbeck's "heap of little percussion toys", gave the group a charm that simultaneously prevented it from reaching more people.