Grandaddy later created an elaborate backstory for fictional group Arm of Roger, and released the recording through their label Sweat of the Alps on December 20, 2002.

Fairchild noted that the Arm of Roger album was "more or less done before we began work on the Signal to Snow Ratio EP in 1999" and the band "sat on it for months.

Frontman Jason Lytle bristled at the new pressure that V2 was beginning to place on the band, later recalling: “A lot of people were putting money on the table and getting really serious about it.

'”[4] According to SF Weekly, "The move caused a minor uproar in V2's U.S. headquarters in New York City; [A&R representative] Kate Hyman broke in on a meeting label president Richard Sanders had called to discuss the matter to tell him it was a prank.

Speaking to The Modesto Bee in June 2002, Jim Fairchild told the paper that they were planning "to issue a previously unreleased record by defunct band Arm of Roger, which was led by Timmy Branca of Tracy.

"[6] In June 2002, CMJ New Music Monthly also reported that "Arm of Roger was an obscure California-based band that broke up soon after the completion of its album," which had been recorded in 1998.

Fairchild noted that, "We pressed up probably 3 or 4,000 of the CDs and sold them on tour and through our website during the time we supported Sumday, neither confirming or denying whether this was in fact the semi-legendary fake album.

In a brief review for Tape Op, producer Larry Crane wrote that The Ham and Its Lily was "Grandaddy making the dumbest music of their career in order to baffle the folks at V2 after the label dumped G-Daddy's pals Giant Sand on the eve of releasing a record.

"[13] Grandaddy were billed as "Arm of Roger" (as a means of avoiding publicity) at their August 7, 2012 reunion concert at the Partisan Bar in Merced, California.