The two bonded over similar tastes in music and began jamming informally with drummer Josh Laner in December 1989.
The trio rehearsed in a local appliance store owned by Laner's father and went through a multitude of names before finally settling on The Sugarplastic.
After failing to find a suitable lead singer, the band played only instrumentals for its first year of existence until Eshbach stepped up to sing.
The band entered the studio along with engineer Casey Neiditch to begin recording their debut album, Radio Jejune.
The sessions were drawn out by the departure of drummer Josh Laner and a contract renegotiation that allowed the band to be released from Geffen.