[2][3] The band started when Daniel Bartels and David Bush, who were working together at an oriental rug store, asked Clancy Fraher and Steve Brooking to join them.

Fraher taught Bartels some open tunings on his new telecaster, then promptly left the country to explore Europe for a month.

CMJ New Music Monthly called the album "alternately spacey and dense," writing that "with equal emphasis on crafted songwriting and biting guitar hooks, the band maintains a sense of style and flair.

"[8] AllMusic wrote that "singing guitarists Daniel Bartels and Clancy Fraher spin murky and dark-hued waves of sound topped with liquid and melodic lead lines that regularly break out of the soundscapes just enough to keep the whole thing from skittering off into post-rock pretentiousness.

Fraher and Bartels found this method to be unsatisfactory and decided ultimately to hang it up after the release of The Oswald Cup.