During an interview with DJ Bruce Warren of WXPN radio[4] shortly before the album's release, it was revealed to the band that he was real and that he was the first person to climb Mount Everest alone, as well as one member of the first two-man team to reach the summit without the use of bottled oxygen.

The title of the album actually refers to a name used by the band's drummer Darren Jessee and his friends on fake IDs as teenagers—"Allegedly there were many 27 year old Reinholds who looked suspiciously adolescent, inhabiting the bars of Charlotte, North Carolina in the late eighties."

The album's packaging is styled after a biography, with the cover featuring a minimalist design of a man in sunglasses and a white suit and the booklet emulating yellow, tattered pages.

Bassist Robert Sledge stated in an interview with MySpace's Front to Back that this fatigue naturally led to the band playing lighter material.

[10] Originally, "Don't Change Your Plans" was preceded by a long instrumental passage; Folds credits the album's late producer, Caleb Southern for helping edit down the song to its final product.

The song follows a breakup, possibly the one that occurs in the previous track on the album, "Don't Change Your Plans", as the narrator refers to his ex's new partner, saying "he'll never care for you more than I do".

The record was given generally positive reviews, with Allmusic saying that it's the band's willingness "to forge a unique sound that makes The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner such an interesting album to listen to.

[27] Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork notably gave the album a significantly more negative review than other publications, rating it a 3.3/10[28] and saying "this trio has run out of ideas."

"[15] The band reunited to play the album in its entirety at the UNC Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on September 18, 2008.

[30] This one-off concert appearance was part of the MySpace "Front to Back" series, in which artists play an entire album live.

The band were briefly joined on stage by Ben's father, Dean Folds, who read a transcript of his voice mail message that is used in the album song "Your Most Valuable Possession".

A concert film of the show was later released on the Front to Back website, which spliced in new interviews from both the band and colleagues, discussing the album and their experience with MySpace.

The lead single, "Army", was featured in the Viceland comedy series Nirvanna the Band the Show as the end credits theme song.