Five tracks were previously released on the 1999 eMusic compilation album Long Tall Weekend, while four others are culled from the Working Undercover for the Man EP.

Others were produced for various side projects, such as ABC's Nightline in Primetime TV mini-series Brave New World ("All Alone", a sea shanty-like song about a bacterium transported to the Moon by Surveyor 3); a special edition of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern ("Theme from McSweeney's"); and the radio show This American Life ("I'm Sick (of This American Life)").

The title song previously appeared on the live album Severe Tire Damage (with a more uptempo rock arrangement), and Long Tall Weekend as the same recording that appears on this compilation.

This collection marks the third official release of the brief "Token Back to Brooklyn," first issued as a hidden track on the 1996 album Factory Showroom and reissued on Long Tall Weekend.

Allmusic called the compilation "a collection of truly rare rarities, it shows once again that the group's more obscure songs are quite often just as great as their best-known ones."