The assembled group set out to devise a working method for reorganizing Rock and Roll, keeping only what they felt were its most important core elements.

[2] The band recorded their first album, Long Hair in Three Stages, late in 1995 at Illinois' Solid Sound Studios located in Hoffman Estates.

[1] When the band returned home from their European tour they recorded a second single featuring a cover of the 1961 Dion and the Belmonts hit "The Wanderer", as well as an original composition, "Whoa Complains.

The album was recorded by Michael Gira, lead singer of post-industrial rock band Swans, with Martin Bisi engineering.

The album was recorded in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, at Pachyderm Studio, and mixed a week later in Richmond, Virginia, at Sound of Music.

In the summer of 2001, after the recording of Acre Thrills, drummer Pat Samson left the band, and was replaced by Adam Vida.

[3] Todd Rittmann now leads Chicago-based Dead Rider, in addition to being a member of Drag City band, Singer.

Johnson made appearances both live and on record with no-wave band Lake of Dracula,[5] (1995–1997) where he was billed simply as "The Manhattanite", alongside members of The Scissor Girls, The Flying Luttenbachers, and Couch.

Frontman Al Johnson cameos in the film as an obsessive collector who is repeatedly turned away from buying a particularly rare record (the French import of Safe as Milk by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band).