Bob and I met in 2009, when we were on tour playing in Company of Thieves. After a show in Florida, we were drinking at a Nautically-themed bar, listening to old records on the jukebox, and he said he’d love to hear me do a record with less production than my solo album had. And I was wanting to make something a like more gnarly as well.

We booked three or four studio days for the next tour break, and got Chris Faller to drum and Jon Alvin to engineer. It was at this old dusty warehouse space called Stereophonic, with a 7-track tape machine (one of the 8 channels was broken). We took three of my new song ideas, arranged them on the fly, and recorded them live all the way through. I think Stolen Bricks ended up being half one take and half another. Then I slapped a vocal and some B3 organ on top and that was it.

When we mixed it at IV Lab we did it old school, too. No automation, everyone took a few faders and we “performed” the mixdown together. The only rule to maintain impartiality was nobody could take their own fader. It went fast and we had some time left, so I added Uncivilized at the end of the night, playing and singing live.

We still hadn’t played any shows together, so we didn’t have a band name. This was planned as a Mike Maimone solo record, so the original physical CD release has my name on the cover. We released the EP billed as “Mike Maimone” at Logan Square Auditorium opening for Company of Thieves, with Big Science and This Is Me Smiling on October 9, 2009.