Mike Watt and Todd Congelliere first met in the early 90’s when Congelliere's band, F.Y.P, shared bills with Watt’s bass duo, “dos.” In 2013, Mike and his Secondmen released their version of Toys That Kill’s (also Congelliere's band) “No One” on both a split 7” with Qui and a compilation of covers of Todd’s songs. Throughout the first two decades of the 21st century, Mike’s Missingmen frequently did dates with the former’s Toys That Kill, and after a 2017 West Coast tour together Watt proposed a collaboration. He’d supply Todd with bass parts recorded to click tracks and Congelliere would flesh out the songs with guitars, words and vocals and recruit different drummers to complete respective tunes.