The deal was set up as a joint venture between Sire and Hellcat. The band chose to sign to Sire because of their liking of Sire's history and alumni, which included the Ramones and the Dead Boys, the commitment of the Sire co-founder Seymour Stein and Warner Bros. CEO Tom Whalley to the band, and the fact that the band's A&R representative, Craig Aaronson, was the vice president of the label, which meant that Sire would likely pay more attention to the band than other labels. Upon signing to the label, the band members were immediately paid $30,000 by the label as a bonus. The band's major label signing was met with some backlash from some members of the punk scene, including the punk fanzine Maximumrocknroll, who accused the band of "selling out". Despite this, the band's frontwoman Brody Dalle was unfazed by the criticism. “Those Maximumrocknroll kids, they’re all P.C. even when they’re not trying to be P.C.,” she explained to LA Weekly. “They’re sheep. They can’t form opinions of their own. And they’re mad at me for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with the music.” Tim Armstrong controversy Amidst the band's signing to Sire and growth in popularity, Brody Dalle (then known as Brody Armstrong)'s marriage to Rancid guitarist/vocalist and Hellcat Records owner Tim Armstrong was beginning to fall apart as Brody was less available while out on touring. "I was gone most of the time. I remember coming home from tour and Tim was like, 'I'm lonely. I miss you. You're never around.' And I was just like, "...tough shit? You're a fucking grown ass man.' I was twenty, twenty-one. And he was in his mid-thirties. 'I'm not here to fix you.' I was a kid. I was a fucking kid!" Dalle had also been planning to leave Armstrong for three years; "He's 14 years older than me, but emotionally a child ... And I didn't know any different." Dalle soon filed for divorce from Armstrong in January 2003. In February 2003, Dalle returned to Australia and wrote over a dozen songs for a new album. While in Australia, Dalle reconnected with Queens of the Stone Age vocalist/guitarist Josh Homme, whom she had previously met at Lollapalooza in 1996; they eventually formed a romantic relationship, which they were forced to keep secret from the public eye as Dalle was still in the process