1992, and recorded a demo tape in 1996 to send to major labels. While the demo failed to garner any interest from major labels, it attracted the attention of Greg Glover, an intern at the US division of London Recordings, who released their debut studio album, Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?, through his record label, the Arena Rock Recording Company, in July 1997. While not a strong success upon its initial release, the album's second track, "Flagpole Sitta", began receiving airplay from several college radio stations, and soon after Harvey Danger became the subject of a major label bidding war, with the band ultimately deciding to sign to London's Slash Records imprint in March 1998, where Glover had just been hired. Upon the wider re-release of Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? and "Flagpole Sitta" as a single in April 1998, "Flagpole Sitta" became a hit, propelling Harvey Danger into the mainstream and pushing Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? to number 70 on the Billboard 200. The album went on to sell over 500,000 copies in the United States, and in February 1999 was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Despite the single's success, "Flagpole Sitta" also brought a lot of negative attention towards the band, who began to be dismissed by critics, publications and listeners as a one-hit wonder and a "major label fabrication", something which frontman Sean Nelson attributed to listeners taking the song's ironic lyrics and messages at "face value". Harvey Danger and MTV host Matt Pinfield wanted "Carlotta Valdez" to be the album's second single, but Slash/London objected to this and issued "Private Helicopter" as the second single in October 1998 instead. The single performed poorly, not reaching any Billboard charts, and soon after Harvey Danger ceased touring and returned home in November 1998. After returning home, the members of Harvey Danger took a brief break from music for the holidays. While the band initially considered breaking up during this small hiatus, they decided against it and began writing new material for their next album in November 1998. The band, who were determined to distance themselves from the overshadowing success of "Flagpole Sitta", deliberately wrote songs that were more experimental and less commercial-sounding than their previous works. "Our stated position was that we were never going to write another song like 'Flagpole Sitta.'", explained Nelson; "We would write long seven-minute