and Hot Rod Circuit covered the second half. The album was recorded over a period of about two weeks in April, beginning on April 13 and finishing on April 27. They recorded their debut album with Burning Airlines member J. Robbins as the producer, who had previously produced Braid's final album Frame & Canvas (1998). Although Frame & Canvas was recorded and mixed in only five days, the band had a bigger budget to work on Hey Mercedes' and thus took more time to produce the record. Although initially slated for a July release, Vagrant entered legal trouble with another label of the same name who attempted to trademark "Vagrant", and the former label's website was taken down. The album, whose title was revealed to be Everynight Fire Works, was delayed as a result. Further problems with distribution delayed the album further to late October. Everynight Fire Works was eventually released on October 23, 2001, through Vagrant Records. In November and December, the group went on tour with Saves the Day and Thursday. In 2001 alone, they performed 114 shows. Nanna, Atkinson and Bell eventually grew dissatisfied with Dawursk's presence in the group, and subsequently parted ways with the guitarist. They announced his departure in February 2002; he was temporarily replaced by Sean O'Brien, who previously played with Nanna in Orwell. Atkinson spent some time touring with Saves the Day as their temporary drummer, returning in early March. They played the occasional US show throughout March 2002, with one date in Japan in the middle. Michael Shumaker of Sheilbound, became the band's new guitarist in May. Companion EP The Weekend was released in July. The band were due to film a music video for "Our Weekend Starts on Wednesday" during the same month, however, the shoot was cancelled; an alternative version of the song which was supposed to appear in the video later surfaced. Starting that July, the group went on a US tour over the course of six weeks with Piebald, Audio Learning Center, and Koufax. In October, the band performed at the Grand Rapids Skate Fest. In all, Everynight Fire Works was promoted with over 200 shows. Later years: Loses Control and disbandment (2002–2005) During the previous April and May, Hey Mercedes spent time writing new material. After finishing the touring cycle for Everynight Fire Works in October, the band spent two weeks in Spread Eagle, Wisconsin writing