I'll be honest; the only genius move about that time would've been to throw our asses into rehab. Having worked with the Queers on several previous records, Livermore expected the band to have new songs already written and for the sessions to go swiftly, and was disappointed to find that this was not the case: Joe and I had spent hours on the phone talking about the amazing new songs he was writing, but when we started recording, I discovered that only a couple of those songs actually existed. The rest were just snippets of melody or a catchy hook. In some cases, he hadn't gotten farther than a title [...] The new record was essentially written in the studio, with Mass Giorgini waiting patiently at his mixing board while we struggled to come up with ideas, riffs, and choruses. Even when something interesting did develop, Joe was seldom in the mood to pursue it. "It's fine like it is," he'd snarl when I suggested another take or some additional harmonies. It felt like his primary purpose was to get this thing done as quickly as possible and skedaddle back to the dope man in New Hampshire. King recalled that "there were a few fights" during recording, including an incident in which he, irritable over having to get up early to work on repeated vocal takes while his bandmates slept in until the afternoon, launched into a tirade and threatened to quit the sessions. Among the songs the band recorded for the album were a cover version of the Beach Boys' 1963 single "Hawaii", and "High School Psychopath II", a sequel to Screeching Weasel's song "I Was a High School Psychopath" from their 1993 album Wiggle. With the album nearly finished, it was decided that one more song was needed, so the band elected to cover "That Girl" by Livermore's band the Potatomen. Livermore later recalled that he struggled to teach the band the song: Joe, it doesn't go quite like that,' I'd say, and try to get him to listen to the original recording. 'Whaddaya talking about, it sounds great,' he'd growl, and go back to playing it his way." He got a similar response when he tried to convince the band to spend a bit more time in the studio to re-record some parts and work some more on mixing; the band insisted the album sounded fine, and