time, due to having a new president and new people in charge of each department. As a result, any trust the band had within the company had dissipated. Capitol began to shelve the album until radio stations started playing the song "Lucky Denver Mint", which became its second track. The release of the album marked the end of their two-record deal with the label, which was made official in August1999. Drummer Zach Lind recalled that the label "really didn't believe in us. But in a way, that was sort of a good thing, because it let us take control of what we needed to do. We learned we had to do it ourselves, because no one else would do it for us." Due to a lack of funds, the members had taken up odd jobs: Adkins sold art supplies; Linton did construction work; Burch sold auto parts; and Lind worked at a car dealership. In August2000, Jimmy Eat World released the compilation album Singles through the independent label Big Wheel Recreation, which included B-sides and unreleased songs from the band up to that point. They went on a five-week tour of Europe; they bought copies of their previous releases from Capitol at cost value to sell them directly in that territory. The band's management were against the idea of this tour as they lacked a foothold in the United States. They decided to break away with their management to work as free agents. The tour was ultimately considered a success by the band, with Clarity selling 500copies a week by that point. After this, they released a split EP with Jebediah in September2000. Recording Bleed American was produced by Mark Trombino and Jimmy Eat World. Trombino had already produced two of the band's previous studio albums: Static Prevails (1996) and Clarity (1999). He had struck up a brotherly relationship with the band; he reacted positively to the demos that Adkins had played him. The sales from Singles and the proceeds from Jimmy Eat World's European tour helped fund the album's recording sessions, but the money budgeted for the record was insufficient. Trombino offered to work for free until after the album's production, confident he would be reimbursed by the album's predicted commercial success. Recording sessions took place in Los Angeles, California in October2000. Clark Robertson, who had been in a band that Linton saw live, rented equipment on the band's