Luis Buñuel of stones with which to pelt anticipated hecklers. After the premiere, Buñuel and Dalí were granted formal admittance to the tight-knit community of Surrealists, led by poet André Breton. Late in 1929, on the strength of "Un Chien Andalou", Buñuel and Dalí were commissioned to make another short film by Marie-Laurie and Charles de Noailles, owners of a private cinema on the Place des États-Unis and financial supporters of productions by Jacques Manuel, Man Ray and Pierre Chenal. At first, the intent was that the new film be around the same length as "Un Chien", only this time with sound.
Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot the tune's middle section when he called home to check his messages. The lyrics for "Spirit Ditch" include the line "horse-laughter is dragging pianos to the ocean", which was inspired by a scene from the Luis Buñuel film "Un chien andalou". Although he once explained the album's idiosyncratic sound by admitting "I didn't know what I was doing", Linkous purposely used found sounds throughout the recording of the album – these included sounds that he found on records, sounds that he recorded and, in one instance ("Ballad of a Cold Lost Marble"), the sound that a defective amplifier was making