In March 2002, Sleater-Kinney previewed tracks from "One Beat" during a series of U.S. East Coast performances and at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Los Angeles. Speaking about the development of the songs in a concert setting, Weiss has said, "The live forum is where we get the feedback from the people who we're really interested in communicating with." The album's track list was confirmed in May. Before the release, Brownstein took time off to act in an independent film, "Group", which documents a group of women meeting each week in therapy sessions. At the start of August, the band posted the 12 songs as QuickTime streams on the Kill Rock Stars label website.