Deerhunter first attempted to record their second album in 2005 with folk musician Samara Lubelski at Rare Book Room studios in New York. This recording session failed, due in part to the physical and mental state of lead singer Bradford Cox, who had influenza and walking pneumonia at the time. The group was also working with malfunctioning equipment, including an out-of-tune piano and an uncalibrated tape recorder. Cox later described the results of these sessions as sounding like "if you listen to "Loveless" on mushrooms, and I mean that in not a complimentary way". In an interview with "Pitchfork", Cox said that the music was "on a scratched CD-R under my bed", which "nobody will ever hear". These tracks were later made available, in mixtape form, on the Deerhunter blog.