After Against Me!'s break in late 2010, the band returned with a new drummer, Jay Weinberg. Laura Jane Grace said in early 2011 in many interviews that the band intended to release an EP or 7" before summer 2011, after "kicking around" a few songs that did not necessarily feel like tracks for a sixth studio album.[3][4] Prior to their March 2011 tour with Dropkick Murphys, the band spent time off tour in Madison, Wisconsin recording at a studio owned by Butch Vig.[5]