We picked up right where we’d left off. The cut-up jam sequences were over -- the songs on Two were mostly composed (though often borne from more stoney jams). We handmade a few hundred copies of Two before having them printed professionally (and with totally different artwork). In these waning hours of the compact disc, we somehow sold over 500 copies at our tiny shows.

Surprisingly, a couple of these songs lived on: “Taxicab” made it onto The Loving Sounds of Static in rewritten form and “Epitaph” stayed with us through the end (it barely missed the cut on Heaven). For a band that typically swore off anything written the year before as irredeemably old, this was unusual.

The owner of Fire & Water in Northampton took a liking to us, and soon we had a weekly residency at his small but undeniably heartfelt cafe. The audience tipped the band via a toy dumptruck passed around between songs. Our vocal mics went through a small keyboard amp.

Peter bought an old Gladiator Mark III conversion van and we started traveling to New York and Boston from the comfort of swiveling captains chairs. Thus began an era of many, many one-off shows at the Wetlands (RIP), Knitting Factory (Leonard Street!), Mercury Lounge, TT the Bear’s (RIP), the Middle East, the Lizard Lounge, as well as local Pioneer Valley shows at the Baystate Hotel (semi-RIP), the Eagles Nest and Harry’s with friends in Cyclub and the Fucking Sparklies. On a typical night, we might make $50 from the club, sell $30 in CDs, and arrive home as the sun was rising. But it couldn’t have been more exciting or felt more necessary. (Ben)