Before they rose to indie rock acclaim with their respective bands, Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot frontman Wes Miles recorded together as a duo, embracing everything from Auto-Tuned R&B to synth pop in the process. The musicians launched the project in 2005 and began piecing an album together in 2006, although the project was shelved when Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot began to gather steam. One year after both bands released debut albums, the two reconvened to finish the recordings, which were released in 2009 under the title LP.