Badger and Lloyd are both Illinois natives and met at the University of Illinois in Champaign, where they played together in a band called Bantha. After a stint in Chicago, they relocated to Seattle, playing as a duo called Guitar Defamation League. They also backed Chris Mills, a labelmate of Sunset Valley, which led them to encounter Jolly. In 2006, Jolly, who had moved to Seattle from Montana, needed a backup band to play gigs in support of his third solo album, Bunker Life, and contacted Badger and Lloyd. The shows went so well that the trio entered a recording studio (Jackpot Studio in Portland, OR) and cut an album that had to be considered a group effort. They adopted the name Little Pieces, and the same name was given to the disc, which was released by One Eleven Records on June 3, 2008. ~ William Ruhlmann