Optimo

The songs grew out of jams and were recorded live in a short session at Radio City Studio, once an NBC radio studio. Bahlman had the band play extended versions, and engineer Don Hünerberg cut Cavern down with razor-blade tape edits. A door left over from the radio days, still standing in its frame, was slammed at the end of Out. Principato recalls a Sequential Circuits Pro-One synth among the instruments. The band thought of Optimo as the main track and named the EP after it. McGuire's sleeve of red, yellow and black whorls carries the band name in stacked letters that read two ways.

It sold 30,000 copies and has been counterfeited many times. The Vinyl District said it showed the band as a well-oiled machine, the Village Voice called it their last and best record, and Pitchfork gave it 10 in 2017. Superior Viaduct reissued it on vinyl in 2015.