Drums and Guns

The eighth album was the second made with Dave Fridmann, by the trio of Sparhawk, Parker and Matt Livingston. Sub Pop noted that songs fans knew from shows appeared here in heavily altered forms, built from looped vocals and drum machines. Sparhawk said they put their normal instruments aside and tried to carry the songs with other sounds. Parker said they wanted it to sound unlike The Great Destroyer and Trust, using machines they had not mastered, and later called it their first step towards the records they made with BJ Burton, and the first time they chose not to reproduce a record live. Hatchet and Breaker were songs from Sparhawk's other band, Retribution Gospel Choir.

Sparhawk called it a primal look at violence that touched on current issues, and told the A.V. Club its core question was what people are, that they kill themselves and each other. He said the songs were not about the Iraq war. It reached 196 on the Billboard 200 and 8 on the Heatseekers chart, and scored 81 on Metacritic. Mojo said it sounded like nothing else, and NPR made Belarus its song of the day.