Rather Ripped

After Jim O'Rourke left, Moore wanted simpler songs "for everybody to plug into immediately" and aimed to make the band's version of Blondie's Parallel Lines. John Agnello, recommended by J Mascis, produced at Sear Sound in New York from December 2005 to January 2006, with extra work at Echo Canyon and at Mascis's Bisquiteen studio in Amherst, Massachusetts. Greg Calbi mastered it in March 2006. The working titles were Sonic Life and Do You Believe in Rapture?, and the final name came from a Berkeley record store.

Seven of the twelve tracks run under four minutes. Pink Steam is named for a book by the writer Dodie Bellamy, and Rats is the only song written by Ranaldo. Claire Denis directed the video for Incinerate, filmed at Le Nouveau Casino in Paris, and four videos for Jams Run Free. The tour opened at CBGB on 13 June 2006, where the band had not played since 1992.

The album reached number 71 in the US and 64 in the UK, and finished 12th in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll. Pitchfork's Brandon Stosuy called it the band's tautest set in 25 years, and Rolling Stone ranked it third among its albums of 2006.