In early 2011, vocalist Keith Buckley went on tour with the Damned Things.[1]Ex Lives was recorded at JOHC in Pasadena, California; producer Joe Barresi also served as an engineer, with assistance from Morgan Stratton and Sean Oakley. Barresi later mixed the recordings.[2]Josh Newton left the band five months after the recording, and was replaced by former bassist Stephen Micciche for touring.[3] According to Buckley, for him to write the lyrics to "Underwater Bimbos from Outer Space" he had to "pay attention to the defeatism that the music suggested."[4]
Release
On January 3, 2012, Ex Lives was announced for release in March, and the album's track listing and artwork was revealed. In addition, a music video was released for "Underwater Bimbos from Outer Space", directed by Buckley. According to Blabbermouth.net, the video "features a barrage of startling visceral images which perfectly match the raging brutality of the track."[4] Buckley said that to make the video he needed to "acknowledge the masochism I wrote of [in the lyrics] to myself. You don't get rewarded for your faith and you don't get celebrated for your heroism."[4] On January 25, Epitaph Records began posting a series of videos to YouTube offering viewers a behind the scenes look into the making of Ex Lives.[5]
On February 22, a music video was released for the song "Revival Mode", which was directed by Robert Schober. Buckley said the video had a "very ambiguously creepy David Lynch vibe to it" and that it features a "story line that exists outside of us as members of a band. It's dark and weird and while not completely adhering thematically to the lyrics, it sets a larger, broader mood which marries the song perfectly."[6] Schober said the video is a "surrealist crime drama set on a lost highway...the story loosely interprets key phrases from the song...the guys were awesome and put up with many hours of freezing temperatures in the middle of the desert."[6]
Ex Lives was made available for streaming on February 28,[7] before being released on March 6 through Epitaph Records.[8] In October, the band went on a tour of Australia.[9] In January 2013, the band toured Australia as part of the Big Day Out festival.[10]
^Smith, Sarah (July 15, 2012). "Big Day Out 2013 lineup". FasterLouder. Junkee Media. Archived from the original on March 30, 2016. Retrieved July 13, 2017.