performing as The Cost for the first time

Oakland natives and childhood friends Stephen Loewinsohn and Shaun Osburn met Michael Hoffman in middle school. The three of them began playing together in various bands in the early 1990s before adding vocalist Laird Rickard and performing as The Cost for the first time on New Year’s Eve 1999. Later that year, the band released an eight-song EP that was recorded live over two days. In a review of the EP, music writer Mike DaRonco of Allmusic said the Cost “capture this really dark, chaotic sound with the accompaniment of tribal beats and gruff vocals that sounds as if the singers [are] ready to heave any second.”