The normal business cycle calls for a band to record an album, then to tour in support of it. But The Residents liked the idea of developing a touring show without the restriction of promoting an album. But after forty or so performances, The Residents wondered: what would the album that "might have been" sound like? So they started recording. In a short time they produced the curious, Lonely Teenager. Featuring pieces that were performed in the show as well as others that were considered but ultimately rejected, Lonely Teenager is "the studio album that might have been."