Those Bastard Souls were an American independent rock band formed in 1995 as a solo side project by David Shouse of The Grifters. The name, somewhat of a nod to These Immortal Souls, was one that David Shouse coined as a replacement for A Band Called Bud, the original name of the Grifters. Shouse liked the name and held onto it, imagining a rotating roster of transient "bastard musicians" that would comprise a musical project that he might lead sometime in the future.

While recording the Grifters' first album for Sub Pop, Ain't My Lookout, Shouse was approached by someone from Darla Records with some DAT tapes and told that they would put out a solo album for him if he were interested. While the recording of Ain't My Lookout was pleasurable, Shouse, the eldest Grifter by almost a decade, was finding himself increasingly frustrated with the lyrics that he wrote for that band; finding them too abstract and not personal enough for where he found himself personally. Under the Those Bastard Souls moniker he felt that he had a place for his more direct, personal material.