For the recording of their second album, Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy, Against Me! chose to work with producer Rob McGregor, who had recorded their first album and two previous EPs.[1] The band planned to record at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, where they could make an all-analog recording with very few overdubs.[2] In order to ensure that McGregor would be familiar with the new songs by the time they went to Memphis, the band recorded demos for the entire album at his Goldentone Studios in their hometown of Gainesville, Florida on July 15 in the span of a few hours.[2] The rest of the album was recorded that August at Ardent.[3] The version of "Cavalier Eternal" from the July 15 Goldentone session was used on the album, as Fat Wreck Chords head Fat Mike preferred it to the version recorded at Ardent.[3][4] The band elected to release the Ardent version as a single through their previous label No Idea Records, along with a single for "Sink, Florida, Sink", both singles using alternate versions of songs from the album's recording sessions.[5] The B-side of "Cavalier Eternal" is an acoustic recording of "You Look Like I Need a Drink", while the album version was recorded with a full band and electric instrumentation.
^Gabel, Tom (2009-04-23). "The Original Cowboy!". againstme.net. Against Me!. Archived from the original on August 3, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-10. At the insistence of Fat Mike, the song 'Cavalier Eternal' from the 7/15/03 session did end up making it onto As The Eternal Cowboy, Mike preferring the demo to the version made at Ardent.
