Tres Warren (1978-2020) was born and raised in Texas, where he attended the University of Texas at Austin and met Elizabeth Hart. Formed by Tres Warren, the band made their debut on the Mental Violence label with the single "Killers" b/w "Vice" in November 2003. It was followed by the four-track EP Mental Violence II: Diamond City released through The Social Registry in November 2005. It included a remix of the title track by Sonic Boom. These two releases together with two tracks that appeared on separate compilations were collected on Early Violence.Warren later described the beginning of the band as "I had just gotten this Roland TR-707 drum machine, and I was getting into programming drums and writing songs. There wasn’t really a course planned ahead, and it just evolved into a live band".
The band released their first full-length album, Dins, in February 2006. It featured Tom Gluibizzi (guitar/keyboards) and Brian Tamborello on drums. Concerning the recording process at this time Warren explained that it involved "improvised jamming, and seeing if you could write a song that way". The album's cover art is German Fluxus artist Wolf Vostell's painting Three Hairs and Shadow.
