Noise-pop quartet Red Dye No. 5 recorded their first demo at Hit Single Studios in El Cajon, going on to record for labels like Silver Girl ("Fuzzbomb" 7-inch) and Candy Floss ("Not Again You" 7-inch).
Flip Records sent them to record with Tim O'Heir at Fort Apache Studios in Cambridge, MA in 1996, but the band was divided after the mixing sessions. Bassist James Reader told the Reader that the band/label relationship was hampered following a confrontation between Reader and a member of another band on the Flip label, Limp Bizkit.
“I had a falling out with [Bizkit frontman] Fred Durst. He is a scumbag...we were railroaded by the label into attending a show where they were opening for Korn.” Without going into detail, Reader says there was a tour bus confrontation. “The chemistry between us and the label was never the same after that. Durst is a two-faced snake.” By 2000, Red Dye No. 5 was defunct.
Guitarist Patrick Padilla moved to Los Angeles and performed with Black Songs. James Reader (bass) and Scott Frazier (drums) formed Dewey Defeats Truman. Singer Lisah Nicholson later fronted AM Vibe.
In 2016, Silver Girl Records released The Fort Apache Sessions, a collection of songs that were originally intended to be the band's major label debut in 1996. Reader and Frazier reunited Dewey Defeats Truman for a December 2018 performance at the Casbah. Reader moved away from San Diego in summer 2021.