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After the Libertines broke up in fall 2004, singer/songwriter and guitarist Carl Barat began work on his next musical project. Signing to the U.K. label Vertigo almost immediately after the band dissolved, Barat worked on songs on his own and eventually recruited his former bandmate Gary Powell as the drummer for his new group. He also brought in Anthony Rossomando -- who had been Pete Doherty's replacement in the Libertines when Doherty was arrested in summer 2004 -- as second guitarist. Bassist Didz Hammond left the Cooper Temple Clause to join Barat's project, which was christened Dirty Pretty Things after Barat's club night (which was later renamed Bright Young Things). By fall 2005, Dirty Pretty Things' lineup was complete, and the band played its first gigs in Paris, France (where the Libertines also played their farewell show) and in Italy, crafting a sound that felt like a leaner, tighter version of the Libertines' freewheeling mod-punk. The band entered the studio that winte...