Archers of Loaf almost called it quits after All the Nations Airports due to the strain of touring and the rut of the album cycle (i.e., make record, make video, do interviews, tour, tour, tour; repeat) but decided they would make one more album and see how they felt after that process. They again enlisted the help of Brian Paulson to record the album that became White Trash Heroes. On this album the band added keyboards to several songs as well as vocoder, and debuted the lead vocals of Matt Gentling on the track "I.N.S." "Banging on a Dead Drum" found all the members swapping instruments and some of the worst cowbell ever attempted.The band pulled out all the stops to keep its members engaged, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and the band decided to make the fall tour of 1998 its final outing.
In the liner notes for Merge’s reissue of the Archers’ final album, Josh Modell says, “In hindsight, it’s easy to read White Trash Heroes as both the stormy end to a legendary band and as the beginning of something else: Bachmann’s next project, Crooked Fingers. Hints of what came two years later abound here, particularly on the keyboard undercarriage and restrained energy of ‘Dead Red Eyes’ and the epic, sequencer-assisted title track. That eight-minute song feels like a transitional sigh, and an acknowledgement that a certain period—let’s call it “indie-rock’s golden age,” because that might drive the Archers nuts—had passed. To paraphrase: They were out of luck, because nobody gave a fuck.”
