Melissa Farris and Margaret McCartney met while working at the Zig Zag Cafe in Washington, D.C. They founded Tuscadero on Halloween of 1993 with bassist Phil Satlof and drummer Jack Hornady. The band took its name from Suzi Quatro's Happy Days character Leather Tuscadero. Tuscadero's second album, My Way or the Highway, was released in 1998, and they toured with Cheap Trick to promote it, but after the album's release, Elektra dropped the band. Farris later founded the band Dame Fate with bassist Yalan Papillon, releasing one album, Time and Tide Wait for No Man, in 2002.