Different Damage is a Q and Not U album that was recorded at Inner Ear Studios in May/June 2002 and released in October 2002 on Dischord Records. It was engineered and produced by Ian MacKaye and Don Zientara and mastered by Chad Clark at Silver Sonya. The front cover and insert photography was taken by Shawn Brackbill in the accident inspection bay at the Geico headquarters in NW Washington, D.C. The back cover was shot by Brackbill at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. Different Damage was the band's first full-length album as a trio, following the dismissal of bassist Matt Borlik in November 2001.