Autolux produced Transit Transit themselves with guitarist/vocalist Greg Edwards serving as engineer. Most of the record was recorded at Space 23, the band's makeshift studio in their rehearsal room near downtown Los Angeles. A few drum tracks - "Highchair", "Spots" and "The Science of Imaginary Solutions" - came from an earlier session with engineer John Goodmanson. The title track (the last song to be recorded) was recorded in Denmark by Edwards, using a virtually unplayable upright piano and a sample of a coffin-style freezer found in a nearby basement, and then finished back in Los Angeles.
"Audience No. 2" was self-released on May 21, 2008, to college radio while the band continued to write and record songs that would finally end up on Transit Transit. The single also included two B-sides: the instrumental track "Fat Kid" and a cover of the Beatles' "Helter Skelter".