Julian Koster created The Music Tapes as a name for the surreal music he was fond of making. He had made one private tape, titled The 2nd Silly Putty Symphony before a friend, Robbie Cucchario, joined him and created a band. Their first creation together was titled First Imaginary Symphony for Nomad and was recorded using a tape recorder, reel-to-reel tape, a wire recorder and an old Edison wax cylinder recorder. After the basic tapes were complete, many of their friends contributed to more recordings, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel and Will Cullen Hart of The Olivia Tremor Control. After four years of recording, the album was released in July 1999.