I went on a solo tour of the United States in April 2008, bringing the music of Elastic No-No Band to all those people on the middle and left side of the country (directionally, not politically). And, as is my compulsion, I bought some used records at various stops on my trip (as I drove through Arizona and Texas, I feared for the health of that precious vinyl, but they all made it through the trip unscathed).
My last stop was in Johnson City, Tennessee, and I found an thrift store where I bought a handful of cool records (Belafonte, The Ventures) and a bizarre 10-inch excercising record (pictured above). When I got back to Brooklyn, I was very interested to take a listen. Even though I did not have the device necessary to do the exercises, the energetic instruction and backing organ music was quite enough to sustain 20-some minutes of listening enjoyment (and me and my roommates did attempt some of the exercises without the necessary device and accompanying diagrams).
Anyhow, I enjoyed the record so much that I decided to include interpolations of it on our new album. I felt like there was some linking thematic material about physical appearance and self-esteem to some of our songs, like "Manboobs", "Zaftig", "Hey 2-Eyes", and even the song I cut from the album "I Don't Think It's Right". So I felt like including excerpts from an exercise record was an apt, off-kilter way to comment on that.
Obviously, you'll be able to hear my selections and re-interpretations when the album is done, but I figured I would offer you the unadulterated exercise record for downloading and enjoyment. (As far as my internet research goes, this recording seems to have fallen into public domain. Also, my research has led me to find out that most copies of the record were pressed on special blue vinyl [!!] but mine was just regular black [boo!].)
Side One (11 mins. 44 secs.)
Side Two (13 mins. 20 secs.)
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