“When I was a kid, vinyl was all there was. There weren’t CDs yet, and cassettes were something you recorded at home to save wear and tear on your vinyl.”
“We didn’t have good college radio or any other way to discover non-mainstream music where I grew up, so purchasing vinyl was kind if like a connection to the outside world for me. I grew up in a time when many classic and iconic punk and new wave records came out, and that’s where most of my cash went. I remember riding my bike to the record store to buy Blondie’s Parallel Lines in middle school. I was also fascinated with the Beatles. I owned every American Beatles release by the time I was ten years old. I was so into it. Music was literally my life from age nine, which is also around the time I started playing guitar.
Eventually, I hopped on the CD bandwagon like everyone else, and looking back I realize that the way I experienced recorded music had changed. The tactile experience of holding a record jacket like Magical Mystery Tour with its 24-page color booklet inside was not the same with this new miniature 5-inch plastic case. What about posters? I got a free poster when I bought the White Album. You can’t cram that in this new tiny plastic case.
Since I’ve recently returned to collecting vinyl, I’ve rediscovered some things that I’ve missed terribly in the digital age. The physical format of vinyl records creates an undeniable personality of every record by creating a Side A and Side B. Think about the difference between Side A and Side B on your favorite albums. Each side has an opening track as if it is its own collection of five or six songs that relate not only to each other. You don’t get that experience with digital. Digital music also seems to encourage passive listening. You just press start, and the computer does all the work for you. It’s just not the same.
I’ve been working really hard to rebuild my vinyl collection lately, and I’ve probably purchased 150 albums so far this year. I’m fortunate to have a great record shop called Surface Noise two blocks from my house that only sells vinyl, and it’s been a great resource for me. Some great finds this year have been Magic Sam’s West Side Soul, an original mono version of Muddy Waters’ The Real Folk Blues, Buck Owens’ Live at Carnegie Hall, and a test pressing of the Sugarhill Gang’s Eighth Wonder. It’s been great to reconnect with this music the way it was meant to be enjoyed.
—Screamin’ John
“On the second day of recording John decided that four of the songs we planned to record weren’t relative to the existing recordings. While holding a good pour of Four Roses Bourbon, he hollered to me from across the studio, ‘Tim, time to write some songs… ya ready?!’ I replied, ‘what riff and key?’ He played me the part, I grabbed a book, sat outside with a cigarette and a glass of bourbon, and twenty minutes later “Big Bad Coroline” was born. I’ve always loved the name and years ago I wrote a song about a bad ass woman called Coroline but it was shit, so I took the good parts and mixed it with fresh ideas. This time it’s not shit.”
—TD Lind
“Everybody really hit it out of the park on this session, and it was great to have the freedom to actually write songs in the studio. We wrote, rehearsed, and recorded “Coraline” in about an hour and a half, and actually played it at a gig that night. Amazing things happen here in Kentucky when you get old friends together with guitars and bourbon!”
—Screamin’ John
“Big Bad Coraline” is taken from Screamin’ John & TD Lind’s forthcoming release Gimme More Time, in stores 10/14—on vinyl.
