You Didn’t Know? is finally on vinyl and CD

For the first time, You Didn’t Know? by Matt Derda & the High Watts is available on vinyl and CD through Elasticstage, which feels both exciting and slightly ridiculous in the best possible way. I know there are a lot of new release vinyl records out there right now, but this one is ours, so I’m legally and emotionally required to care more about it. This album has been out in the world digitally for a while, living on phones, playlists, car speakers, Bluetooth speakers, and whatever tiny haunted speaker is built into a laptop. But there’s something different about holding a record in your hands.

Vinyl makes you slow down a little. You put it on, let it play, flip it over, and actually spend some time with the songs in the order they were meant to be heard. No algorithm. No shuffle. No “people also listened to.” Just the record doing what records do. CDs still have their own charm too, and I will defend them more than is probably reasonable. There is something great about having music you can keep in the car, put on a shelf, lend to somebody, or rediscover years later when you’re cleaning out a drawer and pretending you’re going to get organized.

You Didn’t Know? was made by a band that likes loud guitars, sad songs that don’t beg for sympathy, and the strange little corner where Chicago rock and Kentucky roots meet. It’s bourbon and Old Style. Rock and roll with a country problem. These songs have always felt like they belonged in a physical format. They’re a little scratched up, a little stubborn, and probably too sincere to be cool, which is usually where the better stuff lives anyway.

So if you’ve listened to the album before, thank you. If you haven’t, this is a pretty good excuse. And if you’re the kind of person who still buys music you can hold, we probably would have gotten along in 1997. Maybe we still do.

You can order You Didn’t Know? on vinyl or CD here:

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Thanks for listening. Thanks for buying records. Thanks for keeping the lights flickering.