Shifty Presents: Shifty's Favorite Albums From the 2016 List

We gained about as much musical talent as we lost in 2016.......

A lot of good albums have come out this year, and here is the list of my favorite of those albums. If you have any questions or complaints, then please send us fan mail or whatever the opposite of fan mail is. We love fan mail here at Von's Records. My top ten favorite albums are listed in the order that I liked them the most. The remaining 20 honorable mention albums are listed in alphabetical order. I listed the genres of the albums in parenthesis. This list was a labor of love. Thanks for taking the time to read it. 

A Surprise Review of the New Surprise Strokes EP

By Shifty (Employee Person)

I like surprises. I also like The Strokes. They are my favorite band, and they have been my favorite band for the past 10 years. I feel like I am fully qualified to make a review of this new Strokes Future Present Past EP. Or not..... who knows??????

Alex's Employee pick for Friday 10/30/2015: Beach Slang's The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us.

Beach Slang's The Things We Do is the music in your head that you wish shared with everyone else. Alex James sings with the honesty of a drunken confession, the wit of a shower argument, and the earnest energy of someone who is no longer afraid to yell those words sober and in person. If you're young and alive, or maybe need to re-learn what that means, pick up The Thing's We Do.

My Pal Jens (Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Jens)

Oh, You're So Dreamy Jens

In the past year, I have fallen deeply and madly in love with my pal Jens. Oh Jens, who has been there for me when I have needed him most. Jens, who has held me in my weaker times and cheered me on in my better times. I am writing of course about the delightful Swedish singer, Jens Lekman.

At first, our relationship was tumultuous. He sang to me about not being able to love enough. I recoiled, as I had been burned before. He portrayed himself as flighty and impetuous. He couldn't promise love. He couldn't help himself. And I can't help myself when it comes to the sensitive emotional types. Sure he sang about Julie. And Lisa. And Nina...and Kirsten, Jennifer, Erica, and even Immanuel. Jens has a complicated past, but we can move past that.

Jens brings more than just heartache and indecision, his ballads bring adventure. He takes the dangerous black cabs in Sweden. He's politically active. Jens spends time with his little sister, even if it is to teach her about unstoppable sorrow. He knows how to turn a girl down and move on.  He writes me postcards every week. If I ever have a moral quandary, all I have to do is ask What Would Jens Do?  And if I ever need a stranger to sing at my wedding, Jens will have to pull double duty as stranger and groom. Basically, Jens is the complete package with a heart full of fire.

I must confess a slight ruse here. My passionate confession of my love for Jens is not entirely pure and honest. My feelings are of course, I mean who wouldn't feel this way about him? But I tell you these thoughts not just to get them off my chest but to persuade you. Jens is a native of Gothenberg. Sweden, and most of his performances take place in his home country, or elsewhere in Europe. Every few years he makes it over to America to share his gift with the New World. What I ask of you is to give him a little encouragement to visit stateside. Buy his cd's, his lp's, his ep's, and even his 7''. Buy a copy of  I Don't Know What Love Is or Night Falls Over Kortedala, or be riskier with his early material When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog or the Maple Leaves EP.  Luckily enough for you we have a wide selection here at Von's Records, and a staff that has mostly accepted his love. So come on down to Von's and return the favor to the Swedish dreamboat you surely now have a burning desire for.

Bonus Footage of Jens Actually Singing at a Wedding

This Isn't Your Average Clearance Bin -Record Store Day 2015 Aftermath

This isn't even a clearance bin at all!

Another year, another Record Store Day come to pass. We all thank our patron saint Dave Grohl for a blessed holiday of vinyl nerd-dom and we at Von's personally want to thank each and every one of you who came out to celebrate with us. Even more thanks to the maniacs lined up around the building to get in as early as possible. Especially the crazy bastards who reportedly started camping out at 2am. I salute you. Like years before, we had people driving from out of town, even one or two from out of state, just to get their hands on their favorite vinyl, and hopefully, to support a local independent record store. But I couldn't blame them the least if it was just for those sweet, sweet records. I mean, we got in heart-shaped Father John Misty's, an Alabama-shaped St. Paul and the Broken Bones, holographic cover reissues of Get Behind Me Satan by the White Stripes, box sets by Phish, the Grateful Dead, Jurassic 5, MF Doom, and I would type more but I have to go get a new keyboard because this one is shorting out from my uncontrolled drooling.

Fortunately for us, but unfortunately for you, a lot of those items sold out fairly quickly as they were very limited, and no matter how much we asked for, companies can only allot us so many copies. BUT that doesn't mean that we're sold out of all of our Record Store Day items. Everything that you see at the top of this post is still here from Record Store Day. They are consolidated considerably from what we had, but we still have plenty left. When I say it isn't you average clearance bin, I'm not kidding. These are the Record Store Day bins. And we still have a lot left. That includes multiple copies of both the 200g Pink and 180 gram bootleg black copies of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes, The Animals 10'' and full LP, Flaming Lips 10'' from the Clouds Taste Metallic, Guided by Voices reissues, Half Japanese box sets, the Grateful Dead box set, Immortal Techniques, plenty of Lord Sitar, two copies of the Phish Madison Square Garden NYE 1995, plenty of the Bruce Springsteen catalog reissues, soundtracks from the LEGO Movie, Hedwig and the Angry Inch staring Neil Patrick Harris, and goddamnit I just ruined another keyboard.

So to all those who spent to much on Record Store Day, but now have another paycheck coming; to those who didn't want wait through the long lines; to those who missed it altogether; and to all who love vinyl, we'd love to see you back. So come browse the bins and maybe chat with employees a bit. Doctor McNinja promises to hold the drool this time. My keyboard budget is out of control.