Gwen Stefani chose to go a homegrown route to promote her new album, “Bouquet.” The No Doubt frontwoman and “The Voice” coach partnered with Record Store Day to celebrate the project with fans across the country at independent record stores.
Among the stores were Sonic Rainbow in Casper, Wyoming, Factory Records in Dover, New Jersey and Vinyl Valhalla in Littleton, Colorado.
Vinyl Valhalla was founded in 2017 as an antique and vintage store called Joe’s Treasure Trove. Jim and Debra Neff started it to help clear out some of Jim’s mother’s belongings. Their son Dustin managed the store.
“My grandpa and grandma were like hoarders, but they collected a lot of cool, unique stuff,” Dustin told Kick The Concrete.
The Neffs eventually converted the establishment to focus on music and then joined the Record Store Day community.
Record Store Day brings together independent record stores across the country by having them sign a pledge that they won’t sell music above a set price. In turn, the stores are given opportunities to participate in special events promoting new music by some of the industry’s top artists. Stefani’s “Bouquet” record release earlier this month was one of these events. Fans could browse the store’s offerings, listen to the new album, pick up free posters and stickers and be greeted by the Neffs’ dog, Luna.
“Record Store Day helps us get customers,” Jim said.
“It means a lot to us,” Debra added.
A week earlier, Vinyl Valhalla was popping with about 65 people for a Linkin Park event, also sponsored by Record Store Day. Sometimes, Debra and Jim get the other stores in the shopping center involved. For the Linkin Park event, the neighborhood tattoo shop offered flash tattoos of the band’s logos and other artwork.
The Neffs’ biggest event so far was for Twenty One Pilots where about 210 people showed up. The event was promoted on local alternative radio station 93.3 and the band’s marketing team even brought out a food truck.
“It was cool, and all the people, they loved it,” Jim said. “It was insane.”
“This whole store, you couldn’t even walk,” Debra chimed in. “There was so many people in here.”
The store name is from Debra’s love of all things vikings. The family was driving down I-225 and saw a food truck that had “Valhalla” in its name. The lightbulb went off: Vinyl Valhalla.
“It’s catchy and it’s fun,” Debra said.
The viking characters that line the front of the building were drawn by Debra’s sister, which adds to the charm.
“They’re one of a kind,” Jim said.
The store is divided in half with crates of used records on the right and new selections on the left. There’s several genres, including rock, punk, disco and hip-hop. Vinyl Valhalla specializes in one particular type of music.
“We pride ourself with the EDM selection we have here,” Debra said, “‘Cause a lot of stores don’t have a big selection of EDM.”
Among their offering is Rüfüs Du Sol’s “Innterbloom,” Skrillex’s “Quest for Fire” and Tiësto’s F1-inspired “Drive.” Debra and Jim credit Dustin for keeping them hip to the scene.
“He tells us what to order and we order it,” she said.
Among Dustin’s own prized records are ones from The Floozies, Opiuo and Daily Bread.
Dustin and his dad came to their love of vinyl differently.
“I more have childhood memories of going to the antique stores and stuff with my grandma,” Dustin said.
Jim has vivid memories going to record shops — ”Every payday I’d go buy either a CD or an album when I was a teenager.”
But now they celebrate music together, including traveling to the Austin Record Convention, the largest record show and sale in North America.
When they first attended the convention, the Neffs thought they knew what they were doing, but were in for a surprise.
“We took a whole bunch of country records, because you’re going to Texas,” Jim explained, “and sold like one. It was like, ‘This doesn’t make any sense.’ So we sold a bunch of rock and soundtracks and heavy metal and jazz. Everybody keeps asking for jazz. It’s like wow that’s crazy. In Texas.”
Back in Colorado, the family is gearing up for Black Friday, where people line up as early as 4:00 a.m. for a chance at limited edition Record Store Day vinyl. Previous offerings have been pieces from Taylor Swift and a coveted South Park 25th Anniversary Concert record.
“(Record Store Day determines) how many you can get. So we ordered 30, we got 15, but another record store in town only got five,” Jim said of the South Park record. “So we felt pretty fortunate. But we sold all 15 of ‘em within 15 minutes. It was crazy.”
Part of the Record Store Day pledge is that the shops don’t reveal which items they have on the special release days. Besides Black Friday, the official Record Store Day is in April.
The community is one of trust.
“They rely on us to keep a lid on things,” Debra said.
With the dawn of the streaming age, the sales of physical forms of music were threatened. The New York Times reported that, in 2015, CD sales stood at $1.5 billion, an 84 percent drop over the span of a decade. But vinyl record sales rose 32 percent that year. And, according to The Guardian, music lovers bought 5.9 million vinyl records in 2023, which marked the 16th straight year that vinyl record sales grew.
In Norse mythology, Valhalla is a sort of heaven where warriors are taken after dying in battle. Maybe it’s nostalgia like Jim and Debra’s memories of the big-haired 1980s. Maybe it’s the Gen Z desire to connect with something more tangible than fleeting social media. Vinyl records are alive and well thanks to faithful families like the Neffs.
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