VSQ Stocking Stuffers for the Characters in Your Life

Gift guides are great, but anyone who has a shopping list knows that there are harder people to shop for than your mother, brother, sister or partner. With that in mind, here's a VSQ-centric gift guide for the more difficult people in your life. A Vitamin String Quartet album, or a bundle of MP3s, makes for a safe, unique gift for anyone with even the slightest affinity for music. The Co-Worker No One Really Knows So you've got an office party, you like your co-workers, and you want to get them all a little something. You almost forget about Ted, the guy nine cubicles over, and after asking around to see what he likes, you find out no one has said more than good morning to him. He's just always been there and keeps to himself. Now what? Luckily there's Strung Out, Vol. 6: The String Quartet Tribute to Music's Biggest Hits. With Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World, Green Day and more stacking this album, you've got to hit a taste bud, right? Think of it as a musical smorgasbord. The Uncle Desperately Holding On To His Youth You don't know how old he is, because you're afraid to ask, but you know that he looks too old to be wearing Tap Out shirts and skinny jeans. His hair is a lot more salt than pepper but it's in a hard shell faux-hawk anyway. You can't fight it, so get him Vitamin String Quartet Presents Gorillaz: They're talented, current, and a mainstay of cool music both in the mainstream and the underground. Maybe the awe inspiring beauty of this VSQ rendition will do him some good. The Younger Cousin Who Is Just Discovering Music Ideally, we grow up slowly developing our music taste over our first couple decades of life, whittling away as if we're crafting a fine wooden sculpture. Some of us forget that music is what cool kids like, and so we have to throw together some opinions at age 15 and pretend we know what we're talking about. Give him the cred he's looking for with Strung Out On Indie Rock Volume 1 so that when his friends bring up Transatlanticism, he can say, “Have you heard the VSQ version?” The Aunt Who Insists The Old Days Were Better Of course they were, Auntie. Avoid family arguments altogether with The String Quartet Tribute to The Who's “Tommy” and blow her mind. Bonus: If she's too stubborn to learn how to work an iPod, it comes in physical CD format. The Neighbor That Comes Over Uninvited You were just watering your plants in the front yard when the neighbor came out and asked about your plans for the holidays. Next thing you know, they say they'll come over and bring a pie for your Christmas party. You don't have the nerve to say it's family only and, also, you love pie. Get them Exit Stage Right: The String Quartet Tribute to Rush and one of two things will happen: They'll either be huge Rush fans and be forever in your debt, or they won't care for Rush and understand just how much apathy you have for them.