My current soundtrack:

"Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But.." by Arctic Monkeys
"I Don't Wanna Fall In Love" by She Wants Revenge
"Munich" by Editors
"Poor Places" by Wilco
"Block Rocking Beats" by Chemical Brothers
"Secret Smile" by Semisonic
"Girlfriend" by Matthew Sweet
"Part Of The Queue" by Oasis

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Be sure to give a few Irish bands some play today. Try U2, The Corrs, Snow Patrol, Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly.

I want to be a "next big thing."

You know you've heard this one a million times before. The Killers, The Bravery, Franz Ferdinand, Van Hunt, Jill Scott, Travis, Yellowcard and countless others have worn this mantle at one time or another with varied degrees of success.

Now we have another group currently carrying the title. The Arctic Monkeys.

And not only are the next big thing, they are going to "save rock 'n' roll."

I didn't even know it was sick.

Time will tell if the band holds up, but I have to say they are off to a good start. I've heard their new album, "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not," is quite good. "Brilliant" is the term I think they are throwing around in the band's home country.

It's frenetic (always liked that word). Loads of energy. The band's first single "I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor" is getting some airplay on The Tiger.

They may not save rock, but they've definitely earned a few more albums to find out.

And I'll settle for being a "next medium-sized thing."

I have to say I am already getting excited about Live coming to Jubilee CityFest in May.

I was getting worried for a while. We were getting a lot of country and R&B acts. That's great. But we needed one solid rock act to be in the mix.

Live is it. I've seen them in concert before; they put on a good show. Plus, they have a strong catalogue of hits to choose from.

Their new album, "Songs From Black Mountain," hits stores May 9 according to the band's Web site, friendsoflive.com.

this is not helping me at all
where did we get this plan?
that you could give to me
what i might already have
--Live

Are the days of the music store behind us?

Here in Montgomery, we are losing two more music stores as the Montgomery Mall and Eastdale Mall Sam Goody stores are closing. By my count, that leaves three here in town. Once chain; two independents.

I've lived in Montgomery for almost four years. In that time, we've lost Blockbuster Music and Coconut's.

Now, the going-out-of-business sales are good. You can get a lot of cheap CDs. But it also limits the options for music lovers in the area. And I'm all about options. Besides, from an economic standpoint, stores opening are better than stores closing, right?

Anyway, stores are going away. The question is why?

The easy answer might be iTunes. I mean, shoot, they've sold more than 1 billion songs off the iTunes Web site. That's GOT to be cutting into the bottom line, right?

I think another reason is the Big Box stores. It seems Best Buy, Circuit City and Wal-Mart have all upped their musical presence in the past few years. They can probably sell at a lower cost because of their iventory.

All of these stores and more have Web sites, too (with no 10 percent sales tax).

Then there's Amazon.com and the list goes on....

Maybe it's just a corporate thing. Maybe our stores just don't perform well. Hey, if our music stores aren't earning money, can you really blame someone for closing them down. We all want our own businesses to make money, right?

I still miss the stores when they close though. Sure, we all buy stuff of the Web. And we all want the best deal on our purchases, so the Big Boxes may be the best bet.

I guess I just want as many stores around as I can get. I still occasionally run out to a store to buy a disc of a song I just heard on the radio. I like flipping through the CD rack. I guess I'm a very tactile person. I want to get my hands on things. I also want it fast. Ordering off the Web takes too long.

And I like liner notes. You don't get those on iTunes.

Maybe I'm just getting old. I'll stop now before I start saying "back in my day......"

Glory days
They'll pass you by
Glory days
In the wink of a
young girl's eye
Glory days
-- Bruce Springsteen

Really enjoying the She Wants Revenge album. It's like a bunch of 80s genres put in a dark, moody blender and poured out on a CD.

Also have caved in to the irresistable ubiquity that of James Blunt. I've listened to the album a few times now; it's just pretty. Good melodies, emotive lyrics and uber-producer Linda Perry likes it too. In hindsight, my resistance was futile; I never stood a chance. All hail James Blunt (blank stare).

Here's what I've been listening to lately:

"Heart In A Cage" by The Strokes
"At Least That's What You Said" by Wilco
"Tear You Apart" by She Wants Revenge
"PDA" by Interpol
"Anyone Can Play Guitar" by Radiohead
"Three Wisemen" by James Blunt
"Tulips" by Bloc Party
"Nobody Move, Nobody Gets Hurt" by We Are Scientists

I wanna be in a band when I get to heaven
--Radiohead