SpringfieldNewsSun.com

First off, I don't even really like the Barenaked Ladies.

But when my wife would play one of their CDs, there was something about the song "Brian Wilson" that resonated with me — besides the fact that I've always felt more comfortable at home in my pajamas than anywhere else.

It was more the lyric that went, "Drove downtown in the rain, 9:30 on a Tuesday night, just to check out the late night record shop.

"Call it impulsive, call it compulsive."

I'm not much for nightlife, but I love browsing music stores. On a Friday night after dinner, it's something I just feel compelled to do. (Yeah, call it compulsive.)

I could very well do it in my pajamas because most music stores are frequented by people who are just dying to talk to each other, but never seem to make eye contact.

In that sense, it's a lot like going to an adult bookstore. (Not that, ahem, I'd know or anything.)

At least since I've lived here in town (eight years), Springfield has never had a really good music store — but I still browse all the same.

Besides employment and nourishment, looking around a music store is about the only excuse I ever have to leave the house.

But locally, things have gone from bad to worse.

The old NRM at the Upper Valley Mall used to have the best selection — and even OK prices.

It closed.

FYE at the mall had an OK selection — but 20 bucks for a CD?

It closed.

Not counting one used CD place and Target, Wal-Mart et al, we're down to Best Buy — a shrunken down little Best Buy that could fit inside a regular Best Buy.

On most Friday nights, I'll still ask my wife if we can go to Best Buy and her response is always the same: "Will you just get mad that they don't have anything?"

We go anyway.

I get mad.

If it's vinyl you want to dig through, see ya at Goodwill, where you're lucky to find copies of Jim Nabors and Archies records that don't have water damage. (I bought the Archies one.)

I've always felt Springfield is big enough to have more than it does.

I'd be fine with a good music store, a comic shop and maybe an Indian restaurant.

With the CD on its way out, my wish for a music store seems soooo 20th century.

I've downloaded stuff — all legally, of course — but I still like getting out and handling a physical product.

Besides, I feel like I already spend half my life in front of the computer, anyway.

Just this past weekend, I was at Dingleberry's in Yellow Springs and asked the guy ringing me up how business was.

Seems they're selling lots more vinyl than CDs.

That's fine and all — but can you actually stay afloat by just selling $4 or $5 copies of used new wave records? (And the occasional collector's copy of a Beatles LP?)

I hope they can make it.

But the music store as we knew it seems to be a doomed business model.

Curse the Internet — with its 24-hour convenience, competitive pricing and unparalleled selection of even the most obscure import albums.

C

ontact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.

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