To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, it seems only fitting thatwe pick out five Irish performers who we wouldn't mind punching in the mouth.You figure, drinking usually leads to loose lips, ill-advised personal advances, and eventually, if you're lucky, a skull-cracking melee. U2 may campaign forworld peace but that's thinking globally. Locally, it's a whole different game.

As someone with a good deal of Irish blood coursing throughhis cholesterol-squeezing veins, I figure all these lovely folks are ripe fora-punching. And while this blog would NEVER advocate actual violence towardsanyone--we say give PEACE a chance--we like a nice cathartic imaginary momentfrom time to time just to keep our sanity. (I say this, I note, speaking inthat disturbing "we" plurality.)

So what do you say "We" get started. Start bandaging upthose hands!

Enya: Jeez, thefirst entry and already I'm picking on a girl! Big man, huh? Well, Enya's hereto prove that you don't have to be a belligerent, overbearing,

I'll believe it when I have them in my grubby little palms,but it's said that the first ten disc volume of the Neil Young Archives is tobe released this week. Oops! Just got word it's now pushed to late May or early June! Having been thwarted so many times in the past, thisproject has Chinese Democracy written all over it. Except we expect thisto be of higher historical value and greater overall musical quality. And tothink it's only the first volume! Which means there could be dozens of futurereleases of similar size. Who says the economy is falling? Sell your kids! NeilYoung is archiving.

Now, Elvis Costello has been over-archiving for years,re-releasing his albums so many times that even his most ardent supporters havethrown their hands in the air and asked him to STOP! In the name of showing thefans a little respect. Bonus cuts are fine, but when you already own half ofthem, well, it's time to just release the live stuff as a live album and not aspart of an album you already own.

If love means never having to say you're sorry, then I'm allfor love. What a great deal! With Valentine's Day upon us, sales of householdappliances are bound to shoot through the roof. What says "I Love You Honey"more than a new food processor? Or how about a half-priced snow shovel? Or ashiny new vacuum cleaner? Spring for a little air freshener and all should beright in your world.

But not everyone is so gifted with the art of romance. Somepeople need help in this category. And while everyone knows nothing gets twopeople more in the mood for love than the collected works of Arnold "Twelve Tone" Schoenberg, Scratch Acidand Throbbing Gristle, sometimes it's better to take a more traditionalapproach.

I know once you spy this list you'll wonder where's DavidByrne, Geddy Lee and Jimmy "Metallica" Hetfield--those smooth singers speak inthe universal language of love--but I decided to find 25 singers who if youlace your drink with enough Diazepam can really help you make it through thelong

Ok, the Grammys are what they are. A way for the business tocelebrate itself and to heck with the rest of us. I don't actually care whogets them, but for a moment let's pretend we care. And if they were going to dothis thing right, they'd award artists for their best work, not their latestwork. Granted, hindsight is 20/20 and maybe the folks of the Academy really didthink they had a winner with Christopher Cross, a man who would one day be asinfluential and important and remembered as Otis Redding. Well, ifnot wrong, they were less than right.

I went over to the Grammy site and typed in a handful of namesto see what would come up. And what I found was pretty much what I expected, buta little worse. If the Academy (I love the seriousness of such a thing--the Academy) was able to recognize theBeatles in 1964 as the Best New Recording Act, shouldn't they have been ontothem throughout their career?

Anyhow, here's a random ten of major artists who never receivedthe Grammys they deserved