IT’S A GREEN THING: Despite continued resistance...

IT’S A GREEN THING: Despite continued resistance by retailers--and foot-dragging by most record labels--toward dumping CD long boxes, there’s actually good news for music industry environmental activists. While Tower Records chief Russ Solomon insists he’s opposed to carrying CDs in a jewel-box only format, guess where you can find 30 feet of racks featuring jewel box-only CDs--at Tower Records’ flagship Sunset Strip store. What gives? According to Solomon, Tower is using the racks to display CD singles, which retail for $4.99 and are the same size as CD albums. But if Tower can sell jewel-box CD singles without the specter of rampant thievery, why can’t it do the same with albums? “It’s an experiment,” he says. “Anyway, there’s a big difference between theft with a $5 item and a $15 item.” . . . The Kinks, recently dropped by MCA Records, have signed with Sony Music. . . . Ricky Skaggs’ new album, “My Father’s Son,” includes a duet with Waylon Jennings on Waylon’s “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line.” Skaggs will do a solo acoustic set at McCabe’s Sept. 20. . . . And Rio Grande rockers the Texas Tornados return this week with a new collection of songs titled “Zone of Our Own.” The band performs such Tex-Mex faves as “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone,” “Bailando,” “Oh Holy One” and “He Is a Tejano.”