SOUNDS OF SIMON Paul Simon, never known for pumping out records at regular intervals, has finally set a mid-September release for his long-in-the-making follow-up to 1986's Graceland. Called The Rhythm of the Saints, the album was painstakingly recorded over the past two years in New York and Brazil and fuses ''West African guitar and Brazilian percussion with Paul's songwriting,'' according to a Simon spokesman. Contributing musicians include guitarists Ray Phiri (of the Graceland band) and J.J. Cale, saxophonist Michael Brecker, and singer Milton Nascimento.
BOOB TUNES The invasion of the TV soundtrack records will not end with the recent China Beach album featuring actress Dana Delany's singing debut. In late August, Warner Bros. will release an album of Angelo Badalamenti's instrumental music from Twin Peaks, coproduced by Badalamenti and director David Lynch. Simultaneously, MCA will unveil The Sounds of Murphy Brown, a soundtrack album including Motown songs used during the series' opening credits — the original versions, not those sung by Candice Bergen.
THE LONGBOX AND SHORT OF IT Longboxes — the disposable cardboard cartons used to package CDs — are viewed as an unfortunate but necessary part of marketing and display in the record business. But that doesn't mean certain segments of the industry aren't trying to do something about the waste. In Los Angeles, the Sunset Boulevard branch of Tower Records is asking customers who've purchased compact discs to dispose of the longboxes at the sales counter for recycling. ''We're trying to do it throughout the whole company, see what happens,'' says Russell Solomon, president of the 50-store chain. ''We'll find a paper recycler and give them to him — it's easy enough to do.'' In other anti-longbox news, Ban the Box, a coalition of recording artists and industry people, now includes the Grateful Dead, the B-52's, R.E.M., Crosby, Stills & Nash, the Ramones, David Byrne, Rosanne Cash, the Indigo Girls, John Hiatt, and the Replacements' Paul Westerberg. Another Ban the Box member, Canadian children's-music star Raffi, has signed with MCA on the condition that the CDs of his recordings (including . his debut MCA disc, Evergreen, Everblue, due in September) will not be sold in longboxes.
BYRDS FLY AGAIN Get set to return-turn-turn with a Byrds revival. Columbia is preparing a multiple-CD boxed set tracing the history of the pioneering '60s folk-rock group. The retrospective will be released later this year, at about the same time the group is eligible for nomination to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — 25 years (the minimum wait) after the release of the Byrds' first record, ''Mr. Tambourine Man.'' Meanwhile, Roger McGuinn, the group's longtime leader, is recording his first album in 10 years. Set for January on Arista, it will include songs cowritten with Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, Jeff Lynne, and Eurythmics' Dave Stewart. Petty and Byrdmate David Crosby are slated to contribute backup vocals. The aim of the album, says one Arista executive, is to simulate ''what the Byrds would sound like in 1990.''
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