You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: 131

PLAYS: 45

(Capability Brown - GREAT singles. But albums . . . . well . . .)

Capability Brown were one of those bands who had all the elements of being great. Amazing vocal harmonies, good instrumental licks, great up-and-coming label (Charisma came about as the brainchild of former manager of the bands Creation, Bonzo Dog and The Nice Tony Stratton-Smith) with lots of positive Press. And Capability Brown had a couple of great singles, like this one "Windfall".

But when it came to putting an album together, that was another story. The material was just bland and not well produced. And that spelled disaster for anyone trying at the high-stakes rock n' roll game and perplexity for reviewers who were anticipating their albums, based on the positive reaction to their singles.

Like I said, the singles were another story - and "Windfall" was everything the albums weren't. Capability Brown is largely forgotten now. their first album never issued on CD and their second album issued briefly on CD in Japan and the singles only issued as part of anniversary compilation in 1973. By that time the band had split and Charisma was reaping the benefits of Genesis.

Virgin Mobile announced today that the American edition of their annual music festival series this year would be retitled Virgin Mobile FreeFest, offering tickets for the low price of $0.

Headlining this year's fest is reunited punkers Blink-182 and pop rock legends Weezer. The show is on August 30 in Columbia, MD at the Merriweather Post Pavilion. Tickets become availible on 6/27 via ticketmaster.com. [Sources say Ticketmaster charges five bucks for delivery, but will-call tickets have ZERO service charge.]

I remember when the Virgin Megastore opened in New York City in 1992, and kicked Tower and HMV in the hind, as promised. Still, for the rest of the decade there was no shortage of large chain record retailers where someone with passing interest could go to the customer service desk, hum a tune they heard on the radio, and have have the clerk know the song and album every time. Well kids, with the last two major record chain outlets in America closing down, those days are very over.

The sounds of the Velvet Underground echoed in the Virgin Megastore in Union Square on Sunday afternoon, as bargain-hunting passers-by and hard-core music shoppers poked through what few items remained at the last large-scale record store in New York City.

It was the final day of business for the Virgin Megastore chain in North America, which at its peak had 23 locations but by Sunday was down to two: the 57,000-square-foot, two-level New York outlet, and a smaller Hollywood shop that was also set to close. In Union Square posters trumpeted 90 percent discounts and offered the sale of “all furniture and equipment.” But when the store opened, perhaps 90 percent of the merchandise had already been sold, leaving two tables of CDs and DVDs, a dozen T-shirt racks and a few other scattered displays.

With the music industry stuck in a decade-long crisis, the sight of a record store closing is hardly surprising. But for many shoppers at Union Square on Sunday the loss of a big outlet in one of the most heavily trafficked areas of the city was particularly dispiriting.

The Who Killed Record Retail whodunit has of course been done to death, but in case you missed it, iTunes, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Napster, nefarious teens, major labels, indie labels, MySpace and the Freemasons (probably) have something to do with it, depending on who you ask. Still, lots of tears get shed over the loss of one independent record store after another, but the chains (except for the Tower Records on Sunset Blvd, rest her soul) have disappeared with little mourning, usually because each one of them knocked out a store that someone liked better.

Nonetheless, pour some of your forty on the ground for the onetime behemoth where I bought Foo Fighters' "The Colour and the Shape" and Ice-T gave me props for being 14 and listening to the Dead Kennedys. What's my bittorrent password again?