Greg Burk

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She Had To Stay

The cover of Original Sinners’ debut album shows a woman pouring green brew from a bottle into a glass. The woman is offering you the glass, along with the big cracked valentine heart that hovers behind. The heart has a skull and crossbones on it, and so does the bottle......
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Unembarrassed

Photo by Virginia Lee Hunter KRISTIAN HOFFMAN. VERY CHARMING. Of noble visage. An appreciator of vintage recordings. And the most skillful American pop songwriter under the age of 51. I realized that last thing after his publicist sent me a stack of his CDs. I shoved them in the changer,......
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Honesty is the Holiest Disease

Photo by Larry Hirshowitz WHEN SHE WAS A KID, TAIRRIE B USED TO TAUNT THE NEIGHBOR'S Doberman. Everyone told her this was a bad idea. One day, she leaned across the fence with a piece of bologna in her mouth. Today, you can see a slight ridge on the bridge......
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Van & Jimmy

Clearly, Morrison is aware that‘s what he’s doing. The cover shows the window of a music store: “Memorabilia & Records” -- ha-ha. The song stylings and smooth R&B horn charts trace 1970 in the air like skywriting. He even begins by singing about “trying to find my way back home.”......
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Free Birds

BRAND NEW SINat House of Blues, May 20 I‘ve been to Syracuse, New York, home of Brand New Sin, just once. It was late, it was hot, and I was lost. The only soul stirring was a fat guy on a porch with his shirt off and his brows knit......
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Preaching the Booze

Photo by Jack Gould THE FLUSH-FACED RANGE RIDERS OF DRUNK Horse are crammed in their van with a post-gig case of Budweiser. They've just laid down a sweaty slaminar in rock & roll at Spaceland, and here, in the misty chill of a January night, is their reward. For all......
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Jazz

Call it jazz or call it a zucchini sandwich, many CDs of improvisational music and books about that subject have exposed themselves in the last few months. It would be a crime not to cover some, and we are not criminals. Norman Granz‘ JATP, Carnegie Hall, 1949 (Pablo). Charlie Parker,......
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Centrifugal Force

Music thrives on contrast, and Jucifer -- a duo, convenient for duality -- have got it. Cute girl; grungy guy. Melody; noise. Mystery; craft. Helpless little voice; enormous waves of guitar and drums. Still, megapopularity could elude Jucifer; they hit too close. The approach pop prefers: “Lookit my glitter whorehouse......
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Memory Train

Devin Sarno says he never remembers his dreams. Well, maybe some part of him remembers -- the part that generates his music. Because the music seems so much like a sleepvision soundtrack. His instrument is the electric bass, but that isn’t obvious when you hear Crib, Sarno‘s artistic identity for......

Understanding Ozzy

You can’t. Can‘t understand Ozzy Osbourne. Can’t understand his oatmealy mumbling. Can‘t understand where he’s coming from -- unless, like him, you were raised in the bedbug slums of industrial England and ended up one of Planet Earth‘s most notorious bipeds. Always, though, he’s waving his illustrated arms behind the......