Greg Burk

A new housing development

Unenslaved

Greg Burk
RJ Smith’s The Great Black Way will open some eyes about the bygone cultural explosion of L.A.’s Central Avenue. From his classic first line — “Los Angeles is the capital of forgetting” — to his final musical metaphor, Smith consistently achieves what few writers on the subject have even attempted:......
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Solid Ether

Greg Burk
Solid Ether Everything’s maxed. Volume louder than the neighbors’ dogs. Bass boost punched on the subwoofer. Five speakers primed for surround mode. Oh yeah. Ready. Fresh shitstorm from Marilyn Manson? Not today; the occasion is An American Compilation, the new mix-up by Norwegian tech-jazzer Nils Petter Molvaer. And the sound......
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Six Appeal

Greg Burk
Six Appeal Metal legions need to ditch the 666. One last fling for 6/6/06, then let it lapse, okay? Here’s why. Following the 1973 lead of the 666 on Black Sabbath’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath album cover, in 1982 Iron Maiden came up with a catchy little tune called “The Number......
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Prehistoric Vapor

Greg Burk
{mosimage}Prehistoric VaporA watchful calm; a spooky wheeze; a steady, dark stalk; strange birds with psychedelic tails squawking jungle alarm. Go: Organic Orchestra generates an atmosphere of adventure, and there’s no adventure without risk. Percussionist Adam Rudolph is the guide; he’s got a map, but it’s sketchy, and even he doesn’t......
Photo by Simon Mein/Sony Pictures

Veni, Vidi, Vinci

Greg Burk
Here’s an action movie that could’ve used some tips from the Philistines. Like, “Instead of a scholar, let’s make Tom Hanks a blind sumo wrestler with 24 hours to live.” And “Instead of a cryptographer, Audrey Tautou oughta be a whore. I got it, an extraterrestrial whore.” And all that......
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Young Blood and Old Blood

Greg Burk
Young Blood Youngblood Brass Band go right for the neck; they sound damn confident they’re gonna get ya, and they’re probably right. Their new album asks, Is That a Riot? — good question. For more than five years, YBB have been manhandling jazz out of the dark millennial conservatory and......
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Crazed Catholics

Greg Burk
Hate, Fear and?The Da Vinci Code Unlike the Bible, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction. But like the Bible, it makes sense of an absurd and chaotic world. Not logical sense, maybe, but intuitive sense. People like that. And they respond. Published in March 2003,......
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Don’t Deport Him Yet

Greg Burk
Don’t Deport Him Yet You know this sax guy Yosvany Terry? Alto sound dry and cool, stylistic approach multifarious, rhythms knocking around like four alley cats in a cage. (If Ornette had been born 30-some years ago in Cuba . . .) He comes out of Santeria and chekere; he’s played with......
Lamb of God

Satan Loves You

Greg Burk
Another generation of heavy metal has taken over, and — sorry — it ain’t just about strippers and dope. Okay, it’s partly about strippers and dope. And we’ll get around to that. But more and more, as metal evolves into a huge international music that belongs to everyone, it has......
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The Nile and the Bile

Greg Burk
The Nile Randy Weston just turned 80. And Africa just turned about 80 billion. Sometimes it seems as if Weston might outlive embattled Africa; then again, as long as his piano remains in our digital/collective memory, Africa will live, too. Many billion years more, let’s hope. Weston has flowed with......