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August 31, 2012

Jeremiah Tucker: From haircuts to engagements, musicians make news

By Jeremiah Tucker Globe Columnist

JOPLIN, Mo. — This week I briefly touch upon a handful of newish albums and some “news” from the world of popular music: Miley Cyrus’ new haircut.

For a couple weeks every summer “news” -- even in its current disgraced and “reality”-saturated state -- falls into the black hole in the middle of the Bermuda triangle, and we’re left reacting to celebrity rumors.

Thus, Miley Cyrus’ new haircut managed to dominate Twitter and blogs for days in August.

To be fair, it was, by all accounts, a pretty extreme do: an asymmetrical, bleached-blonde pixie cut. Because as an American I am obligated to have an opinion on this -- I like it! How old is Miley Cyrus? 19, 20 years old? I’m too lazy to look on Google.

Regardless, she’s the appropriate age to try out an edgy haircut. Better now than pulling a “Harrison Ford” later in life. Although, I do respect Mr. Ford for doubling down on his lame earring. Aware that everyone made fun of him for his 75-percent-over crisis, he continues wearing the sad earring out of pure spite for the haters. That takes guts.

I hope my tombstone reads, “Jeremiah thought Miley’s new look was ‘super cute.’”



Jeff the Brotherhood: ‘Hypnotic Nights’

For fans of rough-and-tumble, hook-saturated garage rock, 2012 has been a banner year. Jeff the Brotherhood is a two-piece band out of Nashville, and as its name implies, its members are brothers.

Dan Auerbach, the guitarist for the Black Keys, another two-piece rock band, produced “Hypnotic Nights,” the boys’ seventh LP. The second half drags, pulled down by too many muddy genre experiments. But the first half of “Hypnotic Nights” is straightforward, almost like early Weezer if Weezer had been a little more blue-collar power-pop.

Crank it for the waning days of summer, particularly “Sixpack” and “Mystic Portal II.”



Avril Lavigne and Chad Kroeger get engaged

A former teen popper and the frontman of the world’s indisputably most-maligned rock band got engaged. I would pay good money to watch a rom-com based on Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger wooing Avril Lavigne.

I’m not sure why this pairing captivated everyone’s attention, including my own. I think partly because it’s weird enough to be notable, and yet also a conceptually perfect pairing of two thoroughly mediocre celebrities.

And maybe because they’re both Canadian. I think America should respond by forcing Ashlee Simpson to marry Scott Stapp.



Dirty Projectors: ‘Swing Lo Magellan’

I thoroughly enjoy the new Dirty Projectors album “Swing Lo Magellan,” the sixth release by the experimental rock band from Brooklyn. But I don’t have too much to say about it other than, “It’s great. Listen to it.”

Unlike previous efforts, this one is a spare, accessible folk-rock album with loads of harmony that also manages to retain the knotty, cerebral quality associated with the band’s leader and songwriter Dave Longstreth. Also, “Impregnable Question” would bring the house down at an indie wedding.



Travails of Randy Travis

In my favorite story of the year, Randy Travis is now either a slightly comical/sad recurring character from “Cops” or the kind of country music outlaw other stars should write songs about. I, personally, am leaning toward the former.

According to The Associated Press, officers with the Grayson County Sheriff’s Office in north Texas found Travis, who performed earlier this year at Downstream Casino, lying naked in the road Aug. 7, with a busted up face. Nearby was his 1988 Trans Am, which he had crashed into a construction zone.

As he was being arrested for drunken driving, Travis reportedly threatened to “shoot and kill” the arresting officers. My favorite part of the story is that while he was cooling his heels in jail, he either used his one phone call to Tweet a message encouraging his followers to head over to his Facebook page for “word scramble Wednesday,” or his media team didn’t know he’d been out the night before raising hell.

The week following his DUI, Travis was cited for assault after a skirmish in a church parking lot. Then last Saturday, a truck owned by the former country music superstar was found wrecked and abandoned in a Texas field. Regardless of how these dark times end for Randy T., he should have ample material for his next album, assuming he remembers any of this.

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