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Spotlight

Terrific Twitter Trio of the Week

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Lots of musicians tweet — but all that Twitters is not gold.

That’s why you’ll want to check out SPIN.com every Friday to see whose tweets we’re reading this week — then update your TweetDeck! (Obligatory Self-Promotion: …while you’re at it, be sure to follow @SPINmagazine!)

This week’s winners:

Who: Vivian Girls (@viviangirls)

Why You Should Follow: These lo-fi punk princesses love to discuss music on their frequently-updated Twitter page. The girls, who recently released their second album, Everything Goes Wrong, give shout-outs to bands on their Wild World label, discuss new albums, and even go so far as to declare the best release of 2009 (Mika Miko’s We Be Xuxa). When they’re not playing music-blogger, they’re documenting their travels around the globe and tweeting about girls’ nights (“Girls Night In involved eating pizza, playing Cranium and watching ‘That Thing You Do’. Scandalous!”), taking showers in the dark, and drinking mimosas after midnight. They also post Twitpics, like this shot of Kickball Katy’s “Halloween beehive,” which she was still wearing a few days into November. For more Vivian Girls, check out drummer / bassist Alexandria Koehler’s Twitter, @hernameisali.

Best Tweet of the Week: This picture of an upside-down recording session with a four-track.

Who: Rilo Kiley’s Jason Boesel (@JBogamil)

Why You Should Follow: Boesel – who, in addition to drumming for Rilo Kiley, has also played with The Elected, Bright Eyes, and Conor Oberst’s Mystic Valley Band — is about to release his first solo album, Hustler’s Son, on January 12. It’s already gotten good reviews: “My dad just described my music as ‘Frank Sinatra meets that guy Bob Marley.’ Pretty stoked,” Boesel tweeted last week. When he’s not using Twitter to promote Hustler’s Son, Boesel tweets about adventures in hipsterville (“Spent the night in the absolute center of progressive anglo culture. What lies there? Lots of sixteenth notes and ginger margaritas”), long-lost memories (“Last time I heard this song, I was naked in someone else’s kitchen”), and his favorite time of day (“Morning is eternally letting down its hair and taking off its glasses to expose itself as the hottest girl in school”). Expect lots of poetic musings (“Half-hours now slip easily from my finger tips like lemon seeds”), Twitpics of maps and Perrier bottles, and interactions with The Young Veins’ @thisisryanross and Maroon 5’s @jamesbvalentine.

Best Tweet of the Week:”I just generated my #TweetCloud out of a year of my tweets. Top three words: night, love, shit.” Then, a few minutes later, “Love is in my top three words??? What a douche. ‘Night, Love, and Shit’ is a pretty good record title, though. Nobody steal it!”

Who: Solange Knowles (@solangeknowles)

Why You Should Follow: Beyonce may have racked up the Grammy nods this year, but her younger sister Solange is a force to be reckoned with in her own right. The whip-smart singer and DJ isn’t afraid to speak her mind or do as she pleases, even if it means offending stiletto designer Christian Louboutin at an Art Basel Miami event or ditching the after-parties and “Hollywood people” on the night of the MTV Video Music Awards to go out dancing by herself. On Twitter, she encourages musicians to express themselves (“Personally, I grew up respecting The Princes, The Michaels, The Graces, The Bjorks, The Marvins. They ALL represented something different BUT they all were alike in that THEY STOOD UP FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVED IN AND EXPRESSED THAT!”), speaks candidly about her split from Interscope and decision to start recording independently, and debates with her followers about what it means to be a “neo-soul” artist.

Best Tweet of the Week: “note to those : you are not ‘different’ or ‘edgy’ because fifty-leven more people in the club look like you.”