Ted Leo / Mates of State/ Janelle Monae
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: Mates of State (@thematesofstate)
Why You Should Follow: Four words: "Weather on Trash Night." This hard-working husband-and-wife duo doesn’t tweet very often, but they do always manage to post something after they’ve taken out the trash on Tuesday nights. It’s usually just a bit of a commentary about the weather ("Weather on Trash Night: balmy as sh*t. Hazy too. Window-unit AC filling the night with hum"), but sometimes the neighbors get commentary, too ("Weather on Trash Night: not too bad. The Moon has haze. Neighbors seem to be zoned into the flickering lights of their television sets: A-OK"). When it’s not trash night, Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel keep their tweets short, sweet, to the point, and often with a dash of poetry, like "Sometimes, silence is music." Future lyrics, perhaps?
Best Tweet of the Week: "I just keep thinking: the dream isn't over yet."
Who: Janelle Monae (@JanelleMonae)
Why You Should Follow: Ever since Diddy signed this genre-bending singer to his Bad Boy record label, everyone and their mother has wanted a piece of Janelle Monae -- even Anna Wintour! Monae’s tweets about posing for Vogue, hanging out with Liza Minnelli at Paper magazine’s 25th anniversary party, chatting with Grace Jones, and taking in the sights of Istanbul with Santigold are enough to make anyone jealous, but she seems so good-natured and down-to-earth that it’s hard to hate her too much. Even when she’s palling around backstage with tourmate Gwen Stefani and referring to Erykah Badu as her "twin."
Best Tweet of the Week: "Ok, as an experiment, I'll build an island for people who feel they have the right to take a life & don't value life. What would it be like?"
Why no link for Ted Leo's fave, JEFF The Brotherhood? Seen em twice, and they are amazing. Wouldn't call it punk, though. It's just hi-octane rock.
JEFF The Brotherhood is at myspace.com/jakeandjamin. saw them with TL and they were awesome. two brothers, minimal instruments, crushingly big sound.
they have a great vid on youtube called Bone Jam
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