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:
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- Lissie
- @lissiemusic
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Why You Should Follow: This week the indie newcomer wowed crowds during the first stop of her headlining tour, singing covers of Hank Williams’ “Wedding Bells” and Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness” along with songs from Catching a Tiger, her much-praised 2010 debut. The L.A. show was well attended, and there were even a few high-profile names present — gossip blogger Perez Hilton arrived with Katy Perry and Marina and the Diamonds in tow. “I had such a wonderful time and show tonight!! Thanks everyone who came! Felt like a real accomplishment! So fun too! Great to play 2 friends,” Lissie tweeted afterward. She also gave a shout-out to Perry: “@katyperry was so cool of you to come tonight!! Thank u! Was awesome and a bit of a trip to meet you and thanks for your tweet!” These kinds of super-excited tweets have become the norm for Lissie, who is riding the high of her recent success — and who can blame her? If Michelle Branch was tweeting about listening to your record while drinking wine, and Katy Perry was tweeting that your songs were “for lovers,” you’d be excited, too. Bonus points: Lissie once gave free concert tickets to a Twitter follower who traveled across state lines to see her perform. If you show enough dedication, you could score a spot on her guest list, too.
Best Tweet of the Week: “Watching the grateful dead movie in the van, driving thru Iowa..so cool! And happy birthday mom!!!!”
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- Smith Westerns
- @SmithWesterns
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Why You Should Follow: This Chicago-based indie rockers are living the sweet life — their sophomore album, the garage-meets-glam Dye It Blonde, was released on Jan. 18 to rave reviews (SPIN gave it a score of 9 out of 10), they just kicked off an extensive U.S. tour, and even though none of them are of legal drinking age, they’ve got plenty of malt liquor at their disposal. Of course, not everything is perfect — for all of the days they spend drinking Bud and getting horny by listening to their own album, there are others when they lose their luggage, their gingerbread houses fall apart, and they realize they’re getting fat. There are also the occasional unexplained tweets that leave you worried about their health (“trying to eat an entire papaya for breakfast #yetstillmydickliesdormant”). Follow them as they make important life decisions, like whether or not to get tattoo arm sleeves or “jack” to pictures of Ke$ha.
Best Tweet of the Week: “our album is about to drop. 2 days. #gobears”
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- Jay Electronica
- @JayElectronica
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Why You Should Follow: After several years in the business, rapper Jay Electronica has yet to release an actual album — but he’s got more than 100,000 followers on Twitter and he’s signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation imprint, so he must be doing something right. He’s not afraid to shake things up on Twitter — he recently tweeted at Sarah Palin and asked her if she’d ever been with a black man — and he’s known for posting lyrical messages (“Either you with me or you with me, cause even if you against me, runnin’ with my enemies, they ain’t nothin’ but mini me’s that I created long long ago and they only wanna cut off my Lineage like the Kennedys”), inspirational quotes, and unusual requests to his followers (“If you want to send me beats, poetry, letters, resumes, film reels etc… send them to [email protected]”).
Best Tweet of the Week: “Whoever said illegal was ‘the easy way out’ couldnt understand the mechanics, and workings of the underworld. Jay Z”
