Back in the day there was nothing cooler than being friends with your favourite bands and artists on MySpace, but we all know that time has passed. The new cool kid on the social networking block of the internet is the microblogging service Twitter, and quite a few musicians have started to use it in an attempt to promote their music, but how is this relevant for us fans?

In short terms, Twitter is a hybrid between blogging and instant messaging where you send out short notices about what you are up to. People can then “follow” you, meaning that they will see your updates on their own, personal Twitter page. This means that you can get short and sweet updates (or tweets as they are called) from your favourites, and overall it is a nifty way of keeping track of what the artists you like are up to at any given time. This article gives you a list of artists that have jumped on the bandwagon, so just click read more to see who we found!

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
It was after receiving an email about being followed by these guys immediately after I mentioned listening to them in a tweet I got the idea for this article, thus they have been awarded with the first spot. They seem to be actively trying to build their audience by monitoring tweets mentioning them, and are also posting frequent updates.

Manchester Orchestra
It doesn’t seem like they have been doing much work to promote their Twitter account because at the moment they have less than 100 followers. They are actively tweeting about what they are up to however, so if you are a fan of the band you should definitely hit that follow button.

Jimmy Eat World
Jimmy and his bandmates aren’t the most active band on Twitter, but they do post the occasional about new songs, titles and so forth. What fan wouldn’t be excited to get updates of that sort directly from the source?

Dave Matthews
This seems to be more of a personal account rather than a representation of the band, but when you’re Dave Matthews and your band is called Dave Matthews Band is there really a difference? With their upcoming album planned for next year, fans of Dave and his band should watch this space for fresh information.

Stefan Lessard
Aren’t Dave’s tweets enough to satisfy your hunger? Try following Stefan Lessard, the bassist of Dave Matthews Band as well and see if it doesn’t help!

Q-Tip
Got something in your ear? Try following Q-Tip. Sorry, that was pathetic, but if you’re a rap fan and in particular a fan of this guy you should follow him because he’s an enthusiastic user of Twitter.

Matthew Ebel
The piano rocker from Boston, Massachusetts who is oh-so-aware of the fact that everyone needs a robot is actually an avid Twitter-user who you should follow. And just in case you haven’t heard his music yet, take a look at his MySpace profile as well.

Björk
Who would have thought the Icelandic diva herself would be such a forerunner when it comes to taking advantage of new technology? I certainly wouldn’t, but then again, it was her ability to do the unexpected which made her famous in the first place.

Sara Bareilles
Apparantly she does more than not writing love songs if you ask for it, and luckily for all of us one of those other things is keeping us all up to date with what she’s up do through her Twitter account!

Dizmas
These guys released their self-titled and third album earlier this year, and judging from their latest tweet it seems like they are currently touring Europe. This is probably also why they haven’t tweeted in a while, because there’s no internet over here, or..?

Henry Rollins
This guy is funny, so funny he makes Jerry Seinfeld look a little less funny. But he is best known for his musical exploits with the punk band Black Flag and later his solo project Rollins Band. Unfortunately his Twitter account is locked though, and my request to follow him has yet to be approved, so I have no idea if he actually uses it for anything cool.

Muse
No need to fear Black Holes and Revelations just because you want to follow these Knights of Cydonia, but what you will get is a few tidbits of information about their progress in the studio mixed with other more or less interesting pieces of information.

A Fine Frenzy
Alison Sudol is happy to share her day-to-day experiences with all of her fans on Twitter. Does that make her our almost lover? I certainly hope not, because I have no intention of saying goodbye now that I just found her!

Kristin Hersh
I’ll admit I didn’t even know this American singer/songwriter’s music before I discovered her on Twitter, but that just goes to show that some effecient tweeting just like she’s constantly doing is a nice way for artists to promote themselves.

Questo (From The Roots)
Remember that song “I push my seed and I push for life / It’s gonna work because I’m pushing it right” (or something like that)? Well that’s the one song I remember from The Roots, but fans of the band will be happy to hear that Questo is on Twitter, and he tweets like a madman!

REM
I have a feeling that Michael Stipe himself isn’t in charge of this Twitter account which represents REM, but fans of the band might find it useful to keep track of news about them nevertheless.

Snoop Dogg
Even though Snoop hasn’t tweeted since back in August, you should follow him and put him on SMS update for your account. Just imagine how awesome it would be if your phone beeped one day and when your friend asked who texted you can respond with “Nah, nothing important, just got a tweet from Snoop”.

House of Heroes [ Tim / AJ / Jared / Colin ]
After spotting Twitter updates on their MySpace profile I had to do a bit of detective work to actually find their accounts, but eventually I did, and you should go follow them immediately. After all these guys are, with the release of The End is Not The End, responsible for one of the best albums of the year!

Every Avenue [ Dave / Jimmie / Josh / Mike / Matt ]
Just like House of Heroes, the guys from the pop/rock/punk (who really cares about genres anyway?) band Every Avenue each have their own Twitter account, and they update quite frequently as well. Go follow if you’re a fan!

Four Year Strong
Remember their album Rise or Die Trying from last year? Well if you don’t, you should listen to it again, because it was great. When you are done listening, login to your Twitter account and follow these guys. 

Do you know any other bands and artist with a Twitter presence that would be worth following? Feel free to add a comment below and share their profiles with the rest of us!

/ Posted: Nov 05, 2008
/ Written by: Lars-Christian
/ Category: Feature Articles
/ Artist(s):