It’s been a mayhemic few months and, as you may or may not have noticed, not a lot of blogging has happened here on Joe.Blog in that time… but I’ve been absorbing plenty of music nonetheless. Despite the lack of in-depth coverage, a lot of that music has been discussed on my Twitter feed.

For those of you who don’t get amongst the whole Twitter thang, I thought I’d give a broad summary of some of my musically related tweets, along with some additional thoughts. There are plenty of mp3s linked, so you’ve got a good amount of music to download, stick on your iPod and get amongst.

Hopefully you’ll enjoy this fly-by retrospective, for what it’s worth. And, of course, if you want to actually get this stuff as I’m blabbering about it, you can follow me on @flukazoid.

Why?

Oct 13, 2009: Finally have the new Why? album. To say I am excited is an understatement.

Oct 14, 2009: the new Why? album… didn’t think I’d like an album full of Yoni singing this much, but it’s hitting the spot for me

It’s not hard to see why (pun!) the new Why? album Eskimo Snow isn’t being given the same rapturous applause that Alopecia was getting, but this collection of song-songs (rather than hip-hop via songs) still has the capacity to get under your skin. The lyrics are frequently insecure musings on life and death, and as a result the tone is a good deal more sombre – but it’s still hard to work out what is delivered with a good dash of irony and what’s actually sincere. Who knows. At any rate I greatly enjoyed the album and if you liked previous Why? works then you should definitely give this some spins. Just make sure it gets multiples.

Download

• Eskimo Snow (mp3)

Justin Vernon gets wacky

Sept 18, 2009: surprised by Justin Vernon’s new band Volcano Choir. cutups, loops, abstract arrangements. potentially awesome, we’ll see. spectral folk?

Oct 23, 2009: Still getting my head around the Volcano Choir LP. Parts are phenomenal, other bits lose me a little. Certainly impressive, at least…

Let me just state: IF ANOTHER PERSON QUOTES THE DAMN JUSTIN-VERNON-IN-THE-WOODS STORY I WILL THROW HIS ALBUM OUT THE WINDOW.

Ahem. Maybe Justin was feeling the same way. Although Volcano Choir pre-existed Bon Iver, this album is certainly a huge departure from anything that will appeal to a good proportion of Bon Iver’s fanbase. The Americana/folk influences are there, but it’s been heavily tampered with a huge amount of editing and sampling, not to mention bucketloads of reverb. At it’s best, it’s powerful and compelling. At it’s worst it tries a little too hard, ends up as a wash up digital haze and leaves you appreciating the technique rather than the music. It’s interesting, but hasn’t rewarded replays for me yet.

Download

• Island, IS (mp3)

The Yeasayer single and album

Oct 31, 2009: Cranking this up as soon as I get home RT @pitchforkmedia: Listen to the new Yeasayer single, “Ambling Alp” http://bit.ly/4rIlN

Oct 31, 2009: nice work topspin… turned up for the free yeasayer mp3, ended up buying the limited 12″ and extra downloads. http://www.amblingalp.com/

Oct 31, 2009: whoa, new yeasayer sounds like some good fun. too much fun almost? hmmm. think I’m down with it…

Oct 31, 2009: after listen #2, the new yeasayer is AOK by me

Dec 16, 2009: kind of getting depressed about the initial reports I’m hearing about yeasayer’s new album. gotta stop reading spoilers and d/l it tonight

Dec 16, 2009: headphones retrieved. halfway through new Yeasayer. my brain is exploding. this is AWESOME.

It’s enough of a grower that it rewards plenty of listens, but catchy enough that it’ll ensure you actually get there too. The new Yeasayer album entitled Odd Blood (to be released on February 8, 2010) is incredible, so’s the single, and you need to make sure you get amongst it. It’s worlds different from the excellent All Hour Cymbals, but continues the freaky, multi-genre amalgamating, 80s referencing experimentation while staying on a firmly pop-savvy footing.

I guess what I am trying to say is IT IS COOL JUST BUY IT.

Downloads

• Ambling Alp (free mp3)
• O.N.E. (free mp3)

Two guys called Girls

Oct 23, 2009: hadn’t heard a thing from Girls (the band). just sat down and listened to Album (the album) from start to finish. I’m in. hooked. awesome.

Nov 6, 2009: Lunch + Girls (the band, or specifically Album) + Park Bench = one of my favourite lunches ever

The story behind Girls‘ debut album (called Album) and songwriter Christopher Owens’ living hell with the Children of God cult has been well documented (almost to as much over-repetition as the aforemention Bon Iver story). I won’t repeat it here, but somehow in his culturally isolated environment he managed to pick up a fine ear for melody and a penchant for creating great archetypal rock song structures. It works well, and combined with bandmate JR White’s production, it’s a woozy, psychedelic and overall sad collection of songs about, well, girls mostly. The hype has left it overrated, but it still deserves attention. It’ll be great to see what happens next providing drugs don’t kill the band first.

Downloads

• Hellhole Ratrace (mp3)

The Drones – Live at The Hi-Fi

Oct 24, 2009: the new Drones live album MELTS MY FACE

The Drones released a special live album entitled Live at the Hi-Fi. It was produced for a special 2CD edition of 2008′s brilliant Havilah album and exhibits the band blowing the roof off The Hi-Fi in Brisbane and is thoroughly enjoyable. Recommended.

Download

• Shark Fin Blues (live at the Hi-Fi AAC)

F*** Buttons make another insanely amazing album

Dec 5, 2009: Words can not begin to describe how awesome the new F*** Buttons album is for road trips

Nov 19, 2009: some seriously Vangelis moments on F$&# Buttons’ new track “Olympians”… I should be outside running. in slow motion. across a finish line

Dec 28, 2009: Roadtrip with two goons, F*** Buttons cranked to potentially dangerous levels and mayhem abounding. A sort of entertaining way to go insane

Only a year after their first album Street Horrrsing was released, F*** Buttons burst back on the scene with another development of their approach to beat driven noise-pop. It boasts Andy Weatherall on production duties (?!) and has a more streamlined, accessible sound. Put simply, it’s really cool and entirely addictive.

Download

• (sorry no mp3s, just buy it)

Other albums and tracks I really dug

Dec 15, 2009: Isis and I had a moment (or 10) on a late night drive… Wavering Radiant really is a great album.

And that’s basically all there is to say – Wavering Radiant by Isis is some phenomenal post-metal. Plenty of texture, intricacies and thoroughly enjoyable songcraft. Even if you’re not typically into this kind of thing, give it a go anyway.

Download

• 20 Minutes, 40 Years (mp3)

Dec 10, 2009: you’ve all gone and checked out Telefonica right? http://bit.ly/8QfYuC they deserve another mention. get their album immediately.

Jan 6, 2010: getting amongst the new Danimals tracks… it’s nice stuff, got a kinda FlyLo/Prefuse 73 meets BMSR thing happening. http://bit.ly/4CABGL

Oct 29, 2009: hey go check out this new tune on @poa by Sydney band Guineafowl http://bit.ly/e3GH0 … nice lo-fi upbeat pop, reminds me a little of TVotR

The above are just three of many examples of why Sydney’s indie music scene is so amazing at the moment.

Oct 24, 2009: My little bro bought me SDRE’s Diary on vinyl. Truly I have the best brother. (it sounds unreal)

SDRE = Sunny Day Real Estate, a proto-emo rock band from the early 90s. Their debut, Diary, was an underground hit in it’s day, inspired an entire new wave of bands of that ilk (for better or worse) and still has effects to this day. The band recently reformed for a tour and with that their Sub Pop albums were remastered and reissued. I’ll be seeing them on February 23rd at the UNSW Roundhouse.

Triple J Unearthed for iPhone actually rocks

Jan 14, 2010: kudos to @triplej for the new Unearthed iPhone app. great concept, stellar execution. hoping it will lead to lots of grassroots discovery!

There’s a lot of hate for Triple J in the blogosphere, but I’ve really got to hand it to them for this impressive work. This is commitment to getting unsigned music into the hands of as many people as people. Bored? Sick of what’s on your music player? This is encouraging people to discover their New Favourite Band in their idlest moments. I have nothing but praise for the initiative.

Download

• Unearthed for iPhone (app)

I won’t attempt to hide it: I’ve been a terrible blogger lately. I could blame a few things: music projects, Real Work, other projects, having a wonderful daughter and wife that are immensely more fun to be around than computers, you name it.

Having said that, I’ve also had a little less to blog about due to me pushing a lot of news and info that I’d typically blog about through Twitter (you can find me under the name of @flukazoid). I like Twitter because it’s oriented around timely, bite-sized pieces of information. It forces you to not waste words, and functionally it brings that content to life through its network-based community.

That being said, Twitter’s strengths (conciseness in particular) are also its weaknesses, and there’s a lot that can’t be said or communicated with the service.

Over the last couple of months I’ve been thinking about being a little more focused in my use of Twitter and blogging, and have decided that I’m going to use the services like this:

• My Twitter profile will have most most of the news and time sensitive information. I’ll also ramble about stuff I’m listening to, discoveries I’m making, news that’s interesting, gigs I’m seeing. It’ll also have plenty of moments from the rest of my non-musical life, but I hope it’s interesting and entertaining all the same.
• This blog will have (hopefully) more in-depth writing about music, reviews, some more abstract thoughts about music which I have residing in an increasingly large queue. The content on here will hopefully be a lot more pure – less noise and clutter.

So consider this me jumping back into the blogging world, but reserving a lot of content for Twitter. Both are good, with strengths in different places. I’m hoping to use them to their best advantages.

This self-indulgent ramble has now been concluded. Read somebody else’s post, I’m sure it will be of greater value!

It’s finally hitting the mainstream in a big way, and you just can’t escape it: Twitter is being talked about everywhere. Regardless of what you think of the technology, it can’t be denied that it’s having some very real and fascinating impact on the way we connect, network and communicate with each other. Politicians, celebrities, bloggers and now everyday people have started to turn to the system as a means to update and communicate their network in greater numbers than ever.

Unsurprisingly, musicians and artists are among these people turning to the system – and it seems to be having a lot of success, especially in ways that musician blogging never seemed to manage.

Part of Twitter’s success may lie in its simplicity, but it’s also emerged to become a surprisingly diverse application. Some bands are using purely to talk with their fans, others are using it simply to offer updates, others offer a snapshot into their personal lives, while others are doing a mix of all of the above.

Want a few examples? Here’s a small sample of overseas bands that are using Twitter: Ryan Adam & The Cardinals, YACHT, Dave Matthews, ?uestlove, Muse, My Brightest Diamond. All somewhat different approaches, all fascinating – and all getting broadcast straight to mobile devices, computers, aggregators, you name it.

A number of Aussie music bloggers have got in on the action. Australian bands are beginning to get it. Record labels are certainly beginning to jump on the train.

So why this post? Basically, I’m hoping to compile a master list that will serve as a starting point for people to get their music sources set up on Twitter. Hopefully you’ll be able to find various people that will provide you with succinct and instantaneous coverage of musical topics of interest.

I’ll eventually move this list to a fixed location, but for now I’m going to update this blog post. Please leave comments with suggestions on Twitter accounts I should include here, and hopefully you’ll find getting started on the Twitter train really straightforward!

New updates appear at the end of each section and are highlighted in red.

Australian Bands / Musicians

• The Grates - @thegrates
  A highlight. Lots of photos and observations on tour and at home, frequent interaction with the Twitter community. Just like their music would have you believe, these guys are good fun to be around.
• The Mint Chicks - @the_mint_chicks (thanks Geoff!)
  Occasional updates on band activities, mostly promoting their new album.
• Muscles - @musclesmusic
  Vewwy vewwy quiet…
• Bertie Blackman – @bertieblackman
  Sydney artist makes her first foray into Twitter. Early days.
• The Devoted Few – @thedevotedfew
  Sydney band, frequent updates, good community interaction.
• Yves Klein Blue – @yveskeinblue
  Brisbane band tweeting mostly about tour announcements.
• Red Riders – @redridersmusic
  Presently focusing on the band’s return to the studio.
• Expatriate – @expatriateband
  Sydney band recently relocated to Berlin, infrequently tweeting about recording their next album.
• Dappled Cities – @dappledcities
  So it really isn’t “Fly” any more? Updates are fairly uninteresting.
• Urthboy – @urthboy
  Herd band member twitting frequently on life, running a record label and being in the Herd…
  
• Youth Group – @youthgroupmusic
  Just getting started…
  
• Sparkadia – @sparkadia
  Good, sporadic but interesting updates
  
• The Presets – @talklikethat
  Moderately useless…
• Bliss & Eso – @blissneso
  Sydney hip hop with a good, grass-roots approach to the service.

Got any more? Let me know!

Australian Record Labels

• Dew Process - @dewprocess
  Rather half-hearted use of the service
• Modular Records - @modularpeople
  Goofy twitter-based fun and news, frequent updates
• Ivy League Records – @ivyleagues (thanks Dan!)
  Home to Sparkadia, Josh Pyke, Mess Hall, Cloud Control etc…
• Inertia Music – @inertiamusic
  One of Australia’s bigger distributors, home to much great music.
• Illusive Records – @illusivecrew
  Melbourne-based hip-hop label, home to Bliss n Eso, Lowrider, Downsyde etc…

Australian Live Music

• V Festival - @v_festival (thanks Geoff!)
  Hey by the way V Festival, your line-up totally sucks this year.
• Jessie Pink / We Do Stuff – @jessiepink / @wedostuff
  An independent promoter giving updates on live gigs around Sydney.
• Moshcam – @moshcam
  The well-known video footage archive of Sydney gigs is using Twitter to promote their site and post gigs updates.

Australian Radio Stations

• Triple J
  • Robbie, Marieke and the Doctor (Breakfast) – @triplejbrekkie
  • Lindsay McDougal (JTV) – @tripleJTVdoctor
  • Scott Dooley (Afternoons) – @triplejdools
  • Zan Rowe (Mornings) – @triplejmornings
  • Vijay Khurana (Lunch) – @vijaykhurana
  • House Party - @jhouseparty
  • Richard Kingsmill (music director) – @triplejtheking
  • Home and Hosed – @homeandhosed
• FBI Radio (Sydney) – @fbiradio

Australian Music Bloggers

• @dreadfuldan (from Boudist aka Daniel Boud)
• @ford_davis / @ma_shinka / @12majorchords (from TwelveMajorChords.com)
• @fortunegrey (from Fortune Grey)
• @getbiglittlekid (from Get Big Little Kid)
• @jonny_yesyes (from Polaroids of Androids)
• @openyoureyes (from Open Your Eyes To Music)
• @waycooljnr (from Way Cool Jnr)
• @stuartbuchanan (from StuartBuchanan.com)
• @tunebinder (from Tunebinder)

What’s next?

Got any Twitterers that I should have listed here but are missing? Please leave a comment and let me know!

Yes, I’ve jumped on the twitter bandwagon – or I’m giving it a go, anyway.

Must say it is kind of nice to be able to share spontaneous thoughts / observations / moments with people even when they don’t merit their own blog post. As to whether I’ll maintain any regularity with regards to posting frequency, well we’ll see.

You can see my latest twitter post on the top right hand side of my blog’s home page (sorry about the temporary performance inhibiting JavaScript – I’ll move over to a WordPress plugin shortly TwitterTools seems OK). You can also go to my twitter page.