Given the brevity of this encounter, I can’t claim to know much about the guy. However, were I to set up a Fake Michael Bay–style Twitter account for him based on first impressions and trivial details–he had a jar of formaldehyde on his desk with a coiled rattlesnake inside—it would probably revolve around slurred words, fine dining, and pharmaceuticals.

In other worlds, it would be much like this actual Twitter account, which a friend passed along to me today. I guess this could be a hoax, but who else would brag about drinking a nice Côte de Beaune AND be Twitter friends with John Agnello? Seems pretty convincing.

Various 140 character slices of rock living after the jump:

-i can’t sleep its 7 am, took a sleeping pill and shot. probably a bad move

-thats Mel Brooks btw MEL FUCKING BROOKS

-i guess i need rest after carousing till 530 am! Partners lunch someplace fancy then dinner at my club

-geez woke up early, just ordered a poppyseed bagel w/ sturgeon, belly lox creamcheese and onion + fresh OJ and a valium to take the edge off

-how can you spend SO much money in SO short a time?? well good eats I suppose, but the drink$$ I GUESS THE WINE WAS FINE!!!

-after masala bloody’s off to PA’s for the lamb lotsa cotes de beaune

-Geez that was good bagel, Neue Gallery, leg o’ lamb lotsa old juice to drink at PA’s… prolly listen to some recent Hi-LIFE aquisitions

-just trying to figure out what makes everyonne OK

Mp3 blogs are teetering on the edge of irrelevance. Thanks to Twitter an artist can cut out that middleman completely and deliver new songs directly to fans and followers. From the studio to the tweets in just minutes. The DC hip hop community in particular has been taking great advantage of this approach. Here are some recent zshare jams, as tweeted by a few of the area’s most promising emcees. (You can’t keep this middleman out the game, dammit!)

XO – “F.R.N.O.“

RAtheMC – “We Ridin”” (Prod. Judah)

Mo Betta – “I Swear” (Prod. Whitefolkz)

Pro’Verb – “Persecuted Patriot” (Prod. Surock)

Kingpin Slim – King Of Da Inkpen 5 Song Sampler

Earlier this week, the upcoming Grizzly Bear album, Veckatimest, leaked. We gave our first-impressions of the album. While a colleague joked that the much-anticipated LP was all texture and scaffolding and no melody, we disagree! We love the album more and more with each listen no matter the bootleg’s sound quality.

Yesterday, the band responded in a blog item about the leak:

“So yeah, we are kind of bummed this leaked so early. We know it’s not the 90’s anymore and times have changed, and we’re super grateful for all the support people have shown us on the blogs and internet, but we were kind of hoping it wouldn’t happen this soon.

Ultimately we feel like we put out a great album and hope people enjoy it, and we really hope people take the time to pre-order and support the good one-and-a-half years it took to write and record it.

I promise you the album art for both CD and vinyl is going to be gorgeous. And a bonus: all vinyl people will get a high quality download coupon with their purchase.

Leaking is a tricky subject; as we all know, I’ve had my run ins with the law O__o (Hi, Mr. Sheriff!) I have conflicting opinions about it, as it’s really complicated, but ultimately it saddens me that a bummer-quality version of Veckatimest is going around. Please consider putting your energies into a pre-order or into waiting till May 26 for the album the way we intend it to be presented.

Not to get all mushy, but we definitely put a lot of love and work into this one and are just excited to hit the road and tour it again.”

The band’s singer/songwriter Ed Droste was more fun on Twitter.

Droste write on his twitter account:

“So yeah, it leaked. I’m happy people are loving it. Makes me smile! Just remember it’s not a top notch sonic example. So keep that in mind.”

In a later post, he teases with this: “You know what, screw it here’s a quality version of the album! ENJOY!!!” He then provides a link to the Insound vinyl pre-order. Ha.

Of course, Droste tries a jokey sales pitch in another post: “Going to EXTRA dazzle up album both CD/Vinyl art to make up for this early leak!!!”

Veckatimest comes out May 26.