Got e-mail last night from the oh-so-literary indie band The Decemberists informing me that lead singer Colin Meloy is now twittering. Impressively, his historic first tweet was on Jan. 12 ("is surveying the lilac"), he'd only tweeted seven times in total as of late Thursday night (though one was to notify followers that a free MP3 song is available for download) and he already had racked up 700-plus followers. His exclusive list of twitters being followed included just one person, a fellow singer named John Roderick of the Long Winters. 

Meloy's twittering got me wondering about what other singers and bands might be twittering for real. I'd come across Britney Spears and MC Hammer a while back on a celebrity twitterer list, and have seen a bunch more that started but didn't go very far so aren't worth mentioning. (Lists of twitterers are popping up as people seek to get around the current trickiness of searching on Twitter. For example, our recent "12 CIOs who Twitter.")

Of course, I'm by far the first person to play this game. In fact, a twitterer dubbed "twindie" last month started assembling a list of indie musical acts who twitter. Also came across bloggers, such as this one, who have recently put together lists.

Anyway, here's a short list of a few who might be worth following (with a bent toward the alternative/indie music genre). These all look to be the real deal to me, with maybe a little bit of ghost-twittering by marketing specialists thrown in:

Patrick Wilson , Weezer 

Like all the really cool people, the drummer only follows one person on Twitter. Been twittering for close to a year and from his tweets we know he has a knee injury and loves watching old cartoons with his kids. Of course, Weezer's "Pork and Beans" viral video from last year single-handedly has given the music video a new life. Meanwhile, Wilson's band mate Rivers Cuomo seems less enthralled with twittering. 

Silversun Pickups

Looks like they might have had a New Year's resolution to pick up their twittering. We learn, among other things, their next album will be called "Swoon."

Amanda Palmer  

Best known as half of the fancy dressing Dresden Dolls, Palmer has branched out on her own musically of late and on Twitter. She tweets about the Dresden Dolls scoring a gig at next week's inauguration party in Washington, D.C. 

Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews Band 

Never got this band's appeal and don't get Matthews' tweets. As he writes: "Some twitters are hard to follow."

Bloc Party  

Saw these guys play a couple of years ago in Boston (they were the consolation prize when headliners Kings of Leon called in sick with the sniffles). They started twittering in December and hadn't picked it up again in the new year as of this writing.

The Raconteurs  

Jack White's other band (he of White Stripes) is using Twitter as a pretty straight-up marketing tool, but maybe they'll loosen up as the year goes along.

The Subways  

They're out of the U.K., they like to rock and use exclamation points!!! And they seem to have burnt out on Twitter, starting on the site in 2007 but dormant since this past July

Oasis

They recently hung out with an ex-Sex Pistol and an ex-Smiths band member. These singing brothers have got the life.

John Vanderslice  

Sporadic twittering, likes to curse. Okay, you never heard of him anyway.

Shaquille O'Neal  

No celebrity Twitter list is complete without Shaq on it. Not only does the hoop star sing, he even has a "Best of" album available.