Most blogged artists: Big Star, Jónsi, Twin Sister

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American power-pop band Big Star is the most-blogged act of the moment on March 23, following the death of lead singer Alex Chilton on March 17. In second and third place, according to The Hype Machine, are Canadian electronic group Holy Fuck and Brooklyn dance/psychedelic duo MGMT. Among new acts making the top ten this week are Jónsi and Twin Sister.

Jónsi refers to Jónsi Birgisson, guitarist and vocalist for the Icelandic band Sigur Rós, which announced the start of an "indefinite hiatus" in late January. Birgisson is set to launch his debut solo album, Go, on April 5, and bloggers are buzzing about the falsetto singer's recent performance on BBC Radio 1 of a track from that album as well as a cover of MGMT's "Time to Pretend." Stranger Dance (www.strangerdance.com) reviews, "The result is an undeniably beautiful cover that's infinitely better than all those damn MGMT remixes floating out there - even if the lyrics aren't 100% spot on."

Dreamy New York quintet Twin Sister released its debut album, Vampires with Dreaming Kids, in 2008, earning widespread attention among music bloggers. The band performed at last week's South by Southwest Festival and is back in the spotlight with the release of a single, "All Around and Away We Go." Flux Blog (www.fluxblog.org) reviews, "'All Around And Away We Go' may be thick with atmosphere, but everything else about it is light, almost entirely weightless. ... It's a gorgeous, incredibly sexy sound; very carefully arranged but seemingly effortless."

The 10 most blogged artists on The Hype Machine on March 23 at 10:30 AM GMT:

• Big Star (+1)
• Holy Fuck (-1)
• MGMT (+1)
• Hot Chip (+6)
• Jónsi (new)
• Twin Sister (+1)
• Gorillaz (new)
• Kavinsky (new)
• Neon Indian (-6)
• Rusko (new)

Launched in 2005, The Hype Machine aggregates information from more than 1,000 music blogs worldwide. Known for identifying up-and-coming artists, the site enables music fans to easily find out what music is hot in the blogosphere and to instantly hear and buy mp3s.

http://hypem.com