Animal Collective Doesn't Care About Cool

Merriweather Post Pavilion made Animal Collective one of the most hyped bands of 2009, but the follow-up Fall Be Kind EP sounds almost aggressively unconcerned with indie cred. The first song includes a flute solo from Zamfir, one of those ubiquitous infomercial pan-flute players, while a later track samples the Grateful Dead. "Cool? These guys aren't sweating it,” writes Mark Richardson for Pitchfork.

Fall Be Kind flows surprisingly well for a record of outtakes from Merriweather Post Pavilion—moving from the unabashed melodicism of "What Would I Want? Sky" (the Dead-sampling track) to the more abstract territory of “Bleed” and “On a Highway.” Fall Be Kind shows a band still driven to experiment, to go into “unfamiliar realms,” Richardson writes, even if it means failure. “There's still a sense of gamble with Animal Collective—and that's exactly what makes them an especially exciting band.”

LeBron in NFL? Browns Coach Says Suit Up

If LeBron James really wants to try football, Eric Mangini will find room on his roster. “I think he should come on down,” the Browns coach tells the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “The guy’s a freak athletically.” James may be an NBA star now, but he played wide receiver in high school. He opined on Monday Night Football that, if he dedicated himself to football, “I could be really good.”

“I could be a split tight end like Gates or Gonzalez,” he said. “If you put a linebacker on them, they can’t match up.” QB Brady Quinn, for one, loves the idea of throwing to James to improve the fortunes of the 1-8 team. “Tell him to suit up,” he said. “We’ll get him working.” But nosetackle Shaun Rogers doubts the King could hack it. “A great athlete, yes. A football player, no. Yeah, Lebron, I said it.”

World's Most Valuable Models

Even supermodels are making less money these days. The Daily Beast came up with a formula to determine which are the most valuable, based on everything from runway work (weighed 10%) to cover appearances (10%) to income from contracts (40%):

Gisele Bündchen: She no longer walks the runway, but an avalanche of endorsements, from the likes of Max Factor, Dior, and Versace, bring in an estimated $25 million.
Kate Moss: At 35, she still snagged six covers last year...and a reported $8.5 million.
Adriana Lima: She’s been a Victoria’s Secret Angel for nearly a decade now, no doubt helping her earn $8 million.
Doutzen Kroes: She became a Victoria’s Secret Angel last year after doing high-profile ads for Dolce & Gabbana and Versace; she now rakes in $6 million.
Daria Werbowy: You may not know her name, but you know her as the face of Lancôme, a gig that contributes to the $4-plus million she'll make this year.
Alessandra Ambrosio: A longtime Victoria’s Secret model, one of her new gigs is a Brazilian campaign that used to belong to Gisele. Annual take: $6 million.

Walk the Runway Like a Pro

– J. Alexander—otherwise known as Miss J, the 6’4" drag-dressing America’s Next Top Model judge—has been coaching models on how to rock the runway for almost 20 years. Cathy Horyn of the New York Times takes a lesson and offers a few tips:

Develop your own style: Carmen Kass has the bust shake; Naomi Campbell has the leg kick.
Stand up straight: He begins analyzing Horyn’s stride with “Well, first of all, you walk like your back hurts.”
Focus on you: “It’s all about you. It’s about Cathy,” Miss J says. A passer-by isn’t a distraction, “she’s just the girl you are passing on the runway.”
Don’t overshadow the main event: “If your walk is too extreme, you don’t see the clothes.”
Be elegant: “Always start from the bottom, it creates a cleaner line.”
Keep a cool gaze: “Here’s the face that you want,” he says, looking calm even while thinking, “I hate my teeth, I hate the world today. I’m getting paid 10 grand. I’m starving. I want a sandwich.”

Best Videos of the Decade

The "aughties" saw a breakdown in the traditional music business and the outlets for music videos. But that doesn't mean people didn't make good ones—maybe they're even better for it. Steve LaBate runs down the best since 2000 in Paste. A sampling:

Outkast, "Bombs Over Baghdad": "A luscious Technicolor feast, exploding vibrant and alive onto the screen."
The White Stripes, "Fell in Love With a Girl": "Perhaps the most innovative video of the decade (or at least the most carefully labored over)."
Johnny Cash, "Hurt": Made a year before the Man in Black passed on, "here he takes a long, dark glance back at the imperfect life he’s lived." It's "one of the most moving videos ever made."
OK Go, "Here We Go Again": With "the infamous, impressively choreographed and unforgettable treadmill dance."
The Decemberists: "16 Military Wives": The band "coyly pokes fun at their bookish reputation with this fantastic video set at an overly ambitious prep school."

Pirate Radio Rocks on Good Tunes, Cast

Critics agree that the soundtrack of Pirate Radio can't be beat, and the top-notch cast is a joy. So when it comes to the shaky plot and pacing, some can turn a blind eye:

"There’s no denying the comic energy of the cast," Peter Travers writes in Rolling Stone. "Couple that with blasts of Brit rock from the Beatles and the Stones to Dusty Springfield and David Bowie, and the ship is unsinkable."
Writer/director Richard Curtis introduces "characters and conflicts only to drop them," Stephanie Zacharek of Salon complains. But no matter: The best bits "take place in the movie's margins, in the vignettes and asides that don't necessarily have much to do with the plot."
Bah. A great cast and great tunes—some of which are not at all historically accurate—do not a great film make, Sam Adams writes for the AV Club. "Do you like montages, but grow bored with the tedious plot bits in between? Then Pirate Radio is the movie for you."
Curtis alludes to the cultural issues behind the plot—a little, writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. Really, "he wants to party." Which he does, and "which is fine."

Meet the Man Behind Elmo

When Kevin Clash does a live Sesame Street event, the kids “don’t know me from a hole in the wall and they don’t care to,” he tells Time. “I’m the guy holding their friend.” That friend would be Elmo, the furry red monster Clash puppets and voices, one of the most popular characters in the show’s 40-year history.

Yes, that is Clash’s voice on all those Tickle Me Elmo dolls and other toys—“I call that job security,” he says. But don’t expect him to jump into character should you run into him on the street: “We can't just sit there as ourselves and do that voice and personality,” he says, explaining why puppets are brought along even to radio interviews. “We're puppeteers

Brooklyn Bands Heat Up Music Scene

Brooklyn is returning to the forefront of the indie music scene—with a vengeance. New York delves deep into the borough’s offerings with a list of the top 40 songs from Brooklyn musicians, the most important music bloggers, and a map of the best places to see shows. The magazine takes a closer look at three specific acts:

Dirty Projectors: One of the most risk-taking groups out there. “There’s just a culture of getting things done here,” says frontman and Yale graduate David Longstreth, who returned to New York in time for the band’s fifth album, Bitte Orca, its most accessible to date.
MGMT: “I never thought I’d live in Brooklyn Heights,” says frontman Andrew VanWyngarden, “but it’s a nice place to come down off tour.” The band is finishing Congratulations, a followup to 2007 hit Oracular Spectacular; one band member calls it “a mixture of depression and excitement.”
Jace Clayton, aka DJ /Rupture: Released an acclaimed mix tape last year and is working on a follow-up. “I really dislike Boston,” he says of his time there. “Musically it’s super-segregated. People weren’t mixing anything up at all.”

Go to Harvard, Study The Wire

The Wire is about to get an Ivy League makeover. Harvard plans to offer a course on the HBO series about life in Baltimore's ghettos, the New York Post reports. The show "has done more to enhance our understanding of the challenges of urban life and the problems of urban inequality, more than any other media event or scholarly publication," said William J. Wilson, the well-known African-American history professor—and huge fan of The Wire—who will teach the class.

But the move isn't quite as ground-breaking as the show, notes the Post: Duke and Middlebury have also offered courses on the series.

Greatest Albums of the Decade

Paste takes a look back at the past decade—and its own 10-year history—with its list of the 50 best albums of the ‘00s:

No. 1. Sufjan Stevens, Illinoise: “His music pushed boundaries between pop and classical.”
No. 4. Radiohead, Kid A: Marked “the watershed artistic transition toward more electronic-based experimentation.”
No. 8. OutKast, Stankonia: “OutKast’s edgiest and most inspired record.”
No. 10. MIA, Arular: “Her thrilling, slang-tangled debut connected musical and political rebellion.”
No. 14. The Strokes, Is This It: “It saved rock ’n’ roll from the bloat that seemed inescapable in the Fred Durst era.”
No. 17. Kanye West, The College Dropout: “Every so often, an album rewrites the musical rulebook, and this one effectively murdered gangsta rap.”
No. 29. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago: “One of the great bedroom masterworks of our time.”
No. 42. Jay-Z, The Blueprint: “The classic, a knockout punch by a heavyweight champion.”

Ledger-Directed Rap Video Debuts

A music video, one of a few directed by Heath Ledger for little-known artists he liked, made its online debut yesterday. Australian rapper N'fa Forster-Jones, a childhood friend of the late actor's, posted the video along with a behind-the-scenes look at the project, the AP reports. "Every day I count my blessings that I got to have him direct this piece of art," says Forster-Jones, who showed the video at the Rome Film Festival.

How Skulls Took Over Fashion

Skulls, once seen as sinister symbols, are now used on everything from children's shirts to underwear. Sara Dickerman of Slate takes a look at how the trend developed:

In the 16th century, artists like Albrecht Dürer were still using skulls to remind people of their mortality.
French pirate Emanuel Wynn was the first to use the skull-and-crossbones logo on his ship's flag.
As skulls came to symbolize bravado, fighters—from US special operations to the Nazi SS—used them on uniforms.
Mourning jewelry was fashionable in the 19th century, and the "look" lived on thanks to bands like the Grateful Dead and Loree Rodkin, who launched a line of Goth jewelry in 1989.
Mexican art of smiling, dancing skulls, used to celebrate Dia de los Muertos, helped skulls become more widely accepted.
The skull became an icon in 1970s London counterculture, where Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood launched a series of skull-inspired punk gear.
Skulls became truly fashionable thanks to Alexander McQueen, whose scarves have been spotted on Kate Moss and the Olsen twins.

Women's Star Lieberman Wants to Play Obama

Taking exception to all-male White House basketball games, Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman today challenged President Obama to some one-on-one. “To score some real points with the public, stop arguing and just play ball—with the best,” Lieberman, 51 and coming off a stint last year in the WNBA writes. “Shoot some hoops with yours truly.”

Spice Girls Will Help Kick Off 2012 Olympics

When the eyes of the world turn to London for the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics, the land of Shakespeare and the Beatles will present ... the Spice Girls. "They stand for so much in British music history and I can’t think of a better time for them to get back together for another performance," says impresario Simon Fuller. The performance may accompany a farewell tour, he tells the Daily Mirror: "I think if they do it, it’s going to be in 2012."