Animal Collective Doesn't Care About Cool

Wine, snowboards also among new merchandising deals

(NEWSER) - The Dead are looking for new ways to live on, and they’ve settled on skateboards. In a new business deal, remaining members of the Grateful Dead have agreed to put their logos on a range of new items, including Wines That Rock, Dregs skateboards, and Burton snowboards. But they’re not just selling out: They agreed to the merchandising plan under the supervision of a record exec who’s a big Deadhead himself, the Los Angeles Times reports. More»

Though she probably had little to do with its edginess, critics say

(NEWSER) - Britney Spears’ new record is actually pretty innovative for a pop album—though Britney herself may have little to do with that.

• Femme Fatale is “the rare dance-pop album that never flags, each track preposterously overstuffed with hooks and sensations,” writes Jody Rosen in Slate . Spears is “a great avant-gardist”: These are some “absurd” tracks, but her “star power provides cover for the weirdness—anything she records, no matter how strange, instantly becomes pop.”

Counterculture pioneer takes final trip

(NEWSER) - Owsley Stanley, LSD cook, sound engineer, sculptor, and one of the most influential figures in '60s counterculture, has been killed in a car accident in Australia at the age of 76. Nicknamed "Bear," Stanley manufactured millions of doses of high quality "Owsley Acid" at his San Francisco lab, helping kick off the psychedelic era, the San Francisco Chronicle notes. He supplied LSD to '60s icons including Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Ken Kesey, and the Grateful Dead, with whom he worked closely for many years as soundman and financial backer. More»

...Madonna, say many, but critics still mostly impressed

(NEWSER) - Lady Gaga’s new single is here (click here to listen), and, shockingly, the Guardian notes, the throngs of people freaking out over it has not yet broken the Internet. Early reactions:

• It sounds "a lot like Madonna’s 'Express Yourself,'" writes Michael Cragg for the Guardian . “So much so that those two words are currently trending on Twitter.” The spoken-word parts definitely hearken back to the Material Girl, but ultimately Cragg deems the song less a copycat, more “a knowing nod and a cute wink.” And while it might be “ridiculously camp ... one suspects it will probably shift a few copies.”
• The Sun is slightly less forgiving, concurring with many Twitter users that the song “bears more than a passing resemblance” to Madonna’s 1989 track. The newspaper notes that one Twitter user even claims, “you can literally sing the original over this one.”

'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ' is also the rapper's best effort yet

(NEWSER) - Kanye West is officially back: "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the best album of 2010 and the best album of West's career," asserts Jonah Weiner on Slate . The rapper, always unable to keep quiet about things he finds unjust, has "managed to channel his sense of injustice into his music more fully and thrillingly than ever before. It's a seething and sad album, full of tales of transgression, betrayal, repudiation, and bitter vindication. It's also wild fun to listen to." More»