Downloads

Surfing the Web for new music, video and MP3 downloads can be a serious time investment. Picks from Times staff and contributors will help take the drag out of click-and-drag music choices. Some downloads may contain explicit lyrics. All are free, except as noted.

-- Chris Lee

“They Wanna Know”

Ghislain Poirier

www.myspace.com/ghislainpoirier

This Montreal DJ and blog darling -- moreover, a guy invited to lecture at MIT as a “sound architect” -- riffs on the Ying-Yang Twins’ “Wait (The Whisper Song)” with Trinidadian rapper Mr. Lee G, taking the song into an even more minimal glitch-hop direction.

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“Helicopter”

Bloc Party

www.mtv.com/bands/az/bloc_party/audvid.jhtml

Pig-faced komodo dragons, chain mail poppies and giant bugs terrorize the arty post-punk quartet amid a succession of dystopian futurescapes in this animated video.

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“The Clown”

Elefant

ahollywoodrecords.go.com/elefant/audio/Elefant_The_Clown.mp3

Crashing walls of guitar noise perambulate atop a propulsive, melancholy -- yet hopeful -- backbeat on this Hollywood Records-sanctioned MP3 from the New York group’s “Black Magic Show” album, due in April.

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“Make Things Right”

Lemon Jelly

www.xl-recordings.com/broadcast/~makethingsright

The electronica duo decriminalizes “easy listening” by adding acoustic guitar, sun-kissed psychedelia and hip-hop beats to the mix. “Right’s” video achieves the rough visual equivalent with crudely drawn creepy-crawlies and crayon-colored panoramas.

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“Key Largo”

Gretchen Lieberum

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5022865

The Los Angeles torch singer-songwriter’s cover version of Benny Carter’s song (sung famously by Sarah Vaughn) achieves its lush orchestral sweep via modern technology -- by sampling strings and cellos.

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“This Isn’t It”

Giant Drag

www.giantdrag.com/sound

The Los Angeles duo, which has a Monday-night residency at Silver Lake’s Spaceland among its credits, marries sexual aggression and childlike boredom to create an acoustic-punk tone poem.