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.

“Dayvan Cowboy”

The Boards of Canada

www.warprecords.com/dayvancowboy/

Employing some footage eerily similar to the U.S. Air Force high altitude jumps from balloons in the stratosphere in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, this video moves from cerulean blue to aquamarine, the aerial to the aquatic, the very fiber of primal nightmare to a surfer’s celebration of our planet’s beauty. It makes manifest our deepest fears of mortality and rebirth. The Boards of Canada is a Scottish duo serving up an ambient electronic groove, and the track will be available on their EP in June. This must be viewed on a full screen to be fully appreciated, but avoided by those with a fear of falling.

*

“I Want to Take You Higher”

Sly and the Family Stone

dubruit.blogspot.com/

If anyone has any questions about why that strange dude with the white mohawk got so much attention at the Grammys, this clip from the 1968 Ohio State Fair, in which the band wins a $10,000 check for best new artist, should answer the question. Utterly infectious, revealing Stone’s debt to James Brown, the band funks on ... and on ... and on. They are tighter than Sly Stone’s pants, raising the dead to dance. Unbelievably, there is little movement seen in the audience. There are other Sly clips from this French website, but this one is special because it is so early in Stone’s career.

*

“Dani California”

Red Hot Chili Peppers

www.redhotchilipeppers.com/news/news.phpuid174

The song is the slightly

melancholy continuation of Anthony Kiedis’ portrait of his Everywoman, Dani California, begun with “Californication” in 1999. But the video happily plays against the grain. Tony Kaye (“American History X”) directed this hysterical homage to the

entire history of rock ‘n’ roll and not a detail was overlooked. Even the instruments are accurate as the Peppers move from Elvis’ pompadour to the Beatles; from psychedelia and Bowie glam to Parliament Funkadelic; from the Misfits, ‘80s hair bands and Kurt Cobain to themselves, today.

One hilarious moment is when John Frusciante plays John

Lennon playing a shredding “modern” guitar solo while maintaining his Beatle head-bobbing persona.