Surfing the Web for new music, video...

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

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“A Day in the Life of Natalie Portman”

Natalie Portman

www.nbc.com/Video/videos/snl_1439_natalieraps.shtml

Call it “P for Paradigm Shift.” In the latest “Saturday Night Live” gangsta rap spoof (a digital short in the template of Chris Parnell and Andy Sandberg’s heavily downloaded “Lazy Sunday”), the luminous, elfin Portman channels her inner Eminem, spitting foul-mouthed rhymes with career-altering implications. She details a predilection for killing dogs, sniffing airplane glue, cheating on tests at Harvard and, just for good measure, she threatens to smack NBC CEO Jeff Zucker. Portman’s most shocking trespass? Brushing off a young “Star Wars” aficionado dressed as her character, Queen Amidala.

“Playhouses”

TV on the Radio

s60.yousendit.com /d.aspxid3K9MOXDT1Y

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Who knew alt-rock ennui could sound so life-affirming? On the darkly infectious lead song from TVoTR’s impending major label debut, curtains of Joy Division-esque guitar give way to twinkling chimes, while singer Tunde Adebimpe’s anguished baritone oscillates like a buoy in a heavy sea. It’s the sound of an ambitious band broadening its range.

“Trains to Brazil”

Guillemots

www.myspace.com/guillemotsmusic

This London-based “Trains” gives a strong indication of the group’s feel-good Space Age indie sound. Computer bleeps, analog samples, saxophone blasts and off-key singing combine to suggest a recording studio battle royal between Squeeze, the Velvet Underground and the Beta Band. The group’s mini-album “From the Cliffs,” which will be released in the U.S. on Tuesday, has been called “ ‘Pet Sounds’ for the Coldplay generation” by England’s Q magazine.

“What You Know”

T.I.

www.nobodysmiling.com/hiphop/musicvideo/85809.php

In this Chris Robinson-directed clip, Atlanta’s rapper du jour rolls through the ‘hood wearing a Dodger cap, cruises through South Central in a $300,000 Mercedes-Benz Maybach and walks the red carpet at a movie premiere. He seems perfectly at home living the California dream. But file it under hip-hop wish fulfillment with a twist: T.I. may be the first rapper to pose suggestively with a Louis

Vuitton man-purse while still keeping his street cred firmly

intact.