Downloads

Surfing the Web for new music, video and MP3 downloads can be a serious time investment. Tips 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.

“Herculean”

The Good, the Bad and the Queen

www.thegoodthebadandthequeen.com

When Blur came out with the back-to-back triumphs of “Modern Life Is Rubbish” and “Parklife” in the mid ‘90s, many felt that Brit pop had reached an apotheosis in a grand tradition inherited from the Beatles and the Kinks, relayed through XTC and the Jam. Then, something happened. Graham Coxon, Blur’s distinctive guitarist, left to go solo and Damon Albarn devoted more time to Gorillaz than to his remaining bandmates. Take heart, fans. His new band with a dream lineup -- bassist Paul Simonon (the Clash), guitarist Simon Tong (the Verve) and, most extraordinarily, drummer Tony Allen (Fela Kuti) -- employs its considerable instrumental strengths with the kind of writing not heard from Albarn since Blur’s early days -- snapshots of London life. “Herculean” is a hint of the riches on the upcoming album.

“Fuzzy Warbles Podcast Part I”

Andy Partridge

apehouse.prevuz.com

There would be no Blur, or many other pop bands of the past 25 years, without XTC, and there would be no XTC without Andy Partridge. This podcast is intended to be an interview with Partridge on his recently released “Fuzzy Warbles” box set, but becomes a demonstration lecture/autobiography focusing on his songwriting method. At times, this very funny man affords glimpses into an alternative career as a stand-up comic. Listen to American “Rs” creep into his Swindonian thud as he comments on brief extracts from the box set, many of them early versions of XTC songs stretching back three decades.

“Gun Draws”

Pharoahe Monch

www.allhiphop.com/videoplayer/player.htm

Alcoholism, spousal abuse, a loose weapon that becomes a totem for the will for destruction visited upon children by their parents -- it’s all unflinchingly examined in this video intended to shock. Effective use of a backward echo return on the vocal highlights the tense, queasy ambience in this bit of agitprop that asks us all to question the prevalence of guns in our society. Footage from the assassination of President Kennedy is employed along with the portraits of others who suffered the same fate and several statistics at the end of the video should give pause for everyone.

“The Prayer”

Bloc Party

www.youtube.com/watchvT8oRFcA0mFM

Someone must have slipped a mickey into the band members’ drinks as they coolly observe English youth dancing and interacting in the shadows of a club. This is the 21st century version of the cult and camp LSD nightmare film “The Trip.” As Kele Okereke mouths a prayer “for recognition,” his mind gradually fragments. The dancers become rubbery beings moving through the ruptures of emulsified film stock, burning, tearing through one dimension into another.

casey.dolan@latimes.com