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 your click-and-drag. Some downloads may contain explicit lyrics. Except as noted, all of the selections are free and available online at latimes.com/downloads.
“Dashboard”
Modest Mouse
musicbox.sonybmg.com/video/modest_mouse
Several old salts congregate around a table in a bar to swap sea yarns. Subtitles are used because it is clear, initially, that none is mouthing the lyrics to the song. That changes when one of the fishermen, played by lead singer Isaac Brock, begins the greatest yarn of all -- battling sea creatures in the Sargasso Sea and discovering strange lands like a modern Gulliver. Brock’s vessel lands on an island whose landscape might be Papua New Guinea after a nuclear holocaust with the mountain villas of a Giorgione painting looming in the distant haze.
“Nobody”
Ryan Shaw
whoisryanshaw.com/main.html
Yet another entry in the crowded soul singer sweepstakes, Shaw can summon up the spirits of Pickett, Redding and Gaye. He’s got the phrasing, the confidence and catchy songs, of which “Nobody,” streaming on his website, is but one. Props to the production and a tight band that seems to know just the right amount of fills to use and gorgeous old-school tones (listen to the Steve Cropper-like guitar). Someone should pair Shaw with Joss Stone for a knockout soul duet a la Tammy Terrell and Marvin Gaye.
“A Fine Start”
Veda Hille
www.vedahille.com
Vancouver resident Veda Hille is signed to XTC frontman Andy Partridge’s new label, Ape House Records, and it’s easy to understand why. Like Partridge, Hille is a true musical eccentric, carving out her own territory and dividing responsibilities between composing for the theater and releasing albums that have undeservedly fallen under the radar. “A Fine Start” is accessed by clicking on the pop-up player. It’s the first song that streams and is a short poetic impression of the wonder of creation in the northern landscape. The spare small chamber ensemble suits the lyric and her vocal, which sounds eerily like that of another fine Canadian singer-songwriter, Anna McGarrigle.
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