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.

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“Not Ready to Make Nice”

The Dixie Chicks

music.msn.com /artist/artist16097852

The country music firebrands alienated many of their core fans when singer Natalie Maines bashed Bush onstage in 2003. While this single -- which premiered on MSN.com this week -- from the trio’s forthcoming album can be interpreted as the love-song version of a relationship postmortem, the track is ultimately a plea for tolerance that boldly states the group’s resolve. “I’m not ready to back down,” they sing, “It’s too late to make nice/I’m still mad as hell ... and I can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should.”

“It’s Chico Time”

Chico

www.chico-official.com

Sure, his debut single sounds like the second coming of Gerardo’s “Rico Suave,” but this Moroccan-born former goat herder and stripper (two separate careers, thank you very much) has quietly made history: He’s the first Muslim to hit the top of the U.K. pop charts. In the “Chico Time” video, which can be found by clicking the “Media” link on his website, he dances and mugs, alternating among a platoon of hairdryer-wielding children, pom-pom shaking cheerleaders and break-dancing toddlers, while flashing an impressive array of cheesy grins.

“Funky Dudley”

Dudley Perkins

www.myspace.com/dudleyperkins

Produced by alt-hip-hop studio wiz Madlib, there’s not much to “Funky Dudley”: some slap bass, thudding drums and Perkins’ deadpan proto-raps to ride the groove. Nonetheless, the song adds up to something greater than the sum of its parts -- certainly, something funkier than a gym sock. “There ain’t nothing greater than the Ohio Players/Save all that R&B; mess fo’ later,” Perkins intones.

“My Favorite Mutiny” (featuring Black Thought & Talib Kweli)

The Coup

www.altnet.com /store/album/443454/index.aspx

Oakland’s sloganeering funksters reference Iceberg Slim, the Black Panthers, Kunta Kinte and Malcolm X’s street hustler incarnation, Detroit Red, on this propulsive single (with lyrical support from the Roots’ Black Thought and conscious rapper Kweli). Recalling the strident militancy of vintage Public Enemy -- but with some of Parliament Funkadelic’s stomping musicality -- “Mutiny” is the Coup’s effort to win apathetic rap fans’ hearts and minds. Cost: 99 cents.