MP3 Madness!! Au Revoir Simone, Those Darlins, the National, Anya Marina, golden oldies, and so much more!

This week I want to highlight some of my new favorites from the Daytrotter website, so we'll start with three downloads from Au Revoir Simone. This girl-fronted (and backed, since they're all females...) indie pop group has long been dear to my heat, and to my delight several of my favorite tracks from them are included in these recordings. From "Sad Song," wistful in its melancholy, to the gentle rapture of "Stars" there is a little something here for every mood. These downloads are an amazing free-and-legal taste of their music, but if you enjoy them you might want to consider paying for the studio recording of each. The rest of the album is just as good, and the clearer vocals are well worth the investment.

Continuing in the girl-band theme, we'll move on to a Those Darlins download currently available on the Paste Magazine website. Upbeat, alt-country that even country haters won't be able to resist, "Red Light Love" will toe-tap it's way right into your heart. Download the track straight from the Paste Station player, and cherish it as your very own.

To balance out the heavy female presence so far, we'll now swing back by Daytrotter for some strongly masculine downloads from The National. Lead singer Matt Berninger has one of the deepest, bell-toned voices you'll find in indie pop today, and their contemplative, stirring music is well-represented in the tracks available here. Great background music for a quiet evening at home, or a candlelight dinner with that special someone.

Another great new artist to set the mood for a candlelight dinner is Anya Marina, whose album title touts itself as Slow and Steady Seduction, Phase II. Don't make the mistake of limiting this artist to the realm of batted eyelashes and smoky candles though, because Anya Marina has a lot to offer. Catch her Daytrotter live recordings, and snag a track right off her new album on the Borders website too.

The iTunes free downloads this week are worth a free download or two, though not amazing... fans of stand-up a la Comedy Central will want to check out the free episode of the show Comics Without Boarders currently available. The last comedian of the episode, Dean Edwards, is hilarious. He had me laughing at my desk, so don't miss that one! (His act starts at 11:41 in the episode if you want to skip right to it.) There doesn't seem to be a Discovery download this week, but you can download one of the fables from the audiobook Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales, narrated by Alan Rickman, instead.

I love this last one! Amazon has a sampler album download of five tracks from stars of the golden era, including Dean Martin, Ella Fitgerald, and Billie Holiday. Can't get much better than that! Sit back and let the big-band glow wash over you...

I hope you enjoy the soundtrack for the week! Let me know your thoughts, or if you find any new favorites. Happy listening!