The Presedents of the United States of America have a newish album on AmieStreet. If you love the Presidents, then the album is worth the 5 (or so) bucks.

AmieStreet sells artist-friendly, DRM-free, download-as-many-times-as-you-want music online. Pricing is pretty cool too: all albums start at $0/song, increasing as the songs sell and are recommended–and you can even make a few bucks recommending new music yourself.

I bought a few BNL live albums (and one of their new studio projects) before they were popular for less than a dollar. I’ve also found a lot of great independent music, have earned more than $5 in AmieStreet credits now, and purchased more than 30 albums for $25. A few of my favorite new artists so far:

• The Powerless, a band that rocks somewhere between Tool and WhiteStripes
• White Hot Knife, another new-rock band
• Towncrier, a gamier U2 folk-rock band
• The Blue Jackets, a new-rock punk band somewhere between the Ramones and Pistols (but fresher)
• Breakestra, some top-dog funk
• The Mighty Imperials, another swingin’ funk/soul group
• Jets Overhead, a great, laid-back folk-rock sound
• The Dead Trees, a really fresh, raw folk-rock band with some slick vocals
• Some Velvet Morning, a single’s-only band that sounds a bit like The Killers

Script of the week: mp3rename. Especially handy if iTunes eats your MP3 repo in a fit of madness (and you have to restore your tunes from your iPod). Seems to work even.

[stars: 4] Nokia 5300 MP3 phone. I love the form factor, display, and the menus are a solid extension of Nokia’s previous phones. The camera and MP3 player are uninspired, but the FM tuner is surprisingly good. The phone also comes with a mSD slot, a USB2 cable, and supports USB2 FS. For $30 this is a great geek phone.