The Latest: The Silence Of Love by The Headless Heroes

One of the non-advances of our times is the fact that everyone in a band has to write their own songs. Oh, definitely, some of the greatest songs ever came directly from artist to you, but there are centuries of filler tracks wasting the time of the few to have ever bothered to listen to them.

To put it another, cover songs are good for you.

The Headless Heroes would agree, since they've put together a stellar collection of others' songs, most of them from unexpected or obscure sources. The "band" is an assembly of studio rats with an impressive pedigree, but the center of the record is singer Alela Diane who, thanks to her own accomplishments as a solo artist, was brought on as the "hired gun" voice of the project. And what a voice. Although Diane's own records are filled with a hushed grace, the results are sometimes not completely engaging. When bringing others' work to life, it's a whole different story.

There's no better example of that than on my personal favorite, The North Wind Blew South. A true lost 60's gem by a fellow named Philamore Lincoln (dig that!), it's a testament to both singer and song on how this track comes alive. The mood goes darker with another little-known song, To You, originally by I Am Kloot. Here, Diane's voice drifts through a sonic haze, bringing chills to your spine in the process. Although everyone seems to cover Daniel Johnston these days, the Heroes' version of True Love Will Find You In The End is a sad, beautiful keeper.

Maybe it's because the most obscure tracks were the most interesting but I was less enthusiastic about the more obvious Jesus and Mary Chain and Nick Cave covers. But hey, they are pretty cool, nonetheless, as are Alela Diane's two solo records. If you like this album, check out her own stuff.

The Latest: Shame Spiral by Tacocat

The world needs more Tacocats. I'm serious, because they aren't. Be in a band because it's fun. Make noise. Write songs that will embarrass you minutes after you write them. Be cute. Be loud.

Shame Spiral is 100% exuberance and punk charm. Songs about Muffin Tops and Bike Parties are a blast and well, UTI is not as gross as it could be. Tacocat draws on a long lineage of punk goodness like Buzzcocks and The Undertones, and Riotgrrls like Bratmobile and Huggy Bear without getting bogged down with a certain sound or scene. They are a band and they like to rock. That's plenty fine as an ethos.

And seriously, Leotard might be the greatest two minutes about making out (and only making out) ever. Take that, Genie In A Bottle and Let's Wait Awhile. La-la-la-la-la-Leotard!

The Big Music

Out of sheer laziness, I let iTunes run through my "Big" albums and realized what an amazing run I had going. May I suggest that you try thinking big today?

• The Big Shot Chronicles - Game Theory: One of my all-time favorites. Jangly, eggheaded power pop, touched by the hands of Mitch Easter. Here Comes Tomorrow remains a giddy, wordy launching point.
• Big Plans For Everybody - Let's Active: Speaking of Mitch, this record (along with the former) were playing non-stop in my room in 1986 (and beyond). Big Shot has aged better than Big Plans, but I still love it. And, in lieu of an album version, check out Let's Active on the Old Grey Whistle Test in England.
• Big Science - Laurie Anderson: This record is almost 30 years old (yikes!) but it still sounds like it comes from the future. Forget about the latter years (and the Lou Reed thing, bleah) and Let X-=X.
• The Big Sell Out - Bongwater. Originally purchased for the wrong reasons (largely because Ann Magnuson was hot), the swan song for what might be the world's only post-psychedelic band is still weird. (And apparently, un-Blip-able.)
• Big Night Music - Shriekback. Another perplexing record by an incredibly strange pop group. This album has got too much digital polish on the whole, but it's enjoyably odd in small doses, like this mutated Andrews Sisters-esque tune.

The Latest: Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age

I've always been a massive fan of Broadcast, who have created a distinctinve, otherworldly pop sound of drone tones, girl-group 45s, and French new wave cinema mystere for over 10 years. (After all, they clocked in with my Song of the Decade!) And although they've mined a similar vein in their last few releases, it's always been a worthwhile listen because their sound is so distinctive.

But apparently, the band grew restless. They disappeared after releasing a retrospective compilation (which suggested their possible demise.) However, when they finally came back, they came back with a doozy... the gobsmackingly titled Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age.

Even after a dozen plays, it's hard to describe this record definitively. Although it retains most of the hallmarks of the Broadcast sound, it recasts them into a larger audio landscape. Most of the tracks are fragments of sound collage, with very little in the way of traditional songs. It is ambient in the true sense of the word, with found sounds falling into the overall mix (which brings a real human presence to Witch Cults.) The record is so atmospheric that one almost suspects a subtle narrative or a soundtrack to some unseen film. The density of sound is engaging and often enthralling, with something new emerging at each listen.

Made with the (apparently extensive) input of musician/designer Julian House (a.k.a. The Focus Group), Witch Cults isn't considered a true Broadcast record, but it definitely fits within their canon. It also stands alone as a distinctive audio document on its own. My only knock on it is the lack of tracks featuring the lovely tones of Trish Keenan, but songs like The Be Colony are boosted by her presence.

Recommended if you love the 4AD aesthetic of the mid-80's or Eno at his wiggiest - or if you want something a little more challenging without being too abrasive.

The Latest: Blacklist by Kap Bambino

Great music can come from anywhere. You know this already. The weird band from off the beaten path is always gonna be far more interesting than scenester-clones. So, I guess it stands to reason that France is going to cough up a good band eventually. C'est vrai, oui?

And believe it or not, there are actually deux bandes* worth talking about these days. Kap Bambino is straight outta Paris with some crazy electro-punk, and as you might expect, it doesn't make much sense, even though it's mostly in English. ("I want to see dead lazers in the night. I don't care about the distance." Well, alright then!)

Who cares, though, when the sound is this powerful? It's definitely cybernetic. Lots of synths and beats, although they are pretty messed up, so don't expect a clean, robotic synth-pop thing. The keyboards are overdriven and glitchy, the drum machines are jacked up, and the songs shift structure. Dead Lazers, for example, goes from a goth-y anthem into a stadium techno bridge, 11:58 is a pulsing throb that has frequent breakdowns, and Red Sign feels like indie-pop dressed up in buzzsaw synths..

It's all a bit reminiscent of the Robots In Disguise (the electro girls from the Mighty Boosh) but it's also a bit like a much more aggressive Berlin or New Traditionalists-era Devo in places. Aggressive is the key word here. You probably want petite doses at first, since it can definitely wear you out, but it is loud fun, too.

*Le bande deuxieme de Paris is called This Is Pop which is more like a Francophone riot-grrl indie sound. They are incredibly low-profile online, so I can't share anything here apart from my respect and admiration.

The Latest: Bird-Brains by Tune-Yards

Some girls' journals are, as one might expect in the classic "Dear Diary" style, fairly calm and romantically aspirational. Others, though, are wildly fantastical and unhinged, not just chronicling the frustrations of life but inventing a "me-centric" universe in which to retreat.

I'm pitching that theory in order to try to explain what's going on with the Tune-Yards album, but hey, your guess is as good as mine. Quite frankly, Bird-Brains is 100% bonkers.

Take News, for example. This is a relatively straight-forward song with a traditional song structure and hummable chorus. And it happens to be performed on ukelele and ping-pong paddles. Oh, and there's a glassware solo.

It's not quite as impressive these days when one person cooks up an entire album of music, but the inventiveness of Bird-Brains still blows me away. Honestly, even though the sonics of the two records are worlds apart, I keep thinking about Remain In Light when I listen to Tune-Yards. Think about it, though. Tricky rhythms, chanting and call & response vocals, big bumpin' bass lines, and a gleeful round of noise making to augment the songs. (Sunlight is a great example of the weird sinuous funk.) They said Byrne and Eno were nuts, too.

But there's definitely something brilliant in that madness. My guess is that the only person who even halfway understands it is Merrill Garbus... she who is Tune-Yards. (By the way, I'm not doing the official spelling of tUnE-yArDs. It hurts my brain more than the record does.)

And if you like this, you should definitely check out Micachu and the Shapes. Golden Phone is another home-brewed party jam.

The Latest: Ambivalence Avenue by Bibio

Quite literally the last thing I picked up at a mad-dash shopping rampage at Rough Trade East last fall, Bibio's Ambivalence Avenue has quickly turned into one of my favorite new records.

As I started thinking about how to describe this warped, weird masterpiece, almost every statement I could muster was possibly misleading and even more importantly, incomplete. It's not folk (although there are lovely pastoral moods and 12-string guitars throughout.) It's not electronica (unless you are a stickler for the label when samples and drum machines are about.) It's not folktronica (because that doesn't realize exist!) And that's just ruminations on the first track. By the time you get to the amazing single Jealous of Roses, Bibio has dipped into the funk to craft some 21st century dusty soul. Phew... five minutes in and it sounds like the kitchen sink has been thrown in. But the most important thing to note about Ambivalence Avenue is that it is not a clunky "some of everything" laptop jam: it's a fully realized set of songs with a full palette of sonic embellishment.

The closest cousin is Caribou's Andorra, which ran 60's psych-pop through a electronic filter to spectacular effect. (Melody Day, one of my Songs of The Decade, still stuns even after a few years.) But there's also hints of Beck and Bran Van 3000's joyful blending of styles (minus the larger-than-life personalities) and the Avalanches' ability to knit disparate sounds into a cohesive whole.

A dance mix with ambient interludes? A song-based techno compilation? Maybe one of the things I love about Bibio is that it's so undefinable. That's the kind of record I can listen to over and over.

Start with: Jealous Of Roses and try the title track for a calm meditation and crank it up with the 4AD-meets-big-beat Fire Ant.