Look through the ashes of a high school band from Wichita Falls (Texas), and an indie-rock fan would find two of the most musically exciting acts in the nineties: Bedhead and Macha. The band Macha, led by the McKay brothers (Joshua and Mischo), will still exist after this, but call Macha Loved Bedhead Loved Macha a beautiful swan song for Bedhead (and its Texas brothers, Matt and Bubba Kadane).

The six-song, 35-minute EP is a fine collaborative effort between the two bands. Fittingly, no credits come with this joint effort, so I don't know who's most to blame for the beauty. I know that much of the drumming and sensual guitar work come from Bedhead, who forwarded these half-naked songs to Macha to fill in the blanks. As for how fleshed-out they were, I'm really curious; if Bedhead only deliveredsome melodic sketch to the finale, I'm blown over by how Macha first added some telephone dial sounds, then realized that a wonderful, thoroughly original remake of Cher's "Believe" lurked within.

While the genius behind this cover version cover left me dumbstruck (and I'm someone who actually thinks it means something to have surpassed Cher's original), the swirling beauty of the other tracks, made to a shimmer by skilled male vocals, brings off a mixture of passion and sadness that, heard again and again, seems like the soundtrack to all those great dreams you wake from and immediately forget. Of these, I think "You and New Plastic" is my favorite, but the 80 parts of watery, childlike dreaminess that make up "How are Your Windows" are equal cause for rejoicing.

As for the question first posed by Cher -- "Do you believe in life after love?" -- here is my answer: when great bands like Macha and Bedhead exist, it's almost scary how easily pain can be forgotten...as long as their songs keep playing. If you've ever loved Seely, Boards of Canada or stuff like Galaxie 500, you're almost guaranteed to love Macha and Bedhead who, of course, love each other too.