Undercover: The Pilot (Headlights cover XTC) and announcing Holiday Undercover!

We've been meaning to show this off for a while: The folks from the excellent Illinois-based band Headlights were kind enough to be our guinea pigs for this year's Undercover series, playing us their version of XTC's "Making Plans For Nigel." You'll notice that the room isn't decorated yet, and the song wasn't on a list; we just asked them to play a cover, and here it is! Headlights' latest release is last year's Wildlife. Buy six!

Speaking of Undercover… On November 30, we're launching Holiday Undercover, which is similar to regular Undercover, but slightly different. This time, we asked bands to choose their own song, with two rules: It had to be a cover, and it had to be somehow holiday-related, however loosely. We'll air ten of those, twice a week from Nov. 30-Dec. 30. And then next March we'll (in theory at least) be back with another regular series. This time, we're planning to let A.V. Club readers help choose the songs, so stay tuned.