I'm well aware that this is likely the 1,000th time I've quoted this, but it's something that has stuck with me for years. It comes on the bonus features of the DVD of the Talking Heads concert film, Stop Making Sense, and it's a segment in which David Byrne interviews himself. When asked why he feels comfortable being the frontman of a band, Byrne responds thusly: "The better the singer's voice, the harder it is to believe what they're saying. So, I turn my weaknesses into strengths."

If I could drunkenly draft my will, I'd have that quote etched onto my gravestone. It essentially defines how I've consumed music for the past decade, and it continues unabated. Whenever people ask me what sort of music I like, I tend to fall back on three requirements: unique voice, big sound, and wordy lyrics. This is the blueprint for my enjoyment of music, in all its simplistic glory. I'll never forget how excited I was when I heard the Riffbrokers, something like four years ago.

Singer-songwriter Nick Millward achieved all of the requirements of my simple, music-loving mind. With a voice that resembles a more nimble version of Elvis Costello's nasal croon, Millward drew me in, sonically, before I had a chance to really appreciate the beauty of his lyrics. With the rest of the band consisting of Nick's wife Heather Millward (bass), as well as Chris Cline (guitar) and Ryan Maxwell (drums), the Riffbrokers like to refer to themselves as "powerpop twang," which works just as well as anything else. They sound like what would happen if Tom Petty earned his stripes in the indie punk underground.

"I was always influenced by, obviously, the Beatles, the Byrds, Bob Dylan, John Prine," says Nick Millward. "I kind of just went head first into songwriting, lyrically, in a sort of stream-of-consciousness way. I would start out with a catchy Beatles chord that made sense, and then add some bulls--- diary poetry, and just work it out, phrasing-wise. Some songs come, like a ghost, passing through. But a lot of it, I would say, is that poetic stuff. It's a mystery. I never anticipated anybody paying close attention to it, so I don't know how to explain it (Laughs)."

The Riffbrokers got their start in 1999 in Boise, Idaho. Soon, they hiked their cookies to Seattle, where they've remained. Still, it's hard for me to imagine them as a Seattle band. Their music and lyrics always make me picture a rambling band somewhere deep in the desert. There's a dry heat to their music and a lucid clarity to their words that belies a blue-collar poet at the heart of their songs. When Nick talks about how he never thought anyone would notice the lyrics, it's likely because of the unabashedly catchy nature of the music, which hides words like, "Have you seen the deus ex machina? Is that what you want for your denouement?" These are lyrics that sound wordy as all get out, but come across as hooky as all get out when laid over the Riffbrokers' music.

As a music critic, it gives me legitimate joy to expose people to a band that I fear too few people have heard. When I heard the Riffbrokers in 2010, I was so excited to write them up, and to later feature them in my music festival. This is the first time I've given them a proper write-up, and I feel like I'm exploding with so many words to say about them that this paper just will not do. I get all worked up about a band that stands as one of the most talented and most laidback bands around. As such, do yourself a favor and catch them on one of the few occasions they come out and do a Tacoma show.

THE RIFFBROKERS, w/ the Dignitaries, the Oly Electric, 5 p.m., Sunday, July 13, The Swiss Restaurant & Pub, 1904 S. Jefferson St., Tacoma, cover tba, 253.572.2821