By Christoph Whitbeck
The Motorcycle Industry's The Only Friends Worth Having is the most ambitious EP I've heard in a while. In four songs, the band attempts to craft a solid, cohesive record, running the gamut from crazy summer pop rock jam to love lost yearning, without the jarring feeling of musical non-sequiturs—and they completely nail it.

I suppose the best way to describe this record is paradoxical. In just 14 minutes, we hear four completely different songs. On top of this, the songs themselves contain mini-paradoxes: while the lyrics to the chorus of the opening track "Paul Newman and a Ride Home" are a bit of a downer ("once you're gone you're gone for good, let me ease you back to health") the music makes you reach for both the volume knob and the window roll-down simultaneously. I mean, it just sounds better loud. Then we slow down a bit with "French for Tigers" and its cutesy chorus ("no one sings along to my songs the way you do!"), and end up slowing way down (and roll the windows back up) for the brooding "Electric Education.”

But what is wonderful about these paradoxes is that the band never loses honesty or integrity. They are dynamic, not contradictory; the lyrics are believable, not constructed, and they play their songs like they mean it, because they mean it. This is one band that very clearly loves what they're doing and wants you to enjoy it with them.

On first listen, this music can be easily misinterpreted and labeled as emo. And while it's a little reminiscent of Say Anything or Motion City Soundtrack (what with that synth on "Possessed" played by Mike Weiss), I'd say these kids are too happy for emo (ooh! another paradox!). Yes, John Langan's lyrics are a bit melancholy from time to time. The chorus to "Electric Education:” "It's been a long dark semester, but it's been way better without you" –just a sad chorus to have to repeat. But it's not what they say, it's more how they say it, and The Motorcycle Industry says it all with the joy and feeling that goes with doing what they love.

So grab their new EP, and ask your dad to PRETTY please borrow his Beemer, then grumble off to your shitty little '93 Subaru and turn this shit way up. Cos you're going for a sweet summer roadtrip upstate. And your car gets way better gas mileage than his anyways.