Like the smoldering four-lane blacktop their name evokes, Motorway's music seems to stretch in two seemingly opposite directions. On the one side, their music harkens back to such guitar-driven, emotionally honest bands as the KINKS and REPLACEMENTS. Yet, the band infuses sturdy pop craftsmanship and structure into their clean, rootsy style. The end result is thrilling, as each song progresses in a way that seems as inevitable and inescapable as a memory. It's quite a ride.

      Motorway formed in the fall of 1999 and began hitting the club circuit in New Orleans, polishing their sound and trying to settle on a name. and early choice, TIN STAR, had to be discarded after a U.K. band with the same name threatened litigation (an early brush with irony, given that the band wears it Britpop influences like a badge of honor). By the time the current name was chosen, in the spring of the following year, the group had begun to build a solid fan base and also the respect and admiration of their musical peers, with TOM DRUMMOND of BETTER THAN EZRA offering to produce their first demo, five dollars. That summer the group toured with legendary tour monsters Cowboy Mouth, an experience that first seemed daunting because of the band's almost fanatical following. "If Fred (LeBlanc, Cowboy Mouth's front man) said 'go loot the city," they'd go," guitarist Mike Blum remembers. But despite their apprehension, "the crowd liked us...and we got a great lesson in working the crowd." More tours with James Hall, Mary Lou Lord, and Better Than EZRA followed, as well as many gigs with national acts playing within New Orleans. Everything culminated in the spring of 2000 as the band was invited to play SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST in Austin, and MTV licensed the band's timeless ballad "EVERAFTER" for use on it's REAL WORLD series.

   MOTORWAY'S music continued to develop and grow, with Britpop influences becoming more prevalent in the songwriting while the songs' catchy, anthemic choruses hardened during live performances. Lead Vocalist Peter Winkler calls the sound "POWER POP," and likens it to "RADIOHEAD meets the REPLACEMENTS with a little bit of CHEAP TRICK." In the fall of 2000 the band recorded their debut full-length album, UNDERWATER DEMOLITION. The ten tracks encompass the band's range of styles, from the progressive sound of "SATELLITE" to the trippier electronic arrangement of "LITTLE PILLS"

   The album garnered the band a warm and enthusiastic reception from critics. Offbeat, New Orleans's leading music magazine, described motorway's pop as a "compass that points toward the kinks and sundry Britpop....but like the better guitar pop bands, MOTORWAY effectively blends the influences so that the songs all eventually sound like they're more than the sum of they're influences." While the Times-Picayune noted the album's "smart arrangements and solid musicianship."

More touring followed, and the band continued to play with such national acts as the CONTINENTAL DRIFTERS, LIT, THE JOSH JOPLIN BAND, AND CRACKER. In the spring of 2002 MOTORWAY made a second trip to SXSW while working on a self titled follow-up EP. The disc marks a new level of songwriting for the group, as tracks such as "SHE" continue in the Britpop vein of TRAVIS or vintage HOUSEMARTINS while " MEANS TO AN END" has the Countryish, breezy jangle of WILCO or UNCLE TUPELO.

"This album's definitely a new level for us, " says guitarist COLIN BROWN. "You get to the point where you say, 'Where do you go from here?' and you have to try to take what you've done and build on it. so that what you have is better than what you've done before, but at the same time true to everything you're about."

Moving in two directions, at the same time