History

Formation and early years (1997-03)

The band was founded by guitarist Joshua Cain (left) and vocalist Justin Pierre (right).

Motion City Soundtrack was formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1997 by singer-songwriter Justin Pierre and guitarist Joshua Cain. The duo, having recently graduated from high school, had played in a number of bands—Cain previously in Super Red and Pierre in Slide Coaster. Cain, at that time in a group named the Saddest Girl Story, adopted Pierre as a singer when other members left. Pierre at the time had graduated from film school and was working on local productions. After moving on from that group, they both founded Motion City Soundtrack. The band's name, as well as the name of their debut album, were created by Cain's brother, Brian. Their early days were difficult, as they found it hard to break out of their local Minneapolis scene. When they could get weeks off from their jobs, they would tour. According to Cain, the members of the band soon realized that there "wasn't really anywhere to play in Minneapolis", and that they would have to "tour all the time" to rise in popularity. The band went through several lineup changes. Through these, Cain and Pierre would often have to take over keyboard duties during shows. The group's first release was a 7" single, "Promenade / Carolina", released in 1999. Their next two releases, both extended plays—Kids for America and Back to the Beat—were released the following year.

Over the course of the early 2000s, the band continued to tour and shuffle through members. In late 2001, while touring in Milton, Pennsylvania with the band Submerge, they convinced two of its members—bassist Matthew Taylor and drummer Tony Thaxton—to join Motion City. Thaxton initially took about a year to convince to join the band. Jesse Johnson, a friend and co-worker of Cain's, joined the band as keyboardist just three weeks before the band recorded their first album. Johnson had never played the keyboard before but Cain taught him the parts that had already been written. After their first attempt at self-recording an album failed, the band culled together $6,000 to record with producer Ed Rose, best known for his work with the Get Up Kids. They recorded much of their debut album in ten days, which was stressful, and Rose would frustrate the band with insults in order to record better. Initial copies of the band's debut, I Am the Movie, were hand-packaged inside floppy disks, which were sold out of the back of their tour van for a year.

The band began getting offers from various record labels, including Universal, Triple Crown Records, and Drive-Thru Records, and performed at industry showcases. Meanwhile, Brett Gurewitz, founder of Epitaph Records, learned of the band from members of the group Matchbook Romance. He attended four of their shows in Los Angeles that Pierre later regarded as among his worst, as his voice was poor from constant touring. While they were interested in Universal, they chose to sign to Epitaph as they felt the contract was less restrictive and more honest. Eli Janney from Girls Against Boys helped the band secure management and a lawyer. Motion City became part of a slew of Epitaph signings, including Matchbook Romance, Scatter the Ashes and From First to Last, amid concerns the Southern California label had strayed too far from its roots, and seemed "a little too emo."

Breakthrough and success (2003-06)

After signing with Epitaph, they recorded three new songs for a triple split EP with the bands Reggie and the Full Effect and Ultimate Fakebook, which was never released. Instead, they added the new songs to the new version of I Am the Movie, which saw a wider release via Epitaph on June 24, 2003. The band re-recorded several parts for the album to match their original vision using funds from Epitaph. During this time, the band visited the United Kingdom for the first time on dates with Sugarcult. followed by the Warped Tour 2003. The band continued to tour heavily into the next year, with US dates alongside Rufio, Mae, and Fall Out Boy, Simple Plan, MxPx, and a European trek with Sugarcult, the All-American Rejects, Limbeck as part of the "Totally Wicked Awesome Tour". During this time, the band also filmed music videos for the singles "The Future Freaks Me Out" and "My Favorite Accident".

The band joined Blink-182 for a European trek in early 2004, at the recommendation of their bassist, Mark Hoppus. Cain invited Hoppus to produce the band's sophomore album, and he accepted. They further joined Blink for shows in Japan in late 2004. The group accumulated significant buzz, and were regarded as a "must-see" act on the Warped Tour 2004. The band recorded their second album, Commit This to Memory, at Seedy Underbelly Studios, a suburban home converted into a studio in Los Angeles' Valley Village region. The album was written partially in their hometown of Minneapolis and partially in Los Angeles, during a period in which Pierre was seeking treatment for alcohol abuse. Commit This to Memory was the first album by the band to feature material crafted by each musician in the group, as previous releases had featured songs written in the years prior to each member joining. In addition, the band had more time and funds to spend time working on the album. During the recording of the album, the band embarked on their first headlining tour, The Sub-Par Punk Who Cares Tour 2004. By the end of 2004, the band had played over 270 shows that year.

Commit This to Memory, which was leaked to file sharing websites months before its official release, was officially released on June 7, 2005 and performed well, peaking at number two on Billboard's Independent Albums chart; Pierre estimated that by 2015, the album had sold nearly 500,000 copies. The band's music videos found regular rotation on networks such as MTV2, and the band also performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Nevertheless, the band’s breakthrough brought naysayers, and the group became targets for critics of pop punk: " frequently characterized as the sort of ultra-commercial punk poseurs who water down the genre to the point of drowning it." After recording, the band set out on the inaugural Epitaph Tour, alongside Matchbook Romance and From First to Last, with appearances by the Matches and Scatter the Ashes on select dates. The band played to larger crowds on the tours supporting the album, including over 9,000 fans on a Chicago date in 2005. The group "toured incessantly," including dates on the Warped Tour 2005. Afterwards, the band joined the Nintendo Fusion Tour with Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, and The Starting Line, which was their largest nationwide tour to that point.

Continued success (2007-11)

The band's follow-up, Even If It Kills Me (2007), was recorded in New York City with Eli Janney, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, and Ric Ocasek of the Cars. The group, though big fans of his work, were disappointed with Ocasek's role; "he just confused me the whole time," said Pierre later, who noted that he was afraid to disclose that the experience was a "bum-out." Pierre struggled with writer's block during the sessions and found himself writing lyrics while recording the song, which had never happened before. In addition, the band were worried their songs would not be catchy enough after their predecessor was so successful. During this time, Pierre's substance abuse nearly disbanded the group. "I think it's an understatement to say it is tough to be tied to Justin's emotions," Cain later remarked. Following completion of the album, Pierre entered a three-week rehabilitation program for alcohol and drug abuse. The band were apart for a six-week stretch in the summer of 2007, marking their longest break apart in five years. "It might sound cliched, but we all had a chance to do some growing up," said Cain.

Even If It Kills Me was released on September 18, 2007 and represented a large leap from the group's last chart performance: it peaked at number 16 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the magazine's Independent Albums chart. "This Is for Real" became their best-charting single, peaking at number 48 in Australia. Cain later felt that the band placed far too much emphasis at the time on "numbers and trajectory instead of the creative process." The following year saw a rise in profile for the band: they worked out promotional deals with Coca-Cola and Pepsi, their music was licensed in various television shows, movies, and video games, and they toured heavily. The band released an acoustic EP featuring songs from Even if It Kills Me in May 2008; they later released a music video for the acoustic rendition of "Fell in Love Without You". After the release of the EP, the band toured on the Honda Civic Tour with Panic at the Disco and Phantom Planet, and then had a stint on the last weeks of the Warped Tour 2008. In September, they headlined on the The Left Handed Forms of Human Endeavor Tour.

For their fourth album, the band moved from Epitaph to major label Columbia Records; they signed a multiple-album deal months before releasing their previous album. Following the move, the guitarist Joshua Cain said, "It just felt right to make the move when there was the right interest there." With the new signing, the band's promotional team aimed to develop a balance between the benefits of a new major label and their previous grass-roots approach. The album saw the band reunite with producer Mark Hoppus, and it was mostly recorded at his studio in North Hollywood, Opra Music, between April and June 2009. Hoppus said that the band wanted to follow in the tracks of Commit This to Memory, but to push things further. Pierre later recalled that the atmosphere in the studio was more loose than their first time working with Hoppus. The band picked the title My Dinosaur Life after a quote Pierre kept repeating—they felt it a nice representation of the album's themes, which include growing old and feeling out of place. After completing the album, the band toured with Blink-182 on their reunion tour, and Pierre undertook a promotional tour called On the Dino Trail wherein he performed acoustic sets.

My Dinosaur Life was released to acclaim from music critics upon its debut on January 19, 2010, and it represented the band's all-time best chart performance, peaking at number 15 on the Billboard 200. The group supported Weezer on several dates during this time, and they began a headlining tour in late January in the US. In the first three months following the album's release, the band continued to tour heavily: they travelled to Australia for the national Soundwave festival, as well as to Japan and the UK. The band began to receive radio airplay for the first time in their career, and released a music video for the single "Her Words Destroyed My Planet". They embarked on a large tour with Say Anything between October and November 2010, and premiered a self-shot video for "A Lifeless Ordinary" during that time. However, Columbia dropped the band later that year, with the commercial performance of My Dinosaur Life leading to the split. "I guess we didn't do as well as they hoped or expected us to," said Pierre that year. "And we felt that having all their resources at our disposal would perhaps propel us into another dimension. But we are what we are regardless of what label or machine is behind us. We did exceptionally well, though, if you want to look strictly at sales numbers in today's climate."

Later years (2012-16)

After being dropped by Columbia, the band set off to Brazil in support of All Time Low in January 2011. Afterwards, they began recording their fifth studio album with producer and longtime friend Ed Ackerson at his studio, Flowers Studio, in Minneapolis. The band recorded on their own time with their own resources, which both provided comfort and a sense of nervous to the group. They did not sit down and preconceive the album as a change in style, but rather relaxed and took their time writing it. "We just felt like it was like we were just taking our time and just kinda living life and not worrying about too much other than getting together and making music," remarked Taylor. Pierre has since looked back on Go with mixed emotions, citing it as his personal least favorite album by the band. He noted that he was struggling with dark thoughts and felt that the band's collective misery translated on the record.

Following the recording of Go, the band set out on the "4 Albums. 2 Nights. 7 Cities" tour, which found the band performing their past discography over two nights. They also covered "Wait So Long" by Trampled by Turtles for a split 7" released in November 2011. During that time period, they searched for the label to release Go, ultimately returning to Epitaph. Go was released on June 12, 2012 and received mixed reviews from contemporary music critics. Its chart performance represented a large drop-off from its predecessors, peaking at number 46 on the Billboard 200 and number eight on the Independent Albums chart. "True Romance" was the album's lead single, and featured a one-shot music video reminiscent of the works of Spike Jonze. The group spent much of the remaining year on the road, including dates in Asia in mid-2012 and a headlining US tour in October and November.

Drummer Tony Thaxton departed the group in March 2013 following battles with tour-related depression. The band enlisted longtime friend Claudio Rivera of Saves the Day as their new drummer, and released a one-off single with him, "Inside Out", in celebration. The band immediately began writing for a new album, but then their output slowed, and the group shelved a group of demos they recorded with Mike Sapone, who also worked with Brand New. In the meantime, a video documentary of sorts, I Am the Movie: The Movie, was released in 2013. It mainly consists of footage shot of the band around the time of the album's creation. The group participated in Warped Tour 2013 and went on a co-headlining tour with Relient K that November.

The group recorded their sixth album, Panic Stations, over two weeks at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota in June 2014. For the album, the group collaborated with producer John Agnello, well-known for his work with Dinosaur Jr., Walt Mink, and Sonic Youth. The album was largely recorded live. The album's release was delayed by over a year, however, due to the birth of Pierre's daughter and other factors. In the interim, the group embarked on a tour celebrating the tenth anniversary of Commit This to Memory between January and February 2015, playing the album in its entirety; the band later extended this anniversary tour, and further toured the album between June and August 2015. Panic Stations was released on September 18, 2015 to positive reviews from music critics, but it debuted even lower on music charts than its predecessor. A tour with the Wonder Years followed between October and November 2015, and saw the release a split 7" between the two bands.

As the band entered 2016, Cain felt the future for the band was bright: "We're not done yet. I think we got more music in us," he told Substream Magazine in January 2016. Despite this, two months later, the band announced their break-up with a statement that read in part, "We have no idea what the future holds, but for now we are done." The band will embark on the So Long, Farewell Tour across North America between May and June 2016 with original drummer Tony Thaxton returning.

Musical style and influences

Music

The band's array of influences mostly include alternative rock and emo bands Superchunk, Jawbox, Sunny Day Real Estate, the Flaming Lips, Fugazi, and Pavement. Additional artists that inspired the band includes Braid and The Rentals, Elvis Costello, Pixies, Tom Waits, Ben Folds, the Weakerthans, Poster Children, the Carpenters, and the Cardigans. AllMusic additionally credits bands such as Weezer, Blink-182, and the Get Up Kids as influences, among others. Pierre quoted Waits that "all anybody ever does is imitate their favorite artist—badly," adding, "we're just regurgitating all the crap we listened to in the late '80s and early '90s, the music that got us into playing music in the first place."

The band's musical style is widely recognizable by its unique blend of pop punk with the Moog synthesizer. The usage of the Moog stems from Cain, who first heard the instrument employed on the Rentals' album Return of the Rentals (1995). He subsequently bought a cheap Moog at a pawn shop and wanted it to be an integral part of Motion City upon their formation. Johnson became known for his signature "Moogstand" in live performances, which consisted over a handstand on the instrument. The group has been widely attributed to a number of different genres, including pop rock, indie rock, emo, and pop punk. Joshua Cain dismissed this latter label, remarking, "I definitely wouldn't consider us a pop-punk band. Our influences are more based on '90s bands like Superchunk and early Weezer." Pierre characterized the band's music as "dirty, fast, happy, emotional rock songs."

Nylon compared the music of their debut album, I Am the Movie, to All and the Get Up Kids. It has been described as having a "distinctly unified and identifiable style." Subsequent releases varied in style. My Dinosaur Life, for example, saw the band attempting to emulate their favorite post-hardcore acts, such as Archers of Loaf, Fugazi, and Dinosaur Jr..

Lyrics

A large portion of Motion City Soundtrack's lyrical content is written by lead vocalist, Justin Pierre. Over the years this material has been largely affected by his personal life and past experiences. Songs came about in a myriad of ways: many times, the band would write music first that Pierre would set words to, or Pierre would write a song on guitar with words and bring it to the band. Pierre could often "spend hours and days and weeks and months on lyrics—sometimes they come quick, sometimes they don't come at all," he said. He noted that he had a screenwriting teacher in film school that taught him to "write what you know," but in his case, he could only write about "being a self-obsessed pessimistic sort of loser." This led him to characterize his writing as a sort of therapy for him and a vehicle to better understand the human condition.

Commit This to Memory "addresses the themes of substance abuse, psychological disorders and failing relationships." For the record, he intended to simplify his lyrics to enhance storytelling and he drew inspiration from Tom Waits, Ben Folds, and John K. Samson's writing styles. In some cases, he chose to write from another individual's point of view, rather than his own. Their next album, Even If It Kills Me, was Pierre's first "written completely sober, after battling drugs and alcohol for years"; consequently, the record is more optimistic and less self-loathing. My Dinosaur Life has lyrics relating to relationships, procrastination, and Pierre's own desire for a life away from his self-destructive behavior. Much of the lyricism on fifth album Go is consumed with death and "the eventual demise of everything"; the idea that "nothing lasts forever" is one of the album’s most important points.

Band members

Final lineup Justin Pierre - lead vocals, rhythm guitar (1997-2016) Joshua Cain - lead guitar, backing vocals (1997-2016) Jesse Johnson - Moog synthesizer, keyboard (2001-2016) Matthew Taylor - bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (2002-2016) Tony Thaxton - drums, percussion, backing vocals (2001-2013, 2016)

Former members Joe Skinner - guitar (1997) Andrew 'Andy' Whitney - drums (1997-1998) Andrew Gruhn - Moog synthesizer (1998) Austin Lindstrom - bass guitar (1998-2000, 2001-2002) Joel Habedank - drums (1998-2000) Matt Potocnik - bass guitar (2000-2001) Sidney Burgdorf - drums (2001) Claudio Rivera - drums, percussion, backing vocals (2013-2016)

Timeline

Discography

Main articles: Motion City Soundtrack discography and List of songs recorded by Motion City Soundtrack

• I Am the Movie (2003)
• Commit This to Memory (2005)
• Even If It Kills Me (2007)
• My Dinosaur Life (2010)
• Go (2012)
• Panic Stations (2015)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]