page_title: Motion City Soundtrack
section_title: Continued success (2007–11)
hierarchical_section_title: Motion City Soundtrack / History / Continued success (2007–11)
caption_attribution_description: Motion City Soundtrack's Tony Thaxton performing at the Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston, TX on October 23, 2007.
context_page_description: Motion City Soundtrack is an American rock band that formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1997. The band's line-up consists of vocalist and guitarist Justin Pierre, lead guitarist Joshua Cain, keyboardist Jesse Johnson, bassist Matthew Taylor, and drummer Tony Thaxton. Over the course of their career, the group has toured heavily and released six studio albums, the majority on independent label Epitaph Records. The band's sound, at times described as pop punk or emo, makes notable use of the Moog synthesizer. Pierre mainly handles the band's lyrics, which often touch on themes of anxiety, alienation, and relationships.
  The band was founded by Cain and Pierre, and it took several years to form a stable lineup. I Am the Movie, the group's debut album, was released in 2003. Their commercial breakthrough, Commit This to Memory, arrived in 2005, and its follow-up Even If It Kills Me was similarly successful. For many years, the band was a staple of the Warped Tour. They briefly signed to major label Columbia for My Dinosaur Life, but rejoined Epitaph for Go in 2012. Their most recent effort, Panic Stations, was released in 2015.
context_section_description: 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 songs, which he had never done before. The band was also worried their songs would not be catchy enough after their last album was so successful. During this time, Pierre's substance issues nearly disbanded the group. "I think it's an understatement to say it is tough to be tied to Justin's emotions," Cain remarked at the time. Following completion of the album, Pierre entered a rehabilitation program for alcohol and drug abuse. The band was apart for a six-week stretch in mid-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. After the release of that EP, the band toured on the Honda Civic Tour with Panic at the Disco and Phantom Planet, and then joined the last weeks of the Warped Tour 2008. In September, they headlined on The Left Handed Forms of Human Endeavor Tour.
  Motion City signed a multiple-album deal with Columbia Records several 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. Their next album saw the band reunite with producer Mark Hoppus, and the album 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. They 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 traveled to Australia for the national Soundwave festival, as well as to Japan and the UK. The band also began to receive radio airplay for the first time in their career, and they released a music video for the single "Her Words Destroyed My Planet". The group embarked on a large tour with Say Anything between October and November 2010, and premiered a self-shot video for "A Lifeless 
caption: Drummer Tony Thaxton performing with the band in 2007.
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