Motion City Soundtrack is an American rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota, formed in 1997. Only two of the founding members are still a part of the lineup: lead vocalist and guitarist Justin Pierre and lead guitarist and backing vocalist Joshua Cain. The band also includes keyboardist and moog synthesist Jesse Johnson, bassist and backing vocalist Matthew Taylor, with drummer, percussionist and backing vocalist Tony Thaxton. Motion City Soundtrack has released four studio albums and sold almost 600,000 records throughout their career, including over half a million in the United States alone.
Motion City Soundtrack's first release was a 7" single, "Promenade/Carolina", in 1999. The following year they released their debut EP, Kids for America, and then a second, Back to the Beat. They released debut album I Am the Movie twice, in 2002. Their first five releases were all self-released with the aid of a small record label. Backed up by their constant touring it fashioned them a fast growing fan base, and a signing with Epitaph Records.
After spending their first five years finding the right lineup, the Epitaph re-issue of I Am the Movie in 2003 was the band's big break. First major single "The Future Freaks Me Out" arrived with live and television success, but failed in radio airplay and the charts. 2003 and 2004 brought three Split EPs alongside Schatzi, Limbeck and Matchbook Romance. The second album, Commit This to Memory, has been their most successful album to date, selling 285,000+ records and peaking at number two on the Independent Albums chart. It featured the single, "Everything Is Alright", which also found success on the likes of MTV, but also fell short in radio airplay and the charts.
The band released their third full-length album Even if It Kills Me in 2007. The album debuted at number 16 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Independent Albums chart. It produced singles "Broken Heart", "This Is for Real" and "It Had to Be You", which all received television airplay. Motion City Soundtrack released a fourth album entitled My Dinosaur Life in January 2010, which debuted at number 15 on the Billboard 200. It is their first album released on Columbia, a major record label.
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