A leading light in the pop punk genre, Motion City Soundtrack includes members Joshua Cain (guitar), Tony Thaxton (drums), Justin Pierre (vocals / guitar) Jesse Johnson (Moog) and Matthew Taylor (bass) after his high-school Minneapolis MN native and Pierre Cain - both of which are inspired by Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbox The Flaming Lips, and Superchunk - formed the band in 1999 the couple together a temporary arrangement and issued a self-released 7 "that same year later, while touring through Pennsylvania in support of their release, Motion City Soundtrack met Thaxton and Taylor, Virginia-based band Submerge the two musicians decided to leave his hometown, Richmond, VA to join Motion City Soundtrack full-time and the expanded band soon entered the studio with producer / engineerEd Rose (The Get Up Kids Ultimate Fakebook) Three weeks before shooting began, they also joined keyboardist Jesse Johnson (whose personal record label Ordinary Records had issued some of Jimmy Eat World earliest material in 1995) to alleviate the singer / guitarist Pierre's synthesizer data
With a new layout in place the band's punk-glazed debut I Am the Movie was released in summer 2003 While playing venues and basements in support of the album, Motion City Soundtrack was picked up by Epitaph Records, a few years later, Blink-182 on a trip through Europe and Japan Blink bassist Mark Hoppus took a liking to the band and agreed to produce their next album, the resulting Commit This to Memory was released two years later ochskisserat an increasingly pop-heavy sound the Deluxe version of the album (complete with a bonus DVD) appeared in 2006 and the band spent the summer on the Warped Tour before heading to Europe with OK Go that fall into the studio for the third time, Motion City Soundtrack began to work with producers Adam Schlesinger (of Fountains of Wayne), Eli Janney (of girls to boys) and Ric Ocasek (of The Cars) The finished product even if it Kills Me was released in September 2007
