with Motion City Soundtrack

By Mike Hume

The hair alone deserves a comment. But most likely everyone who has crossed paths with the Minnesota quintet that sports Joan Rivers “Don’ts” as “dos” has made all the essential jokes already. And even more likely, the crazily coifed members of Motion City Soundtrack are among them.

Humor is a staple for the group that is rising towards the top of the power-pop landscape, and if you don’t believe it, look no further than the opening of the band’s MySpace.com bio: “Motion City Soundtrack, the most influential rock band in the history of the world, has been destroying the hopes and dreams of small children everywhere since 1997. This quintet of ex-Sears catalog hand models reside for the most part in Minneapolis, Minnesota; where it is always a pleasant 78 degrees and sunny.”

As if you need to be told, none of that is true. Not even the kiddy-dream destruction bit. Why, just recently the band indulged a group of them at a private show in Denver.

“In the dressing room right before the show, Matt [ Taylor] called me over by the curtain to look out at the crowd,” drummer Tony Thaxton recounts. “Literally no one was standing in front of the stage.”

The party turned out to be a graduation party for a private school class of 52 students.

“We played to about 40 kids,” Thaxton said. “Maybe five of them knew who we were.”

The sparse surroundings are a rare sight for the band these days. By the end of last year’s Warped Tour, when the men of Motion City Soundtrack looked out at the crowd they saw throngs of humanity. Fans squeezed shoulder to shoulder, struggling to fit around the stage … a stage that sat outdoors.

With their success mounting after a smash second release produced by Blink 182 bassist Mark Hoppus and their humorous and high-flying live shows earning them a rep to be reckoned with, the quintet is very much on the rise. That’s why the gig, an extremely well paying gig according to Thaxton, caught the band a little off guard.

Those kids should count themselves lucky. As Motion City heads back out on the “Warped” path this summer, fans at those festivals will have to endure a heck of a lot more to get so close, especially now that the band has been bumped to the main stage.

Things are certainly on the upswing for the band that first formed at a video store in Minnesota in 1999. And while Thaxton can’t put his finger on any one moment that triggered the ascent that had Rolling Stone touting them as a “Band to Watch” in December of 2005, one watershed moment has to be the band’s tour of Europe and Japan with Blink 182. During that time, Hoppus mentioned off-handedly that he was interested in producing and the boys in Motion City finally worked up the courage to ask him to produce theirs. A short while later they were in Los Angeles with him to work on their new album, Commit This to Memory.

With 200,000 albums sold, you can safely say the musical marriage worked. So well, in fact, that the album is being re-released, complete with DVD, June 20.

As wry as ever, the quirky quintet is never short on amusing lyrics that are simultaneously blunt and deep. As is the case in the band’s signature track, “Everything Is Alright,” a jab at over-medication and O.C.D. kitchen maintenance: “I’m sick of the things I do when I'm nervous / Like cleaning the oven or checking my tires / Or counting the number of tiles in the ceiling / Head for the hills, the kitchen's on fire!”

The emo/pop/rock blend that worked so well for Hoppus and Blink 182 is in no short supply, luring listeners with catchy guitar hooks and, of course, humorous lyrics covering somewhat serious topics. The latter is something of a trademark for Motion City Soundtrack, and that frankness and candor is something the band does rather well. Thaxton explains it this way: “We’re not cool guys,” he says. “We know that and we don’t have to try to fool anybody.”

What they do have to do is continue to keep their name in the mainstream. That’s why they are following up their latest headlining tour, which sold out all but two venues (we’re not sure if the party of 50 counts as a sellout or not), with another jaunt on the Warped Tour. That music fest hits locally this Thursday, June 15 when it comes to Merriweather Post Pavilion.