If you think about it, Motion City Soundtrack and UCSD are a lot alike. There’s a sense that Soundtrack could someday see the fame of playground pop-punkers Blink-182 or Fall Out Boy, if only they stretched a little bit further and wrote that perfect song with the just the right balance of moog and cool to burn up the Billboard. Instead ‘mdash; like UCSD, in a third-place jog behind the beefier northern UCs ‘mdash; the quintet remains just out of MTV’s monolithic reach, despite a handful of near hits and an impressive Japanese fan base.
OK, that’s not exactly true. Piggybacking a team of notable production gurus ‘mdash; Eli Janney of Girls Against Boys, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne and geek god Ric Ocasek of the Cars ‘mdash; 2007’s Even If It Kills Me landed the critics, finally garnering Soundtrack some much-needed props. Singles like the bass-powered ‘This Is for Real’ blew the same wind-in-hair bliss you get from driving your first car down the highway; ‘Fell in Love Without You’ mimics the pert spirit of 2003’s ‘The Future Freaks Me Out’ but thankfully steers from the former’s high-pitched bent while keeping squeaky-clean synth choruses intact. Though drawing from a history of worry-free bounce, the album reflected a more nuanced, versatile group ‘mdash; debted both to their newly grown-up sensibilities and a crowded guest list.
I asked bassist Matthew Taylor if there were any brawls in the Kills Me studio.
‘Adam’s more of a pop guy, and Eli’s into the whole D.C. punk scene ‘hellip; so there was definitely an interesting mix of ideas,’ Taylor said carefully. ‘But Ric didn’t want to do anything to [our sound]. ‘Even If It Kills Me’ used to be a 15-second little ditty, and Ric extended it, put in a bridge and made it into a full-length track. So, yeah, it was a good experience all around.’
Now that they’ve re-tailored their skinny jeans to account for the years, the Minnesota natives are recruiting Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus for the studio, looking for a fresh release to propel them ‘mdash; once and for all ‘mdash; into the bedrooms of squealing preteens across the globe.
‘It’s cool to work with a producer who’s been in your shoes,’ Taylor said. ‘He’s like a big brother who has really good advice ‘hellip; He keeps it light in the studio. Sometimes you can take yourself too seriously.’
But it’s hard to imagine that Soundtrack ever take anything too seriously ‘mdash; even tongue-in-cheek lyrics on self-medication and pill popping are delivered with giddy enthusiasm on ‘Everything Is Alright.’ Taylor insists that the dark irony is intentional.
‘We’re just happy dudes ‘hellip; with some not-so-happy moments,’ he said.
Slowly but surely, the boys are breaking from short-lived commercial cameos and finding their place in the limelight. Nonetheless ‘mdash; like any one of us, procrastinating between seventh-week breakdowns ‘mdash; they know how to have a good fucking time doing it.