Motion City Soundtrack was an American rock band that formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1997. The band's line-up consisted of vocalist and guitarist Justin Pierre, lead guitarist Joshua Cain, keyboardist Jesse Johnson, bassist Matthew Taylor, and drummer Tony Thaxton.

After signing with Epitaph, they recorded three new songs with the bands Reggie and the Full Effect and Ultimate Fakebook for a triple split EP which was never released. The new songs were added to the second release of I Am the Movie, which was released via Epitaph on June 24, 2003. This was a wider release than the initial release since they were now on a label. Using funds from the label to pay for the recording sessions, the band re-recorded several songs on the album to match their original vision. During this time, the band visited the United Kingdom for the first time in 2003 while on tour with Sugarcult, followed by performing at Warped Tour 2003. The band continued to tour heavily into the next year, with US dates alongside Rufio, Mae, and Fall Out Boy, Simple Plan, MxPx, and a European trek with Sugarcult, the All-American Rejects, Limbeck as part of the "Totally Wicked Awesome Tour". During this time, the band also filmed music videos for the singles "The Future Freaks Me Out" and "My Favorite Accident". The group began accumulating significant buzz, and were regarded as a must-see act on the Warped Tour 2004.  The band joined Blink-182 for touring stints in Europe and Japan throughout 2004, at the recommendation of that band's bassist, Mark Hoppus. Cain invited Hoppus to produce Motion City's sophomore album, and he accepted. That album, Commit This to Memory, was recorded at Seedy Underbelly Studios, a suburban home converted into a studio in Los Angeles' Valley Village region. It was written partially in their hometown of Minneapolis and in Los Angeles, during a period in which Pierre was seeking treatment for alcohol abuse. Commit This to Memory was the first album by the band to feature material crafted by each musician in the group, as previous releases had featured songs written in the years prior to each member joining. In addition, the band also had more time and funds create the album. During its recording process, Motion City embarked on their first headlining tour, The Sub-Par Punk Who Cares Tour 2004. By the end of 2004, the band had played over 270 shows.  Commit This to Memory, which was leaked to file sharing websites months before its official debut, saw release on June 7, 2005, peaking at number two on Billboard's Independent Albums chart. Pierre estimated that by 2015 the album had sold nearly 500,000 copies. The band's music videos found regular rotation on networks such as MTV2, and the band also performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. However, their mainstream breakthrough brought detractors, and they became a target for critics of pop punk: "[the band was] frequently characterized as the sort of ultra-commercial punk poseurs who water down the genre to the point of drowning it," wrote Michael Roberts of Westword. The group continued to tour "incessantly," attracting larger crowds. They began the year with the inaugural Epitaph Tour, alongside Matchbook Romance and From First to Last. It was followed by dates on the Warped Tour 2005 and the Nintendo Fusion Tour with Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, and The Starting Line, which was their largest nationwide tour to that point.

Ask a question about this article.
how did they come up with the name of that album?