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Motion City Soundtrack — General Thread


boxelder

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i always thought the biggest flaw of this band was relying on the success of their first two records and doing countless anniversary shows for them. doesn't surprise me at all that they can't stay broken up and feel the need to keep playing anniversary gigs. i can't imagine they've found a better way to make money.

dont get me wrong, i absolutely love the first three records and saw them maybe 15 times in their prime. i just have no idea what happened after that. i think the three records after that totally suck. 

 

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3 hours ago, wannabe corn dog said:

and doing countless anniversary shows for them.

MCS has only done one album anniversary tour. for commit this to memory, in 2015 (the 10th). in 2010 they did a six city tour where they played two nights in each city, two full albums per night, for the four albums they had at that time. but again, only six cities. and that was a full album thing, not any kind of anniversary or retrospective. and it was four records.

they might have played an album in its entirety at something like riotfest; lots of bands do that.

i fully agree that their first two albums are by far their strongest. and it's cool if you don't really dig anything beyond even if it kills me. but your contention that they "feel the need to keep playing anniversary gigs" and do "countless anniversary shows" is hyperbolic and not borne out by the facts.

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Genuinely surprised people don't consider My Dinosaur Life good, it's tied best for me with CTTM. I don't rate IATM as much as most. Hell I even liked Go, the only album I consider weak is Panic Stations. 

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surprised too many don't like MCS post-CTTM. it's true that EIIKM has some filler and might be a little too poppy, but MDL fucking rips and go, while it took me a while to come around to it, is a powerful listen. panic stations is the only one where it feels like they're going through the motions, and it felt right for them to call it a day after that record. but even it has its bright spots.

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1 hour ago, Kay said:

Genuinely surprised people don't consider My Dinosaur Life good, it's tied best for me with CTTM. I don't rate IATM as much as most. Hell I even liked Go, the only album I consider weak is Panic Stations. 

it took me a while to warm to dinosaur's lack of moog performance throughout. the keyboard work is a bit too subtle for me. and some of the tracks are slowed down to a radio-pandering mainstreamy tempo ("a life less ordinary") which i found annoying.

i am the movie is my second favorite after commit this to memory. i don't think it holds together as a singular work because it's cobbled together from tracks written over like a four year period.

i really like the raw and open production sound of panic stations.

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10 hours ago, Kay said:

Genuinely surprised people don't consider My Dinosaur Life good, it's tied best for me with CTTM. I don't rate IATM as much as most. Hell I even liked Go, the only album I consider weak is Panic Stations. 

 

8 hours ago, daveyjones said:

it took me a while to warm to dinosaur's lack of moog performance throughout. the keyboard work is a bit too subtle for me. and some of the tracks are slowed down to a radio-pandering mainstreamy tempo ("a life less ordinary") which i found annoying.

i am the movie is my second favorite after commit this to memory. i don't think it holds together as a singular work because it's cobbled together from tracks written over like a four year period.

i really like the raw and open production sound of panic stations.

Ironically, my top favorite MCS albums are MDL and IATM with EIIKM following after. CTTM is on the lower tier of my list but by no means do I think it’s a bad album. I can definitely see why people would see it as their magnum opus, with the right amount of moodiness from IATM but a bit more light-hearted and energetic. Plus it had the signature Moog sound all over the album. I just never connected to the album as a whole as much as the other albums, but I still love a majority of the album like FLR, WYA, HMD, AT, LGFUAD, etc.

MDL is my probably my favorite album because of nostalgic purposes (MS band teacher showed A Lifeless Ordinary to the class) since I think most of their hits are on that album which leads to them being the first songs I checked out. I always felt like MDL was their most aggressive album, only a handful of songs went completely dark but Justin’s vocal performance gave a lot of intensity and aggressiveness to the album. IATM just felt like a mellow yet cynical album due to Justin constantly referring to his alcoholism and other mental issues at the time. EIIKM was the band’s other mellow album but a lot more moody and romantic that just demands to be played on a rainy day.

Not diving too deep into this, but Go is highly underrated. It felt like their weakest album, like something was missing. Still a great album, I just figured that they wanted to do a different approach to songwriting, which explains why you don’t hear the guitar full front and center compared to the other albums. Panic Stations and Inside Out were solid efforts but I felt like there were no dynamics considering the bass and other instruments were always distorted (probably for the raw production like Davey said) and Claudio didn’t seem to be as dynamic as Tony was. Ironically enough, I always thought he was similar to Ilan because of the loud and aggressive feel to the drums, they just happen to look alike as well lol.

Good on @boxelder for creating this thread because I would love to have nerdy conversations about MCS on the boards!

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4 hours ago, jlx9 said:

 

Ironically, my top favorite MCS albums are MDL and IATM with EIIKM following after. CTTM is on the lower tier of my list but by no means do I think it’s a bad album. I can definitely see why people would see it as their magnum opus, with the right amount of moodiness from IATM but a bit more light-hearted and energetic. Plus it had the signature Moog sound all over the album. I just never connected to the album as a whole as much as the other albums, but I still love a majority of the album like FLR, WYA, HMD, AT, LGFUAD, etc.

MDL is my probably my favorite album because of nostalgic purposes (MS band teacher showed A Lifeless Ordinary to the class) since I think most of their hits are on that album which leads to them being the first songs I checked out. I always felt like MDL was their most aggressive album, only a handful of songs went completely dark but Justin’s vocal performance gave a lot of intensity and aggressiveness to the album. IATM just felt like a mellow yet cynical album due to Justin constantly referring to his alcoholism and other mental issues at the time. EIIKM was the band’s other mellow album but a lot more moody and romantic that just demands to be played on a rainy day.

Not diving too deep into this, but Go is highly underrated. It felt like their weakest album, like something was missing. Still a great album, I just figured that they wanted to do a different approach to songwriting, which explains why you don’t hear the guitar full front and center compared to the other albums. Panic Stations and Inside Out were solid efforts but I felt like there were no dynamics considering the bass and other instruments were always distorted (probably for the raw production like Davey said) and Claudio didn’t seem to be as dynamic as Tony was. Ironically enough, I always thought he was similar to Ilan because of the loud and aggressive feel to the drums, they just happen to look alike as well lol.

Good on @boxelder for creating this thread because I would love to have nerdy conversations about MCS on the boards!

Go came at just the right time for me, I was starting a job fresh out of graduation and I was terrified and stressed, and that year turned out to be one of the hardest and most depressing of my life, so Go helped me deal with a lot of that. Bottom Feeder, Happy Anniversary, Timelines and Everyone Will Die gave me room to exercise some of those feelings - hell, I blasted True Romance on repeat when I was planning to propose. 

it's funny that everyone mentions the Moog side of things - I genuinely don't care for it and it's had nothing to do with what I like about MCS. MCS are probably my biggest song writing / lyrical influencers as a singer songwriter (as @Ghost will tell you, he's listened to enough of my stuff that he made this comparison on his own haha) and I barely register a lot of the moog work as something iconically 'them'. their sound to me is more an interesting balance of light heartedness and full on despair. I don't dislike the moog I just don't really think of it. 

I have so many memories and feelings tied up in so much of their work, more so than most acts. I should probably give Panic Stations and Justin's solo record a fresh spin lol, maybe there's more to both than I gave them credit for.  

 

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I just love their first two albums. I think those were their foundation. Then, the rest of their discographty kind of develop the thing, but the original sin is placed on IATM and CTTM.

I first heard CTTM back in the day when it was released, just for the sake of Hoppus being the producer, and I loved it since the first note to the last. To me, that's their best record, and the best representation of what they are. Then I got IATM and started to following them, although there was "Go", an album I just never was able to get into. The reasons for me to love them have been exposed by you all, so I'm not gonna be repetitive. I have really good memories attached to Commit This To Memory... last year on the University, a week out of home with the classmates on a surf/sail school, summer nights, summer days and Stephanie. A little bit of heartache too, but overall one of the best periods in my life. ?

 

EDIT: oh, and yeah, @Kay, their influence on your songwriting is pretty evident :)

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29 minutes ago, Kay said:

It's funny that everyone mentions the Moog side of things - I genuinely don't care for it and it's had nothing to do with what I like about MCS. MCS are probably my biggest song writing / lyrical influencers as a singer songwriter (as @Ghost will tell you, he's listened to enough of my stuff that he made this comparison on his own haha) and I barely register a lot of the moog work as something iconically 'them'. their sound to me is more an interesting balance of light heartedness and full on despair. I don't dislike the moog I just don't really think of it. 

I have so many memories and feelings tied up in so much of their work, more so than most acts. I should probably give Panic Stations and Justin's solo record a fresh spin lol, maybe there's more to both than I gave them credit for.  

 

Back then, I always thought that’s what made them stand out. It’s definitely not like the band is dead if it’s taken away, Justin’s geeky but honest songwriting is definitely their strongest point, I just think moog gave a lot of personality to them. Just realized they weren’t the only band to do that, Weezer’s Pinkerton had tons of synth lines throughout that album, and MCS probably got it from them.

They definitely influenced my songwriting, I’ve been wanting to write like Justin nowadays with more of a carefree style instead of trying to write pretentious and overdramatic depressing lyrics in attempts to be deep. I wrote a song when I was 15 (19 now) called Disappear, which was of course was just an obvious parody of a poor man’s Disappear (by MCS). Thankfully, my Disappear has taken on many reformations and has become its own identity, just taking inspiration from MCS and other artists. Disappear has been a top 10 MCS song for me, giving off an aggressive sense of anxiety and despair but oddly comforting my edgy teenager self (it still does, but I only listen to song when I’m in the mood or shit’s going down). The acoustic version takes on a whole other level, with Justin’s voice going from pure aggression to sounding desperately hopeless. One of the best acoustic versions of a song I have ever heard. I have another song that was definitely inspired from My Favorite Accident.

BTW, I checked out your work when I was lurking these forums out of boredom, I really like “Ghost”, “Bed”, and “Break”!

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24 minutes ago, jlx9 said:

Back then, I always thought that’s what made them stand out. It’s definitely not like the band is dead if it’s taken away, Justin’s geeky but honest songwriting is definitely their strongest point, I just think moog gave a lot of personality to them. Just realized they weren’t the only band to do that, Weezer’s Pinkerton had tons of synth lines throughout that album, and MCS probably got it from them.

They definitely influenced my songwriting, I’ve been wanting to write like Justin nowadays with more of a carefree style instead of trying to write pretentious and overdramatic depressing lyrics in attempts to be deep. I wrote a song when I was 15 (19 now) called Disappear, which was of course was just an obvious parody of a poor man’s Disappear (by MCS). Thankfully, my Disappear has taken on many reformations and has become its own identity, just taking inspiration from MCS and other artists. Disappear has been a top 10 MCS song for me, giving off an aggressive sense of anxiety and despair but oddly comforting my edgy teenager self (it still does, but I only listen to song when I’m in the mood or shit’s going down). The acoustic version takes on a whole other level, with Justin’s voice going from pure aggression to sounding desperately hopeless. One of the best acoustic versions of a song I have ever heard. I have another song that was definitely inspired from My Favorite Accident.

BTW, I checked out your work when I was lurking these forums out of boredom, I really like “Ghost” and “Break”!

Thanks :D 

I haven't actually heard the acoustic disappear so I'm going to have to dig that out lol I absolutely adore than song. 

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5 hours ago, Kay said:

Go came at just the right time for me, I was starting a job fresh out of graduation and I was terrified and stressed, and that year turned out to be one of the hardest and most depressing of my life, so Go helped me deal with a lot of that. Bottom Feeder, Happy Anniversary, Timelines and Everyone Will Die gave me room to exercise some of those feelings - hell, I blasted True Romance on repeat when I was planning to propose.

EIIKM came out at just the right time for me. I was just starting university and just starting to understand the issues I had been dealing with were caused by depression. The title track in particular has helped with a lot of the sads over the years.

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5 minutes ago, Patient #48273 said:

EIIKM came out at just the right time for me. I was just starting university and just starting to understand the issues I had been dealing with were caused by depression. The title track in particular has helped with a lot of the sads over the years.

yeah I have a soft spot for a lot of that record and that song for similar reasons. basically all of their records have a bunch of songs that fitted perfectly when I got into them - I remember moody 18 year old me blasting 'Broken Heart' repeatedly after getting emotionally thrown around (again) by one of my exes - it sucked how much I related to it perfectly haha, and to go with that from that record "Antonia" made me swoon constantly around the same time, the idea of finding a quirky complex 'real' person and having them love you back. I genuinely got upset when I realised that it wasn't based on a real person haha 

damn I could actually go fucking on and on about most of their songs.  

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I Am The Movie (A-)

Commit This To Memory (A)

Even If It Kills Me (B)

My Dinosaur Life (B-)

Go (B-)

Panic Stations (?)

I never listened to PS all the way through just because I lost interest in the band's output. That's gotta be a C+ kind of record right?

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38 minutes ago, _Kyle_ said:

I Am The Movie (A-)

Commit This To Memory (A)

Even If It Kills Me (B)

My Dinosaur Life (B-)

Go (B-)

Panic Stations (?)

I never listened to PS all the way through just because I lost interest in the band's output. That's gotta be a C+ kind of record right?

For me it's - 

I Am The Movie - (C+) (I like it but it's never stood out to me) 

Commit This To Memory - (A) 

Even If It Kills Me - (A-)

My Dinosaur Life - (A)

Go - (B+)

Panic Stations - (?) as well for the same reasons you've listed.

 

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