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Live Local Music

Motion City Soundtrack at Penn State Jan. 30

Posted by Charlee Redman on 01/26 at 11:53 PM

On Saturday night, the Student Programming Association (SPA) will host Motion City Soundtrack with Set Your Goals, a pop-punk band from San Francisco with melodic hardcore influences. This will be the second week in a row for concerts held in the HUB on the Penn State campus - a promising trend.

Motion City Soundtrack has been around for over a decade, spreading their pop-punk songs about modern society and what they call the “boombox generation”. The five piece band formed in 1999 after the members graduated from high school in Minneapolis, MN. Since then, they’ve released several albums and toured with acts like Blink 182 and OK Go.

In 2003, Motion City Soundtrack released its album I Am the Movie, which won them a widespread following. Singer Justin Pierre’s rapid, articulate vocals and witty lyricism combined with Jesse Johnson’s moog (a type of synthesizer) created a brand of pop-punk that stood out from the crowd of ‘emo’ rock bands like Taking Back Sunday and Say Anything.

The band is taking a different approach with its fourth album, My Dinosaur Life (released last week on Columbia Records and produced by Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus). The tone on My Dinosaur Life is darker than previous albums, featuring almost grotesque imagery in the track “Disappear” and lyrics like “If we’d only stayed together, I might not have fallen apart” in a song called “Her Words Destroyed My Planet.”

Although Motion City Soundtrack’s lyrics may have taken a pessimistic turn, their pop-punk feels as bright as ever. And who doesn’t want to see what this moog thing is anyway?

When: Saturday January 30th,
    doors at 10pm, show at 10:30pm
Where: HUB Alumni Hall
Free w/ PSU Student ID
SOLD OUT