Talking dirty with Motion City Soundtrack

MCS's Justin Pierre talks about his band's new album, his potty mouth and his secret dance background

By Lesle Simon

Special to Metromix

Just minutes after the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2009, Tony Thaxton innocently stepped off a curb outside a party in the suburbs of Los Angeles and inadvertently changed the course of Motion City Soundtrack. The drummer stumbled, landed on his right arm and, after numerous X-rays and doctor visits, discovered he had broken the bone between his shoulder and elbow. Not good—especially when you pound the skins for a living and your band is gearing up to record their major-label debut for Columbia Records.

Instead of abandoning Thaxton in his time of need, MCS adapted their production schedule to work around his recovery, refused to record without his participation and even took this unfortunate situation as an opportunity to challenge themselves as songwriters and musicians. The result is “My Dinosaur Life,” a 12-song collection of pop-rock raditude produced by Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus.

We recently caught up with Motion City Soundtrack mouthpiece Justin Pierre to discuss the band’s latest release, Disney heroines and what soap tastes like. 

From “Let’s Get F---ed Up and Die” off “Commit This to Memory to “Motherf---er,” which is featured on the band’s new album “My Dinosaur Life,” it seems like you have quite the lyrical potty mouth. Has anyone ever tried to wash your mouth out with soap?
Yes. My dad did once. When I was younger, I remember I went downstairs and fixed myself a bowl of cottage cheese. I was sitting at our little bar in the kitchen and I just started saying the word “shit.” I started singing it and swinging my legs. Suddenly, my dad appeared out of nowhere, grabbed me, threw me in the bathroom and washed my mouth out with soap.

Did you learn your lesson?
No. I just didn’t say it in front of him.

Between Tony’s broken arm and Weezer’s bus crash in December, which cut your joint tour short, do you feel like you guys are cursed?
No…I don’t know. A grandmother that I had used to say, “Everything happens for the best.” Then my dad took that and said, “I don’t know about ‘for the best,’ but everything happens for a reason.” And I took that saying and decided to say, “Everything happens.” When Tony broke his arm, we knew we couldn’t make a record without him, so we figured we’d wait it out. We hoped that he would get better and in the meantime, we found a new way to write [songs]. I think that’s great because we discovered something we didn’t know we could do before.
 
Speaking of things you didn’t know you could do, MCS’s new video for “Her Words Destroyed My Planet” features a choreographed group dance number a la “High School Musical.”  Do you have any previous dancing experience?
For one year I was a Larkin dancer. I signed up for a summer class and it was awesome because it was just me, my friend and a bunch of girls. We were in fifth grade. But then I had my mom sign me up again and it was me and a bunch of guys. I was the worst dancer so they put me in the back…behind the curtain.

What kind of dancing were you doing?
It was stupid, modern, ’80s, trite dancing.

Sounds bitchin’.
It was awful. I think I have a videocassette of it somewhere.

Wait a sec…what does “Larkin” mean?
There’s this company from Minnesota called Larkin Dance Studios. They always had people on “Star Search,” from what I remember. This mom, Shirley Larkin, started it in her house. I do remember that Linda Larkin, one of the daughters or granddaughters, did the speaking voice of Princess Jasmine in Disney’s “Aladdin.” I also know she lost out to Jennifer Grey in “Dirty Dancing.” I’m full of useless knowledge that’s almost accurate.

I’ll make sure to IMDb it and confirm.
I may have things mixed up, but the basic structure’s there, which is sort of what it’s like whenever you see us play live. The basic outline is there, but I usually forget things.