Motion City Soundtrack

Today was a day of new stuff for Matty. I decided to buy a few things to keep me busy/distracted since we’ll be doing a lot of flying to/from LA to do record-related things and to lots of other places for shows. I got the book House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. I started it today and it’s already ptretty freaky. I’m stoked. I also got a new PSP and Resistance: Retribution (since I dig Fall of Man) and Jeanne d’Arc (since I’ve recently become obsessed with RPGs). Yikes. In other words, I got absolutely nothing productive done besides a few dishes & cleaning the litter box a couple times. But I did build a couple of my characters to Lvl 11 in a few hrs. Nerd alert!

finding suits for my groomsmen to wear in my wedding. yeah, ben sherman. they are gonna be stylin’

…I used to hate you. I kinda still do, but you’re winning me back little by little. I’ll explain. First, I’ve had countless delayed flights with you. Second, I survived a lightning strike in one of your planes (which actually speaks well of the construction of your fleet, but I had to mention it). Third, $7 drinks and $15 for one bag. Really? Oh and the whole crash-landing-in-the-Hudson thing has to go on the record since I can no longer withstand a single wisp of turbulence without clawing the upholstery on the seat in front me or reverting to a fetus on my neighbor’s lap. Sorry about earlier, strange Irish lady! Anyway, as I was in line to board today, the two gate E35 agents confronted a girl in line with a pizza box. Keep in mind that boarding was only on zone 3 at this point. It went something like this:

Gate Agent 1: “Is that pizza?”

Girl With Pizza:

Gate Agent 2: “Cheese?”

Girl With Pizza: “Uh….. Yeah?”

Gate Agent 2: “I’m sorry. No cheese pizzas on this flight.”

Girl With Pizza stands silent and confused for a bit. Finally gate agents 1 & 2 crack up. I’m pretty sure there was a celebratory high five involved as well.

I’m sorry, hungry traveler. You got punk’d. But at least you made 2 employees in the aviation industry very, very happy.

-Matt

Matty T and Justy P be sippin’ coffee at the airpizzle awaitin’ sweet flights via US Air. Ugh.

It’s true. Everything IS bigger in Texas!

Foot+ice=cold foot

i’m perplexed.  i played a rock show last night and it was a hell of a good time.  but immediately after exiting stage, my foot fell apart.  my left foot.  not the daniel day lewis award winning film, but my actual left foot.  i can’t walk right.  tony, i feel your pain(just not nearly as bad, ha ha ha).  i entered the school we were playing and walked by a bunch of students, holding on to the wall and shuffling along like verbal kent in the usual suspects.  they all looked at me.  it felt weird.  i’m bummed.  this is gonna put a damper on my exercise regime.  stupid.

-justin.

Matt Taylor’s 1st sweet truck stop discovery of the day

Got up at 6:15 this morning, checked out of the hotel, and crammed ourselves in the van. We just hit McDonald’s (ew) and piled back in the van. We should be rolling into Arlington, TX in a few hours for show 2 of 2 for this run. Claudio did a fine fine job last night in Tulsa filling the gigantic shoes of Tony. It was like Tony but slightly more Chilean.

It’s snowing here in OK and TX. I packed a hoodie. Sweet.

Alright I’m going to shut my eyeballs with my eyelids.

-Matt

Preshow rock face

we’ve been hearing rumors that kids think the show tonight in tulsa is cancelled.  THIS IS NOT TRUE!!!  PASS IT ON!!!  the show will go on and we will rock your asses.  this is a fact.  love and kisses.

-justin.

So we are at around hour 14 of Todays fun drive 5000. Rockin out to weezer blue record good midnight tunes. Can’t wait till I am not in this van for more then 5 hours. So what’s new mother truckers not much here just stoked on the new music we have been writing can’t wait to make record 4 that seems so crazy to say. Thanks for coming along this ride with us. Stick around I think the best is to come for this goofy band of dudes
Motion city soundbutt

Futures

Joshua

I felt “Weird Al” singing about surgery would be appropriate after my doctor visit yesterday.  The arm just isn’t healing, folks.  Surgery is needed.  While that is a little scary, I’m glad I know what is going on now, and that we have tried to make it better, but it just isn’t wanting to heal correctly, so it has to be fixed.  I should be going into surgery sometime next week, I am awaiting a phone call to set up my appointment.  Hopefully sooner than later, I want to be on the road to recovery as soon as humanly possible.  I have been receiving lots of well wishes from a lot of you, so I thank you for that.   

To add to my sweet start to ‘09, my car won’t start.  I hadn’t been driving anyways, but now that I am in a not so giant cast, and won’t be in one, I wanted to at least use my car for small errands, etc.  Nope.  Today I had my car towed to the mechanic.  I don’t know about you all, but I prefer to spend my money on fun things like surgery and auto repair.  

Today’s celebrity birthday, Leslie Mann is 37.

Tony

I took this in a store. What’s this world coming to?

Holy crap the new Mastodon rules. It’s so prog! And Scott from Neurosis makes an appearance. Does it get better than this?

I’m at the RVA airport waiting to board my delayed 1st flight. We’re on our way to Tulsa for our 1st show since October 15, which was the last time I saw Jesse Johnson in person. Weird. The family’s reuniting for a few select days minus Tony Tony Tony. It’s gonna be a little weird, but it’ll be strange regardless since we haven’t played live since the Mesozoic Era. That’s not true. Nor is it possible. Well, I’m not gonna lie. I’m scared. But in a good way. I think I’ll be ecstatic to play live again. Looking forward to it Tulsa.

Bye peeps.

about to board a plane and head to tulsa.  keys to tulsa.  anyone ever see that movie?  i never did.  don’t even know what it is about.  ugh.  insomnia for the last few days.  can’t seem to sleep.  sleep it off.  walk it off.  walk the dog.  where my dogs at?  who dat ninja?  what?  exactly.

-justin.

Cali driving. I thought I would share. Pretty nice. 17 more hours to go !

Josh out

Travel face

Sitting on a hot plane in Arizona waiting to debark my least favorite part of flying. Me and claudio are on our way to get the bands gear we stored in la. Then drive to Tulsa for a Small show there. You should come out if your anywhere near one of the only shows we will be playing untill we record our new record. Oh I think I get to get off this hot plane now.

In the future

Joshua

blows.

-justin.

Two more days until I go back to the doctor, to see how that is doing.  I’m hoping for good news, but I’m not going to get my hopes up either.  The last time I got my hopes up, they told me it’s going to be twice as long as they initially told me.  Fingers crossed.  Not because I’m lying! How dare you!

Sorry that I just whine about my arm.  Unfortunately, not much else can go on for me these days.  Just been hanging out.  Last night I heard some nice new music from OKGO, while hanging with their drummer/my friend, Dan.  A couple of nights ago I met a man named Tumbleweed.  He was wearing a clear hat.  That’s about it.

And don’t forget, if you want more of this nonsense, twitter.com/tonythaxton

By request, the return of celebrity birthdays…

Today’s celebrith birthday, Katherine Keener is 50.

yesterday i was working out with my trainer and she called me: lunch belly.  her name is samy and she’s from brazil and says some fucked up shit.  i couldn’t do this weird sit up with weights/punching across chest/twist thing because i’m fat and she calls me lunch belly.  ”you know, like you just came from a lunch and it’s in your belly.”  she also told me not to do everything like: an old woman hitting with the bag.  ???  ”you know, like an old woman, bam, bam, bam, hitting you with a bag, hitting you with a purse, take your time damn it, do it right.”  she’s a strange one.  i can’t wait to go back on monday and get the crap kicked out of me again.  maybe one day i’ll even be promoted to brunch belly.  ok, that wasn’t funny at all.  but i imagined myself as paul rudd saying it and in my head, it was really clever and charming at the same time.

more movies:

body of lies: 3*

everything is illuminated: 5*

no country for old men: 5*

role models: 3*

underworld:evolution: 3*

-justin.

yesterday josh and i had our first “practice” with claudio on drums.  he did very well and even got down tony’s fills with incredible precision.  josh and i were laughing about the possibility of anyone walking by the practice space and hearing us, thinking “who is this awful band doing shitty motion city soundtrack covers?”  then it happened.  some kids knocked on the door and were about to tell us that the covers didn’t sound that bad until they realized it was us and changed their mind.  it was embarrassing.  we fell like douches.  but we did recruit a bass player and a 2nd drummer in the process.  that’s when shit went full on ridiculous.

-justin.

let’s say i know this guy, right.  he’s sorta got a date for this friday night.  he’s been procrastinating a bit & it is now thursday & he has no idea where to go or what to do.  he stumbles across a flyer that announces there is a double feature at the oak street: a fistful of dollars & for a few dollars more.  clint eastwood.  sergio leone.  is it ok to just skip dinner & go straight to the eastwood?  i told him i would do my best to find out and get back to him.  let me know your thoughts on this.

more movies:

fred claus-3*

flags of our fathers-5*

28 weeks later-4*

-justin.

today i had mad work done on my teeth.  ”mad” is urban slang for “a lot of.”  it was my first time with a new dentist.  r.i.p. rick copeland.  he’s not dead.  i just haven’t owned a car in 10 years and it’s hard to get to mahtomedi without wheels.  ”wheels” is suburban slang for “automobile.”  i have to say it was the most pleasant experience i’ve ever had.  for the first time in ages, the dentist hit the nerve and the novocaine worked.  my mouth was numb for over 5 hours though.  ugh.  i’ve been doing a lot of walking lately while listening to old podcasts of “this american life.”  every time i think of “this american life,” i want to sing the lines: “my american heart” from that piebald song.  i worked out for the 2nd day in a row with this brazilian woman named samy.  she’s mean.  makes me work with kettle bells all the time.  ugh.  i went through my closets and found lots of old mcs memorabilia.  i’m sure that none of you have ever been to tony’s place, but if you had…  you’d have noticed he has almost every single poster for every single show we’ve ever played framed and displayed on his ginormous wall.  i decided i was going to do the same.  i rounded up about 35 posters and pictures and things and walked to a framing store nearby my apartment.  turns out that shit is expensive to frame.  i can only afford to frame 3.  but all of my mcs posters and memorabilia are only allowed to be displayed in the bathrooms of my place.  so that when you’re shitting, you think of us.  it’s fitting when you think about it.  poetic.  and on that note…

-justin.

I am full on Twittering now.  Broken arm boredom prevails.  In the past, I used Facebook and MySpace to just keep up with family and friends, didn’t and don’t accept friend requests from others.  Twitter is up for anyone who cares to see what I’m up to and read awful jokes.  I will do my best to answer any questions too.

twitter.com/tonythaxton

Tony

While I don’t always agree with Justin’s opinions on movies, I am going to have to side with him about Southland Tales.  Oddly, I just watched it last week.  I think my apartment still stinks.  I had a hard time telling if it was supposed to be serious or not.  But, it wasn’t funny either.  Just…bad.

I’m losing my mind with the broken arm boredom.  I was against it for so long, but I’m thinking about Twittering…I won’t lie, I enjoy reading a lot of my favorite comedians Tweets.  I’ve been on a big live comedy kick lately.  Trying to figure out how to befriend them, so I can just listen.  Is that creepy?  If not, how do I make it creepy?

Tony

2nd worst movie ever made.  i think i’m on a roll.  it’s like a terrible adaptation of a mediocre philip k dick novel.  i’m not sure if i was supposed to laugh at or feel something for any of the horribly conceived characters in this piece of utter fucking shit.  i loved donnie darko.  what happened?  let’s cross our fingers and file it under sophomore slump.  i am irate.  i must get dressed for dinner with parents.  someplace my sister picked out called bulldogs.  it’s been a while since i’ve seen them.  gonna give ‘em the gland hand and a heidi-ho.  what?  yes.

-justin.

last night i watched letters from iwo jima.  finally got the bad taste out of my head from a movie that shall forever remain unnamed.  i’ve been utilizing ical up to the minute, organizing my medicine intake, shower time, book reading, lyric writing, kung fu watching, etc…  it’s kind of ridiculous, but yesterday was quite productive.  todays plans…  write more lyrics, watch two episodes of mary tyler moore, exercise, finish the taming of the shrew(ugh, shakespeare), watch southland tales(ugh, richard kelly), and visit my godson on his birthday.  yes, i am a godfather.  his mother was drunk when she decided it would be a good idea to nominate me to the position.  oh well, i’m gonna say hi to the little fucker and eat his cake.  here are some more movies i watched and dug, with a little info this time, so you can do your own research:

network *5: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/

happy together *3: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118845/

letters from iwo jima *5: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498380/

enjoy.

-justin.

worst movie ever made.  there have been a lot of movies made.  i have seen quite a few of them.  this one is the worst movie i’ve ever seen.  just how bad is it?  the batman movies directed by joel schumacher are fucking oscar worthy compared to this piece of turd.  yes, the previews looked terrible, but i thought i might be slightly entertained at the very least.  the dialogue was terrible.  the acting was bad for the most part.  the action was non existent and the special effects were not special at all.  who made this and why?  total fucking junk show.  i want my $9 back.  i urge any of you out there contemplating seeing this movie to please not do so.  do not support this bullshit.  go see rachel getting married or rent the dark knight for the 7th time.  i’ll bet street fighter is a thousand times better than the watchmen movie.  watchmen?  more like shitmen.  i feel bad for alan moore.  i hope he’s rich and doesn’t kill himself.  fuck the watchmen.  fuck them all.

-justin.

This is what my Netflix recommended to me, and why.  Excuse me?

Tony

So yeah, hello all internets. joshua here

hope all is well out there in TV land, things are good here i had  very productive rock day yesterday. i finished our 4 songs for the week giving them there final tweaks and such. then out of nowhere i wrote two new songs and recorded them. i am hoping the dudes enjoy them. we will see they are tough critics. Weird thing is they are both a bit funky witch is weird for me but i think they rock pretty hard still. This record we have gotten into a new thing of working on songs thru the internet since we live all over the place. it was really hard at first but i think we are now in the full swing of things. 

other then that i have been working on my skills to chain-sawing creatures from in the depths of the earths crust in gears of war. playing some poker and hangin with my family and friends. it has been a nice vacation from touring… but i can say i am missing rocking our brains out with ya peeps. 

Well back to my crazy week of birthdays. 

there is 5 or 6 birthdays in this one week streach in my family, crazyness.

bonus = more cake for the eating.

allright humans i am am off  

josh 

Some of you may know this already, but for those of you that don’t, let me explain what I have been up to during MCS’ recent time off-writing period.  I apologize in advance for the length of this blog.

On New Years Eve I went to a party with some friends in Glendale.  Good times were had.  Jokes were made.  Games were played.  Adult beverages were drank.  Drunken?  Drinked? Dranken?  We decided to cut out of  the party fairly early, around 1am.  Let’s just say I started my new year off with a bang.  Or maybe I should say a break.  Leaving the party, one hour into 2009, I slip and fall off of a curb.  At first we’re doing the whole “ha ha, my dumbass fell” kind of thing.  Then i tried to get up…it wasn’t happening.  Then when i tried to move my arm, it wasn’t where I thought it was.  Not good.  Time to go to the emergency room!

Oddly, for New Years Eve the ER wasn’t all that busy.  They get me inside and give me a shot for the pain.  I have never broken anything in my life, except for an iPod or two and probably my Ikea dining room table soon.  I don’t know what it feels like to break a bone, all I know is that my arm doesn’t feel right, and it HURTS.  They eventually put me in a wheelchair and take me for some x-rays.  

The x-rays show nothing is broken and they tell me I just sprained my arm and they give me some pain medicine prescriptions, a sling, and they send me home.  I am not really convinced that is isn’t broken.  But now it is a holiday and then the weekend, so there is no way to see a doctor for a few days.  

I am able to get in with an orthopedic surgeon the following Tuesday.  A friend took me to the emergency room to pick up the hospital x-rays, and it turns out, for some reason they only x-rayed my shoulder.  Awesome.  My shoulder doesn’t hurt, but my arm hurts like a you know what.  Maybe you don’t know what.  But it hurt.  Bad.  So, the doctor feels my arm, and for some reason decides to x-ray my elbow.  Still nothing.  He is then concerned that maybe I tore my bicep.  Awesome.  So, the next day I have to get an MRI.  The second i get out of the machine, the doctor says, “You know that your arm is fractured, right?”  (sidenote to people as confused as I was, a fracture is just the fancier doctor way of saying “break”)  I said, that I had assumed it was, but I kept being told that it wasn’t.  So they immediately send me BACK to the orthopedic surgeon.  What happened was, the ER x-rayed my shoulder, the doctor x-rayed my elbow.  The break was right in between the two.   So, my arm is broken, and was completely untreated for a week.  Try to control your jealousy.  They put my upper arm is this brace thingy(more technical talk), a new sling, and more pain meds.  He told me it would be about 2 months of recovery time.

Well, here we are nearly 2 1/2 months later.  And not only am I not healed, I am seeing a new doctor who didn’t feel good about the brace my arm was in, so he put me in the world’s largest cast(check the 2009 Guinness Book).  My arm looks like it’s wrapped with about 423 layers, and on top of that, i have a pillow that straps around my waist to keep my arm at a certain angle.  I basically have a sidecar now.  Words can’t explain how ginormous it is, and how much i despise it.  It’s hard to do just about anything.  It’s hard getting dressed, I have to put a garbage bag over my arm when I shower, I can’t drive, I can’t really do most physical activity.  About all I can do is watch movies.  Lots and lots of movies.  

So, life is frustrating right now.  Unfortunately, I will be missing the handful of college shows that we will be playing this month and next.  If you come out, you’ll be in good hands, as my trusty drum tech Claudio will be taking my place for those shows.  I can’t explain to you how excited I am to get back to the drums.  I hope to see you soon, with  two arms.

Tony

my new sister-in-law thinks she’s pretty clever.

if you haven’t seen it, you should try and find it and do so.  great television show.  i’ve been trippin’ on it all week.  season 1 that is.  ed asner.  cloris leachman.  good stuff.

finally went to the doctor and she gave my a boatload of pharmaceuticals to ingest.  but i think i’m starting to be on the up and up.

been writing lots of words that may or may not make it to the final record.  josh and i have been getting together once a week to record vocals to some of the songs we all wrote in l.a. over a month ago.  i seem to be averaging 4 songs a week word-wise.  not bad.  can’t complain.  i like my job.

anyone know how to properly cook chicken?  i’ve been trying to buy food at the local co-op and cook it myself in order to offset the cost of living(2 pizzas a day is both costly and not a healthy way to live).  i have tried cooking chicken 3 times so far and i have ruined it every time.  i tried high heat.  i tried low heat.  nothing.  is it sad that i’m in my 30’s and have never learned how to cook meat on a grill?  like a real man?  i somehow also graduated from high school without ever having learned how to write a research paper.  the education system failed me, ha ha ha.  oh brother.

recently watched these movies( with a netflix star rating for those of you who care what i think):

henry poole is here *4

ride the high county *3

shine a light *2

a face in the crowd*5

marty *5

rocknrolla *4

how to steal a million *3

underworld *4

my name is bruce *3

house of flying daggers *3

lucky number slevin *4

i dunno why you would care.  but maybe you and i can start a fight over why one movie got less ratings or more ratings than another.  just a thought.

alright.  until next time…  stay golden.

-justin.

So, what the hell have I been up to since we last spoke? 

A.  Piano lessons

B.  Backgammon

C.  Planning a wedding

D.  Hanging with friends

E.  Visiting the family

F.  Playing bass in Bazooka Christ

G. Getting stoked on MCS demos

H.  Selling my record collection

If anyone is interested in buying some records, I am donating 10 percent of the sales to The Dear Jack Foundation.

Check it… http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/thegeminiproject

- Jesse Mack Johnson

this is justin.  i have been sick for a week.  therefore i have not much to say except, “dumb.”  i rearranged the books on my shelf, got rid of hundreds of old video tapes and banashed several hundreds of old cd’s to the basement of the building where i now reside.  you know what is awesome?  peanut butter.  you know what else?  japanese silent films from the 30’s.  i’m not even kidding.  shit is intense.  i’ve been trying to write words in this wintery weather while stunned with an everlasting cough.  remember when people used to get the consumption in irish novels and have to go somewhere far away to treat it while wasting away and writing about how everything sucks?  that’s what i’m doing.  only i’m watching action movies in surround sound to break up the monotony of it all.  if only they’d had universal soldier back in the days of famine and whathaveyou.

-justin.

yes, motion city soundtrack are alive… and mostly well. we’re writing songs, recording demos, scheduling all the stuff that needs to be scheduled to make a new record (yay), figuring out who we are as individuals, searching for bobby fischer, you know, life stuff with a little x-box live thrown in for good measure.

so last night as my sister was giving me a ride back to my house “i wanna rock” by twisted sister came on satellite radio. we were both awed by the lyrics and the incredibly awkward phrasing of the verses. it’s utterly… i’m hesitant to say amazing, but that’s really what it is, in it’s own way. i just bought it on iTunes so i could hear it again. wow, it’s still just as amazing 17 hours later.

alright, i gotta go tend to the flock. i have no idea what that means. later!

matt.

p.s.

I wanna rock! (Rock)
I wanna rock! (Rock)
I want to rock (Rock)
I wanna rock! (Rock)

Turn it down you say,
Well all I got to say to you is time and time again I say, “No!”
No! No, No, No, No, No!
Tell me not to play
Well, all I got to say to you when you tell me not to play,
I say, “No!”
No! No, No, No, No, No!

So, if you ask me why I like the way I play it
There’s only one thing I can say to you

I wanna rock! (Rock)
I wanna rock! (Rock)
I want to rock (Rock)
I wanna rock! (Rock)

There’s a feelin’ that
I get from nothin’ else and there ain’t nothin’ in the world
That makes me go!
Go, go, go, go, go, go!
Turn the power up.
I’ve waited for so long so I could hear my favorite song so
Let’s go!
Go! Go, go, go, go!

When it’s like this I feel the music shootin’ through me
There’s nothin’ else that I would rather do.

I wanna rock! (Rock)
I wanna rock! (Rock)
I want to rock (Rock)
I wanna rock! (Rock)