Motion City Soundtrack is an American rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota, formed in 1997. The band consists of founding members Justin Pierre (lead vocals and guitar) and Joshua Cain (lead guitar and backing vocals), along with keyboardist and moog synthesist Jesse Johnson, bassist and backing vocalist Matthew Taylor, and drummer, percussionist and backing vocalist Claudio Rivera. Motion City Soundtrack has released five studio albums and sold almost 600,000 records throughout their career, including over half a million in the United States alone.

Motion City Soundtrack's first release was a 7" single, "Promenade/Carolina", in 1999. The following year they released their debut EP, Kids for America, and then a second, Back to the Beat. They released their debut album I Am the Movie twice, in 2002. Their first five releases were all self-released with the aid of a small record label. Backed up by their constant touring it fashioned them a fast-growing fan base, and a signing with Epitaph Records. After spending their first five years finding the right lineup, the Epitaph re-issue of I Am the Movie in 2003 was the band's big break. First major single "The Future Freaks Me Out" arrived with live and television success, but failed in radio airplay and the charts. 2003 and 2004 brought three Split EPs alongside Schatzi, Limbeck and Matchbook Romance. The second album, Commit This to Memory, has been their most successful album to date, selling 285,000+ records and peaking at number two on the Independent Albums chart.