My Dinosaur Life

My Dinosaur Life
Studio album by Motion City Soundtrack
Released	January 19, 2010
Recorded	April–June 2009 at OPRA Music Studios, Los Angeles, California
Genre	Emo, pop punk
Length	39:52
Label	Columbia
Producer	Mark Hoppus
Motion City Soundtrack chronology
Even If It Kills Me (2007) My Dinosaur Life (2010) Go (2012)
Singles from My Dinosaur Life
"Disappear" Released: October 19, 2009 "Her Words Destroyed My Planet" Released: December 1, 2009 "A Lifeless Ordinary (Need A Little Help)" Released: 2010

My Dinosaur Life is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Motion City Soundtrack, released through Columbia Records on January 19, 2010. It is the band's first album on a major label, after they moved from Epitaph Records in June 2008. Like their second album, Commit This to Memory (2005), the album was produced by the Blink-182 singer and bass guitarist Mark Hoppus. The name of the album comes from a line from the bonus track "Sunny Day".

My Dinosaur Life was released to universal acclaim from critics; many reviewers stated that the album is the best of the band's career and called it a resounding success for the band. The album entered the US Billboard 200 at number 15, with nearly 30,000 copies sold in its first week.^[1]

Production and recording

After releasing three records on the independent Epitaph label, Motion City Soundtrack signed a multiple-album deal with Columbia Records in late 2006, months before releasing their previous album Even If It Kills Me. Following the move, the guitarist Joshua Cain said, "It just felt right to make the move when there was the right interest there." With the new signing, the band's promotional team aimed to develop a balance between the benefits of a new major label and their previous grass-roots approach.^[2]

The album was produced by the Blink-182 frontman Mark Hoppus, who also worked with the band for their second album, Commit This to Memory. Hoppus said that the band wanted to follow in the tracks of Commit This to Memory, but to push things further.^[3] He said the album would incorporate a heavier, more experimental side of the group. "There's an edge on this record that I'm really excited about getting into," he said, "But it still has all the catchiness of everything that I personally love about Motion City Soundtrack. As a fan, it's really exciting to get to work with them again and help them flesh out this new vision of themselves."^[3]

The band announced that they were to begin recording sessions with Hoppus in April 2009.^[4] Due to drummer Tony Thaxton's broken arm, the band were forced to rearrange the sequence in which they recorded. The drums were replaced by electronic beats and drum machines until Thaxton was able to play properly in the last week of recording.^[5] It was confirmed that recording had been completed on June 28, 2009.^[6]

Promotion and release

Whilst on tour with Blink-182, Motion City Soundtrack did an interview for MTV with Hoppus, in which it was revealed that the band's fourth album would be titled My Dinosaur Life.^[7] The album title was derived from frontman Justin Pierre misquoting a line ("My dragon life") from the 2008 film American Teen.^[5]

Throughout November 2009, Pierre undertook a promotional tour called On the Dino Trail. Along with the band's tour manager and a friend, Pierre made appearances and played acoustic shows throughout the US Midwest and East Coast. The tour's itinerary was planned with fans' help through Twitter, with it all being chronicled online at MyDinosaurLife.com. The guitarist Joshua Cain commented that he felt their use of Twitter had helped to reconnect the band with fans. "I feel like in the last few years, that stuff's gotten harder to do... [Twitter has] really re-engaged us as a band to be able to communicate with everybody."^[2] The band played three sold-out Chicago shows in mid-December, each of which featured one of the band's previous records in full. They then arranged a touring schedule which would include supporting Weezer on several dates in December and January, as well as beginning a headlining tour in late January covering the United States. Following the album's release, they recommenced touring; in the first three months the band travelled to Australia for the national Soundwave festival, as well as to Japan and the United Kingdom.^[2]

On November 3, 2009, My Dinosaur Life was announced to have a release date of January 19, 2010.^[8] Pre-orders for the album went on sale through the band's official website on November 13, 2009. The pre-orders came in three varieties: digital, standard and deluxe edition. The physical form of the deluxe edition has five bonus tracks, a hard-bound book with six 7-inch picture discs, a signed Pulp Fiction—style lyric booklet and album artwork for each song by Joe Ledbetter. The digital deluxe edition includes the bonus tracks and the artwork in PDF form.^[2][9]

In October 2009, the band released the first song from the album, "Disappear", as a free download on their website,^[10] with a music video online for the song on November 19, 2009.^[2][11] "Her Words Destroyed My Planet" was first publicly released in November 2009 on Spin's website for streaming; the song was one of the site's most popular streams in 2009.^[12] Becoming the album's first single, "Her Words" was serviced to modern rock radio in December 2009, before having a music video released on January 11, 2010.^[2][13] A third song, "A Lifeless Ordinary (Need a Little Help)", was also released on Spin before the album.^[12]

In January 2010, the band undertook a series of song by song video testimonials for each of the album's tracks. The clips were released on numerous music websites including AbsolutePunk, Spin, Buzznet, Purevolume, Alternative Press, Punknews.org, Alloy.com, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The A.V. Club, Ultimate Guitar Archive, Buzzgrinder.com and Twitvid.^[14] The album was uploaded for streaming on the band's MySpace on January 12, 2010.^[13]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AbsolutePunk	(92%)[15]
Allmusic	[16]
Alternative Press	[17]
The A.V. Club	(B+)[18]
Entertainment Weekly	(A-)[19]
Idobi	[20]
Lincoln Journal Star	(B-)[21]
Slant	[22]
Spin	[23]
The Washington Post	(favorable)[24]

My Dinosaur Life was a critical success. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received a score of 79 from 13 reviews.^[25]

The album was given a nod of approval by Spin before its release, which awarded it 3.5/5 stars. The reviewer Mikael Wood said "the band strikes a radio-ready balance between mayhem and melody, (which) may well trigger their long-awaited breakthrough."^[23] Drew Beringer of AbsolutePunk also gave the album a glowing review, awarding a 92% rating. He stated that the album, "combines the mayhem and melody of Commit This to Memory, while maintaining the pop sensibilities they showed on Even If It Kills Me. It has the ferocity of a debut album while maintaining the expertise that seasoned bands possess". He also made comparisons to Weezer's earlier work; "If Weezer created the nerdy/quirky pop-rock sound, then Motion City Soundtrack has perfected it on their best album to date".^[15] Scott Heisel of Alternative Press was equally impressed, awarding My Dinosaur Life a full five stars. He praised, "Mark Hoppus' fantastic production, which never gets in the way of the song (a complete 180 from his work on 2005's Commit This To Memory); and the unique, textured, background role Jesse Johnson has allowed his synth to play this time around. So let's just end it on this: Motion City Soundtrack have made the best album of their career".^[17] The A.V. Club critic Kyle Ryan gave a positive review, giving the album a "B+" grade. He claimed the album is full of "maddeningly catchy rock—associated with punk, but undeniably pop with clever, sensitive-boy lyrics". Minor complaints included, "("A Lifeless Ordinary") veers a little too close to Weezer-esque cheese in its generic chorus, and budding “sensitive homeboys” anthem ("@!#?@!")—“Go fuck yourselves, leave us alone”—is a little groan-inducing, but those missteps are pretty minor".^[18] Entertainment Weekly writer Andy Greenwald awarded the album an "A-" grade. He stated that frontman Justin Pierre "lets his geek flag fly, likening a breakup to the destruction of Superman's home world ("Her Words Destroyed My Planet") and puzzling over ephemera ranging from acid rain (the lovely "Skin and Bones") to Busta Rhymes ("Stand Too Close"), all backed by soaring choruses guaranteed to fossilize themselves into your brain".^[19] Lincoln Journal Star journalist L. Kent Wolgamott gave the album a "B-" grade in his review. While stating that their blend of "classic power pop and punk pop" was repetitive, he did also praise the lyrical content; "My Dinosaur Life is full of complaints and clever cultural observations, insecurities and determination to move forward, a heap of modern confusion that is bound together by the catchy if repetitive music".^[21]

Track listing

All lyrics written by Justin Pierre; all music composed by Motion City Soundtrack.

1. "Worker Bee" – 2:25
2. "A Life Less Ordinary (Need a Little Help)" – 3:23
3. "Her Words Destroyed My Planet" – 3:38
4. "Disappear" – 3:12
5. "Delirium" – 3:29
6. "History Lesson" – 2:35
7. "Stand Too Close" – 2:48
8. "Pulp Fiction" – 3:53
9. "@!#?@!" – 3:00
10. "Hysteria" – 3:05
11. "Skin and Bones" – 3:36
12. "The Weakends" – 4:48

Bonus tracks

iTunes pre-order/Japanese bonus track

13. "Sunny Day" – 3:10

Deluxe edition bonus disc

1. "A Life Less Ordinary (Need a Little Help)" (alternative version) – 3:20
2. "Pulp Fiction" (alternative version) – 3:23
3. "So Long Farewell" – 3:07
4. "Worker Bee" (alternative version) – 2:36
5. "Disappear" (alternative version) – 4:07

Chart performance

Personnel

Motion City Soundtrack

• Justin Pierre – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, lyrics
• Joshua Cain – lead guitar, backing vocals
• Jesse Johnson – moog synthesizer, keyboard
• Matthew Taylor – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Tony Thaxton – drums, percussion, backing vocals

Production

• Mark Hoppus – producer
• Joe Ledbetter – artwork
• Christopher Holmes – engineer
• Andy Wallace - mix engineer

References

External links

• Official Motion City Soundtrack website
• Official Joe Ledbetter website