Motion City Soundtrack

Tuesday, July 12; Creepy Crawl (412 North Tucker Boulevard)

Jul 6, 2005 at 4:00 am

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Motion City Soundtrack singer/guitarist Justin Pierre wants to be a director/ screenwriter when he grows up. The former film-school student and Twin Peaks fanatic produces idiosyncratic musings in the vein of Joel and Ethan Coen and displays David Fincher-esque dynamism in the music videos he co-directs. Plus he sports a pair of Woody Allen-approved glasses and includes such words as "plethora" and "belligerent" in his lyric sheets.

In the meantime, the only thing as high as the 28-year-old's vaguely Jim Jarmusch-ish hair is his vocal range, which drives Motion City Soundtrack's bouncy, cinematic indie pop. While 2003's appropriately titled I Am the Movie was packed with quirky pop-culture references, its new Commit This to Memory explores the emptiness of modern living and nostalgia for a short while ago -- when the nostalgia itself evoked a sense of connection. "Why did I come here? These humans all suck. I'd rather be home feeling violent and lonely," Pierre moans on Memory's "Together We'll Ring in the New Year." If Michael Bay represents the current state of pop music, consider this the dawn of Motion City Soundtrack's Kubrick phase.

Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $13 to $15; call 314-851-0919 for more information.