Motion City Soundtrack Perform Live on the Interface

The members of Motion City Soundtrack didn't sleep on dinosaur bedsheets growing up. Keyboardist Jesse Johnson snoozed on a fitted cotton 'Transformers' sheet, while singer Justin Pierre opted for 'Incredible Hulk' pillowcases. So where does the inspiration for the pop-punk band's fourth album title -- 'My Dinosaur Life' -- come from?

"I stole it from something else," Pierre, the band's principle lyricist, tells Spinner.com at a recent Interface taping. "But he did it wrong," Johnson says, noting Pierre's not-so-perfect memory.

After watching 'American Teen,' the coming-of-age indie documentary that follows around a pack of Indiana-based high school seniors, Pierre was left with the image of the film's "weird, arty girl" taking pictures of her "super jock boyfriend" in a dragon outfit. "He's all 'I don't know what to do, I feel weird,'" Pierre says of the film, "and she's like, 'Oh, you're thinking about your dragon life." That line, coupled with Pierre's aforementioned bad memory, morphed his motto for the past several years: When asked about his daily routine, Pierre would rhetorically reply, "Oh, I'm thinking about my dinosaur life."

Life for the five-piece changed substantially since their last release, 'Even if It Kills Me,' three years ago. Drummer Tony Thaxton was injured in a fall early New Year's Day 2009, and with him out of commission for the next six months or so, Motion City Soundtrack were forced to turn tragedy into a good thing. Using the Internet and "other devices," they began cyber-writing the album, like track nine, '@!#?@!,' which takes the F-bomb to a whole new level.

"I definitely drop a lot of F-bombs," says Pierre. "I'd have to say that that's my favorite swear. It was me being kind of funny, but then they heard it and they were like, 'This is stupid.' But then they're like, 'This is funny, this is stupid and funny.'"

Chimes in Johnson, "Which is actually funny because it's my mom's favorite song on the record."

Watch Motion City Soundtrack on the Interface