VENUE INFO

Click below for address and more

• Murat Centre Egyptian Room

Motion City Soundtrack, currently touring with Panic at the Disco, will perform May 18 at the Murat Egyptian Room. (Photo provided by Epitaph Records)

Fans of Panic at the Disco might not yet be familiar with the Minneapolis-based group Motion City Soundtrack, but the uninitiated will walk away satiated after Sunday's show at the Murat.

Known for poetic lyrics and artistic videos, MCS recently released a stripped-down "mostly acoustic" EP version of five songs from its critically acclaimed "Even If It Kills Me" CD (Epitaph Records), available only on iTunes.

Bassist Matt Taylor joined the band in 2000 after opening for it with his old band, Submerge. Taylor spoke to Indy.com from a stop in Philadelphia.

What's this big tour with Panic been like?

It's awesome. We haven't done a tour like this in a couple of years. We're getting to play for a lot of people who have never heard our band before, so we're excited about that.

All the bands on the tour are great. Panic last year was doing huge rooms, but this one was intentionally scaled back.

You grew up near Richmond, Va. Did you move to Minneapolis after joining MCS?

No, I just bought a house in Richmond. Two of (the band members) live in Minneapolis, one lives in Brooklyn, and one lives in L.A. We try to keep it interesting.

What's the music scene like in Richmond? So many good bands have come out of there (like Avail, for instance) .....

Yeah, they're our hometown heroes. It's hard to say because I'm never really there. It's getting better. There's always been good bands -- it's just a matter of them having a place to play. We actually just got a couple of brand new venues in the last year that are really cool, like 1,200-person venues, which means a lot of national bands will be incorporating Richmond into their tours now.

Why'd you decide to do an acoustic version of your new album?

We hadn't really done that before -- we did a split with another band but we kind of cheated; it wasn't all acoustic. Well, this one wasn't either; it should be called the "loosely acoustic" CD. We literally didn't plan anything, we didn't even choose which songs we were gonna do. We got to the studio and were like, "Let's see what happens."

There are lots of YouTube comments about the MCS singer's hair. Any hot hair tips of his or your own you'd like to share?

I'm not gonna tell you how he gets it to stand up like that. Hair tips? No. I haven't gotten a real haircut in like seven years, so I'm not the guy to talk to about hair. I don't want to shoot anybody down the wrong path. Here's the tip: Keep it clean.

Motion City Soundtrack, with Panic at the Disco, The Hush Sound and Phantom Planet.

When: 7 p.m. May 18

Where: Murat Egyptian Room, 502 N. New Jersey St.

Cost: $35.

Info: (317) 615-1500.

Noteworthy: For a free sample of MCS's music, check out "Fell in Love Without You" at spin.com.

- By Shawna Kenney / Indy.com correspondent