Musicians often have trademarks that are as well known as their music.

Michael Jackson had his lone glove and plastic face, Elvis Presley had his signature tight pants and swaying hips, and Justin Pierre is renowned for his signature crazy hair.

Who is Justin Pierre? Pierre is the front man for up-and-coming new age emo rock quintet Motion City Soundtrack.

“I really have no idea what it is exactly that he [Pierre] puts in his hair to make it go nuts like that. All I know is that it doesn’t get washed very often,” says Tony Thaxton, drummer for Motion City Soundtrack.ÿ

The band, which has amassed a respectable cult following, doesn’t take its ever-increasing popularity for granted, Thaxton says.

“I’m so proud that our hard work is finally starting to pay off,” he says. After the release of its first record, “I Am the Movie,” the band played more than 300 shows in the first year alone.

“We’re glad that we actually earned our reputation by busting our asses. We’re not one of those bands that got popular overnight by having our videos on MTV or our songs on the radio,” Thaxton says.

The band’s hard work, dedication to touring and self promotion have recently opened up more opportunities than it had hoped for. Its efforts and lyricism caught the eye of Blink 182, which invited Motion City to join it on tour.

“Playing with Blink 182 was insane,” Thaxton says.

“We went from having our biggest crowd ever being like 1,000 people to playing in front of 14,000 people every night.”

He says that while on tour, Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 mentioned that he wanted to start doing music production when the tour was through, and Blink was to “take a break.”

Motion City decided to approach him about producing their next album, and Hoppus jumped at the opportunity.

“Mark [Hoppus] definitely had a big impact on defining the sound of the new record,” Thaxton says. “We gave him demos of all our songs, and when we got to the studio, he told us exactly what he thought would sound best — from which guitar sound to use on a bridge, to which snare sound should define a song.”

Thaxton also says Hoppus is just as crazy and fun in real life as he portrays himself in Blink 182.

“He approached us initially as a fan — which was really weird to us, to have somebody that we admired admire us back,” Thaxton says.

“He let us know up front that if we didn’t like any of his ideas, we should just tell him that the idea sucks … he kept enforcing that this was our record, and that he was just there to try to make us sound as good as he could.”

Motion City’s second album, “Commit This to Memory,” has already been leaked online. Thaxton says the band is pretty bummed out about it, because it tried hard to prevent the music from getting out. “We definitely were hoping it wouldn’t leak, but we’re not surprised that it did. I guess it’s not all that bad, because we have only heard positive feedback from the people who downloaded it. We’re just hoping that people still buy it when it comes out,” he says.

He says that the new album, due out this June, keeps Motion City’s signature sound — complete with whimsical moog lines and danceable beats — but it will be much more polished and grown-up than its first release.

He also said that the band is excited to take its new songs on the road. Thaxton says he remembers playing in the Maintenance Shop last fall.

“That show was really fun. Sometimes smaller shows like that have some of the coolest vibes and are the most fun to play,” he says. “[Iowa State] is a cool place; we’re excited to come back.”

Who: Motion City Soundtrack

What: Freeman Spring Concert

Where: Forker parking lot

When: 4-9 p.m. Saturday

Cost: Free