Artist bio

It didn’t happen overnight, but after enough hard work yielded such masterpieces as 1997’s ... Is Terrified and 1999’s Emergency & I, Washington, D.C.’s the Dismemberment Plan was nothing less than one of the most exciting bands in rock, underground or otherwise. The Plan’s 1994 debut, !, rightfully sounded like the work of rank amateurs but offered enough XTC-meets-Fugazi charm to get the Travis Morrison-led band off the ground. By ... Is Terrified, The Plan had nailed its utterly unique combination of razor-sharp lyrics, schizophrenic rhythms, and cliche-free songwriting. Enter Interscope Records, which signed the band the following year but then gave it the boot after releasing just a single EP, The Ice Of Boston +3. Unfazed, The Plan went right back to hometown label Desoto and continued to push the creative envelope on Emergency & I and its 2001 follow-up, Change.

Albums by this artist

Change (2001)

Emergency & I (1999)

'The Ice Of Boston + 3' EP (1998)

The Dismemberment Plan Is Terrified (Recommended) (1997)

! (1995)

Features

Travis speaks to NATN in 1999:
Published September 8, 1999

Interviews

When It's Time To Change...
November 1, 2001

Changing The Topic...Once Again
April 8, 2001

What Do You Want Me To Say?
March 13, 2000

The Dismemberment Plan

'The Ice Of Boston + 3' EP

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» JONATHAN COHEN | SENIOR EDITOR

The Dismemberment Plan 'The Ice Of Boston + 3' EP Interscope, 1998 RiYL: Braniac's Hissing Prigs In Static Couture, XTC, Fugazi's In On The Kill Taker

While waiting (in vain, it later turned out) for the release of its major-label debut album for Interscope, the Dismemberment Plan uncorked The Ice Of Boston +3 EP, providing a glimpse at the direction the group had been heading musically throughout 1998.

Although the title cut already appeared on the Plan's acclaimed '97 Is Terrified album, it shows up again here. It makes sense: the song is one of the band's most radio-friendly creations and sports many of the qualities that make the Plan so appealing. We have the highly personal and witty lyrics of singer Travis Morrison, delivered in his usual half-sung, half-spoken style. We have the unpredictable hooks that stick in your head and a rhythm that forces the pelvis into action. Excellent.

Elsewhere, the confusing "The First Anniversary Of Your Last Phone Call" recalls many a track on the Plan's debut album. But something about this song doesn't work; there are too many dissimilar elements going on (a feat which the band pulls off more often than not). We go from regular minor chords into weird dissonance into a major key interlude near song's end: in essence, overkill.

"Just Like You," previously released on a compilation album, has been a live staple for quite awhile. Again though, it seems like the band is trying too hard to make the song "weird." The use of dissonance in the chorus hinders, rather than furthers, the song's forward motion. Saving grace: Eric Axelson's balls-out basswork and the short bursts of noise rock that pop up.

"Spider In The Snow," later included in a different form on Emergency & I, succeeds where "Anniversary" fails. Although Morrison once again launches into a verbal checklist of details from a failed relationship, the music does a much better job of conveying his longing. Axelson's funktified bass line serves as the backbone for tasteful synths and a simple ascending guitar melody, winding up as one of the band's most powerful, mature songs yet.

The material is highly varied. The point: it's more satisfying to see a band experimenting with new ideas, even if they don't necessarily work, rather than not experimenting at all.

JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"