The Dismemberment Plan: Classic Or Dud?

as for the 'classic' issue, that's a thorny word to throw around, but i can only speak for myself that I already know that these are some records and shows that i'll look back on fondly in the years to come. as for "Change", i already love most of the songs from hearing them live, but have my dooubts as to whether it'll continue to step up their hype momentum. it's kind of one of those records that's too low-key (by their standards) to really maintain the excitement they've been generating lately, but it'll probably still be their biggest yet, although i think E&I will remain the most effective (and most flattering) introduct

We can? Good.

Emboldened by my success with Gravity's Rainbow I now feel ready to try out another one of Josh's obsessions. HOWEVER the only Dismemberment Plan album I can find is "Is Terrified". The question therefore is: should I pick this up before it disappears into the void with their other albums, or wait for a "safer" choice to turn up? Feel free to factor in any ideas you have about my tastes into the issue.

Despite what I wrote on my blog last night, Is Terrified still has a LOTTA guitars and post-hardcore music writing on it. That makes me think it would be the album of theirs (well except for ! the debut) least likely to appeal to you. Can't you order one of the next two albums or something?

And ahem. Obsessions are bad. What I have is VERY SPECIAL, not bad.

Thanks for all your help - luckily though I just discovered that the Dismemberment Plan website offers me the chance to listen to the whole album in realaudio. I'm enjoying the first track at least, though obviously not in an OBSESSIVE way... not like the CRAZY people you see in the posts above mine.

I am a professional, Ned. I have "interests" and "specializations".

And I'm not? *cries*

Look, I was ready to forget about "Heroin" but you're pushing it now.

On a side note, I think this "angry and young" idea is a little strange. It's fine as a personal preference, I guess, but it seems to me like lots of rock music is at the very least not both of those things. (I'd consider 'young', but only for a couple seconds before I thought of exceptions.)

ehhhhhhhh...not really. or, explain how.

the dis plan has an amazing rhythm section. they're also one of the few bands i expect to get even better with their next album.

PS. I really like "Timebomb" *and* have noted its half- submerged rhythmic brilliance. See forthcoming blog post.

I think the most interesting idea in Tim's piece is the thing about giving up to the groove. It's probably just my lesser familiarity with groove-based music, but I don't think I bring hopes like that to music that's reaching out to dance. It does make me wonder what reasons we might have for preferring dance/nondance fusions to cross farther in one direction than in the other. My intuition is that it's more helpful and interesting for them to hold back from giving in to the groove, barely, because once they cross the line they seem more like whatever-inflected dance music, which is made a lot; but music that stays behind in, say, post-hardcore, is doing a lot more to its core music. This also makes me wonder what Tim would make of their two previous albums, which to different degrees also dip into other kinds of music, but in less obvious ways, I think (given the number of songs on Change that chug along over a hot rhythm section). I think they make the monogroove character (cyclicalish structure rather than linearish-Pixiesque) of Change a lot more striking.

*massive fart noise*

It's the voice, really. The music I always thought was decent. The dealbreaker was the look on his face as he sang onstage, combined with the tone of his voice and his words. I just couldn't stand it.

Normally, if I think an artist is a dickhead in real life, it doesn't really bother me. It just makes Lou Reed even cooler, for example. But for some reason, Travis Morrison's personality just ruins Dismemberment Plan.

ya totally. she seems nice, & both of them v.levelheaded about the whole thing, hope their marriage is a happy one :)

I kinda like the fact he didn't have copies of the other ones around.

lol the dc-board of old school indie-crowd types i post on are SO OFFENDED by this article and think she's the worst person ever, like they can't even past her referring to him as a rock star

it's a cute article but i def would not have told her "yeah sure publishing that is a good idea, go for it" if i was him

B/c it reflects badly on him, or?

i think travis has given up on pleasing old school indie-crowd types except in a "give me money, i give you hits" capacity

i don't think referring to him as a rock star is like a we-r-so-indie sticking point, it's just that she sort of structures the article around that thought ('omg, a rock star?!') in a way that is kind of out of touch with the inappropriateness of referring to a moderate turn-of-millennium indie rock success as a 'rock star'. the response is like, guh? what are you talking about?

she does admit up front that she knows nothing about music and doesn't care. she also uses an analogy to a leather mini-skirt wearing fangirl from Almost Famous not once, but twice.

right. it's almost in no way about music, being a musician, a rock star.

'omg, my fiance used to be a porn star', 'omg, my fiance used to be a stripper!', 'omg, my fiancee used to play arena football!'

haha I go to bed at 10 o'clock too

B/c it reflects badly on him, or?

― Trewster Dare (jaymc), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 11:59 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

not at all. i'm just like, i COULD write an essay about my wife's cool job, or encourage her to write one about mine, but i wouldn't.

wonder if Zooey is gonna write one of these when she realizes Ben Gibbard used to be an indie-rocker too

...wait fuck ABANDON JOKE

Ira and Georgia writing endless recursive songs about discovering one another's dark musical pasts

what level of actual (indie) rock celebrity would the fiancee have to have achieved before this would be an article to write? like, obviously it couldn't be 'omg my fiancee was in slint'. but 'omg my fiancee was in pavement'? or?

well i mean this kind of article could be written about pretty much anyone who's not a household name and might plausibly work a day job outside the music business but could sell out clubs and bring out fanatical fans if they got the old band band together. and that represents a really wide spectrum of different levels of success.

travis morrison was such a babe

i remember being crushed when he went all neo-con post-9/11

I like the idea of Trav Morrison singing in an Episcopal Church choir!

I have tickets to see them on/in a boat in Bristol. Excellent.

i remember being crushed when he went all neo-con post-9/11

Wait, this was a thing?

yeah i remember at least one long idiotic blog post advocating war in iraq etc.

this appears to be some morons discussing it but the meat of morrison's argument is roughly (and as abuard) as i remember it.

to be fair, i knew a lot of previously intelligent people who turned into chest-beating morons on September 12.

http://devonrecordclub.com/2013/10/28/the-dismemberment-plan-emergency-i-round-56-nicks-choice/

They are so awesome and dorky live.

yup

aren't they shitty at this stage?

they're basically as good a live band now as they ever were. even if you hate the new songs, they sound better live and aren't the whole show.