Dismembering Music
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 27, 2002 9:00 p.m.
 www.dismembermentplan.com Unlike Lenny Kravitz, the
members of the rock band Dismemberment Plan will never fly away.
They have their feet firmly planted on the ground.
By Anthony Bromberg
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
A bloodied head rolling across the stage or knives and blades
digging into human flesh might be just a couple of images that come
to mind when the words Dismemberment Plan are heard. But, for those
in the know, those same two words represent a bastion of musical
quality and integrity and maybe even unabashed anti-rock star
positivity.
“I like it, because band names should be kind of
bad,” said Travis Morrison, Dismemberment Plan’s
frontman in a phone interview. “When you think about it, the
Beatles are the worst band name in the history of the world.
It’s a really feeble pun, and they’re the greatest band
of all time.”
For many people in the underground rock scene, Dismemberment
Plan, although not Beatle-esque, has taken on importance over the
last 10 years as one of the most progressive bands out there. The
Plan has been touring in support of its 2001 album
“Change” and is coming to the El Rey this Friday with
co-headliner Death Cab for Cutie.
The Plan’s touring schedule requires them to be on the
move almost constantly, and Morrison is spending his day off doing
interviews and playing a variety show by himself.
“I love it,” Morrison said. “I mean
what’s tough about it? I mean only musicians would say that
touring is tough. Being born in Rwanda is tough.”
Dismemberment Plan and Death Cab for Cutie are trading off
opening for each other depending on the city, which, according to
Morrison, has been a very effective system for the competitive
bands. It inspires Morrison and friends not to look too much like
skinny, quirky, “spazzy dingbats,” as well as to make
every night as high quality as possible. They don’t want to
slip into the laziness of using Juvenile’s “Back That
Ass Up” every night for laughs, and also want to be as
thorough about a good setlist as possible.
In previous tours Dismemberment Plan almost exclusively played
tracks from whatever its most recent albums were at the time. Now,
however, with four albums under its belt, Morrison believes the
show should be an encapsulation of the journey so far.
 www.dismembermentplan.com Dismemberment Plan is coming to
the El Rey this Friday with Death Cab for Cutie and Aveo.
Morrison’s guitar work and lead vocals are accompanied in
the Plan by Eric Axelson on bass, Jason Caddell on guitar and Joe
Easley on drums, with everyone save Easley taking turns on
keyboards.
Morrison describes himself as the guy who wants the ball in his
hand, and as the lead singer, the emotional risk taker of the band,
but he likes the challenge and the pressure. He likens Easley to
the band’s Rasheed Wallace, bringing a lot of passion to the
band, but also getting a lot of technical fouls. Easley is the one
who kicks people in the ass when it needs to be done. Caddell,
according to Morrison, is a private guy who likes to fiddle with
pedals, computers and gears.
“He kind of likes to wander off and he comes back and is
like, “˜Hey look what I did.’ And he’s put 10,000
samples on a disk,” Morrison said.
Axelson is the true leader of the group, according to Morrison.
He’s the one who put up the money to buy the band’s
first van, and while the other three abuse each other horribly, to
go after Axelson is almost like screwing with Mom.
The offbeat outfit has musical roots in everything from fellow
Washington D.C. band Fugazi, to the Go-Go’s, to Mary J.
Blige. Morrison feels that too often popular music is ignored for
its interesting contributions to music. This happens especially
recently in the areas of hip hop and R&B with acts like
Timbaland and Destiny’s Child.
“I think Destiny’s Child is doing crazy, crazy
stuff,” Morrison said. “I mean that song “˜Bills
Bills Bills’ is the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard.
Radiohead’s never done anything that crazy. … People are
really blind to how crazy a lot of the current top 40 pop music is.
So when people focus on bands like Radiohead, they say,
“˜There is some artists,’ but they’re a little
blind to the fact that there are some really radical artists making
really popular music right now, and … that’s their loss to
me, because I think a lot of that stuff is really exciting
too.”
Morrison’s musical openness and idealism extends further
to every aspect of Dismemberment Plan’s career, and his open
detestation for rock clichés. His current reasons to find
songwriting have to do with the desire to look at life from a
detached point of view, or in another out-of-the-ordinary way. He
cites this detached view as being what all the major religions are
about and finds similar inspiration in the work of “bad
ass” guys, like physicist Richard Feinman, who were able to
completely break down their view of the world and then rebuild it
by doing things like inventing quantum physics.
The things that annoy him about the rock world are the things
like the supposed teenage rebellion “crap” aspect of
rock ‘n’ roll.
“I can’t stand the idea of us just being for the
kids,” Morrison said. “Whatever, if it’s a really
spiritual statement like in Bob Marley or Marvin Gaye, any age can
see the power and the majesty and the honesty in that music. It
doesn’t matter how old you are when you listen to
it.”
After getting the chance to tour with Pearl Jam, the Plan has
also had its eyes opened to the unfortunate frustrations of trying
to stay underground and have shows go smoothly.
According to Morrison, there are still people in the underground
who feel that anyone who wants a show to start on time is
corporate, but he’s dealt with the lack of professionalism
and he doesn’t feel guilty about it.
He also quickly dispels any notion about a rock band being
frustrated by having one record, which people really latch onto, as
the Dismemberment Plan’s 1999 release, “Emergency &
I.” He says it doesn’t matter if it overshadows the
current release, or if being on an independent label limits their
visibility. He is proud that his work gets to find an audience at
all.
“I’m perfectly comfortable being on an indie label
because if I keep at it these songs will find the place that
they’re supposed to be on their own, as long as I stay
diligent and stay dedicated to music,” Morrison said.
