The Dismemberment Plan

For the last three or four years, whenever someone has asked me who my favorite band is, I answered: The Dismemberment Plan. In reality, choosing a favorite band is one of those impossible decisions to make because personal tastes are ever-evolving and you can never really absorb the vast amount of music in the world. Regardless, such an on-the-spot question is a great yardstick for measuring someone's personality, and my answer has been cleverly composed. To the follow up, "Why are they your favorite band?", I usually note that in their four album career, there is a lot of musical diversity to be found. What better way to answer a question designed to distill specific information than with a vague yet comprehensive answer?

I honestly don't remember how I first discovered The Dismemberment Plan. Somehow they ended up downloaded on my computer and eventually on an mp3 CD-R which spent a lot of time in my car's stereo receiver. Their fourth album, Change, was the first one that I listened to. Driving to Ann Arbor to meet up with some friends, I started flipping through songs I hadn't listened to yet and came across "Time Bomb". I was instantly hooked. From there it was like discovering a whole new world. At the time I was working mornings at a golf course, and would often spend an hour every day driving a specialized cart around the driving range to pick up balls. Accompanied by a portable CD player, I would milk this time listening to their songs on repeat. With every new discovery came strong feelings of "How have I not heard this before?" and "Thankfully, I never have to be without this again". So many of their songs are like four-minute stories. They create a world and welcome you in with detail and feeling, almost tangible. Before long I had decided that I needed to own their catalog as physical copies. I took a handful of old CDs from my middle school days to Wazoo records in Ann Arbor and traded them in: a dedication to my maturing tastes.

After graduating high school, moving in and subsequently breaking up with my first girlfriend, settling into life on my own and moving to a new town, The Dismemberment Plan became a sort of anchor in my life. Music has always been one of the most important things to me, and a standby favorite was comforting. Recently I realized that they had fallen out of frequent rotation in my listening habits, so I decided to revisit all of The Plan's albums. In doing so, I observed that each album is respectably like the four seasons. As someone who believes in the natural differences in energies throughout the year, this only reinforces their position as my favorite band.

The perfect first album, "!" is angry and fun. Every time I listen to it, I imagine these guys staying up 'til all hours of the night, to quote the linear notes, "working on their time changes". Most songs seem to have two parts: a first which most of the song is built around, and a second which explodes into an amazing groove of steady rhythm. The album is a collection of so many amazing moments. Going on about the specifics would be futile. If you like aggressive yet self-aware post punk, this album is a standout. And that's not even what The Plan is known for.

Somehow their second album is their quintessential sound without containing the majority of their material. The Dismemberment Plan Is Terrified is one of the most diverse and cohesive CDs I have ever heard, a true "Summer" in terms of creative expression. Some songs can only be defined as quirky or strange, while others are simple, catchy nuggets of pop rock charm. What I picked up recently was that certain parts of this album foretell the direction the band is branching into. Particularly, the guitar towards the end of "This Is The Life". At the end of the song I half expect it to segue into a track from their final album. The sound here is simultaneously all over the map and yet unmistakeably The Dismemberment Plan.

Where ...Is Terrified is a tour de force of talents, Emergency & I is more of a complete album. They have settled into a sound and here it is allowed to stretch its legs. While the sound dips and rises in terms of loudness and speed, they have the same certain something that can only come from a fully formed and working band.

The Winter of The Plan's career, Change is the most real. It is also the weakest. Not in terms of sound or strength of the songs, but in it's attitude. Many of the songs are filled with confusion, regret and surrender. What this album is not is fake. It does not lie to you, and if you are willing to not take advantage of it's vulnerability, it will reward you with some of the most beautiful sounds you will ever hear. The realism in every song is unavoidable. Its place in my record collection is without question.

Having just undergone a year's worth of living in the form of musical appreciation, I feel at least a little more prepared to face the tomorrows standing in front of me. Where I've found that my attitudes and feelings fluctuate through the seasons, embracing a year's worth of emotion at any time can do a world of good. I can't pretend to assume that anyone will take from The Dismemberment Plan's music what I do, but I do believe that each of us can all tap into something equally significant. Take root in your opinions and be honest with yourself. When someone asks you what your favorite band is, be prepared, and be satisfied with your answer.