Fuck!

Second reaction: Well, I don't like the new songs they've been playing, so maybe it's better that they break up than continue the long slope into mediocrity.

I second the 'fuck' and suggest adding a 'this shit'

I only got to see them once live

BUT!...they haven't broken up yet. From the post, it seems like there will at least be some limited US touring, if not a full-fledged farewell tour. And they still left the door open for some UK shows, I believe.

It's a shame...it seems like all the bands I've gotten close to seem to have some bad news this week.

although i can't say they were overly tremendous live in Montreal....

Josh blog is probably sulking over his philosophy books, with Dismemberment Plan albums on rotation.

it was because the singer was spending too much time with his other band: 'the dave mathews band'

Hey David, could you explain this one to me? I've heard nearly this exact comment many times from many different people (I'm sure you arrived at your conclusion completely independently, however), but I've never heard anyone try to explain it.

They played here (Lexington, KY) last night. Great show, as always. The singer and bass player were at a bar where some of my friends were at last night and they hinted that it was the end of the road. They left to back to DC this morning... But, they played new material at the show, so I didn't take my friends seriously.

There's always Les Savy Fav...

only heard once on the radio doing a crappy rap cover "around the way girl" i think

When i first heard them in my own personal indie summer of 2000, i was blown away and knew from the first notes of "The Dismemberment Plan Is Terrified" that I'd found a group to add to my shortlist of favorites. I think that they rarely get the credit they deserve from their detractors. No matter how much you may hate their music, and perhaps even them as people, (as someone said) they digested everything around them, and that's everything with a capital E. Here now in 2003, you have the indie media openly accepting things like modern-day top 40 stuff like Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguliera and older "un-hip" bands like Aztec Camera and Dexy's Midnight Runners without the slightest pretense, and this is something you just didn't see 2 or 3 years ago. The Dismemberment Plan has, since their inception, openly advocated this stuff and I think that that attitude really manifested itself in everyone else around them. If not for their fantastic music, this is what they will/should be remembered for.

but i'll probably have to hear "the ice of boston" 60 times during the next week (or at least the first ten seconds before i realize what it is and quickly turn off the radio) on my station, so "boo."

"Open letter to The Dismemberment Plan.

I just found out The Dismemberment Plan have split up. Well, not split up, but… Ended. Finished, to all intents and purposes. Travis is going to go into the studio and record some songs. They might play some gigs together in the future. They’re going to honour the touring commitments they have at the moment. But… No new records. The Dismemberment Plan, as a creative entity, is over. The Dismemberment Plan want to take time out to do things which they have been precluded from doing by being in a band. I’m not sure what that means, specifically. Is it the old ‘spend more time with the family’ cliché? I have friends with kids, and I can understand that. It always seems to ground them and give them a sense of contentment and purpose. It’s fair enough. But my friends aren’t The Dismemberment Plan. If they were, I’d encourage them not to end it just for that. There’s no reason why the two can’t exist in parallel, or even symbiosis. There’s no-

Fuck this. Fuck reasoned thought for a moment, because if ever a band was given to little Tourette’s-like outbursts of pent-up emotion in the middle of trying to be sensible and thoughtful about something, it’s The Dismemberment Plan. This fucking sucks. Joe Strummer just died, for fuck’s sake! You can’t split up now! I’ve spent the last 6 months trying to convince people that The Dismemberment Plan’s next album is going to a; blow the back of their fucking head off, and b; unite the world in peace, love, harmony, and blissfully schizophrenic sonic freak-outs. You can’t finish it now! You’re not fucking done yet! You can’t be! You bastards! Being in England means these things go straight underneath the radar until it’s too late, always. My first thought on hearing the news? “Fuck, gotta get to DC and see them live before it’s too late!”

I read Scott Plagenhoeff’s ‘Whatever Happened To Our Rock n Roll?’ article on stylusmagazine.com about how rock was a huge, ugly, necrophiliac beast content to sit on its ass of the past and churn out stodgy, dull, safe and backward records that the public lap up like some kind of ‘60’s worshipping Pavlov’s Dog, and the first thing I thought was “fuck, he’s right, the good rock bands are few and far between, and precious few of them are great”. And the second thing I thought was “The Dismemberment Plan! We’re safe!” I’ve been meaning to email Scott for some time and suggest to him that The Dismemberment Plan are the band he was describing, the exciting, sonically precocious rock band that weren’t afraid to exist completely outside the received canon, grabbing everything they hear and mixing it up in their own music, a band who started off as a narrow post-hardcore DC group and who expanded their sound exponentially over the course of ten years until they were doing things which showed that there were roads left to be travelled in ‘indie rock’ or ‘alt rock’ or any fucking stupid, spent, lame genre of rock you care to mention. Fuck it, it’s all music. It’s just that the stuff people make with guitars these days tends to be shit. Tended to be shit. Until The Dismemberment Plan. And now, sadly, it looks as if it’ll tend to be shit again. For a while.

I was gonna talk about how the idea of The Dismemberment Plan was great, how the ‘top ten songs in the world right now’ list on their website was by itself a braver artistic statement than the recorded output of almost any other ‘rock’ band you care to mention, just because it showed that the guys obviously loved music and loved all kinds of music… I was gonna talk about how it was great that you could hear in their records how much they loved music, loved to play, loved to listen, loved to incorporate everything they heard, was gonna say that a band who took equally from Talking Heads, Fugazi, hip hop and drum n bass simply must be wonderful, never mind if they can write songs or not. And then I was gonna talk about how they could write songs and they were great songs and how they just were wonderful in actual reality, never mind how good the idea alone was…

This letter was gonna be demanding that The Dismemberment Plan don’t split up, a list of reasons, unarguable reasons, why they can’t and mustn’t split up. This letter was gonna change their minds. But… The more I think about it, the more it strikes me that really, rather than spitting fire and indignation and trying to change the minds of people I’ve never met and who don’t know me from Adam, I ought to just say ‘thank you’. Because, you know. Four albums. A promising debut. An excellent sophomore. A third album that, well, escapes and defies description and categorisation by being so eclectic and surprising and downright fucking wonderful that I am still flabbergasted as to why it isn’t given out free to people on the street in order to help them live their lives better. And a fourth album that, while not quite the shocking headfuck of the third (I mean, after that one, we were expecting greatness this time), was still awesome on every level. That’s a damn site more of an achievement than most other bands can even dream of making.

So, The Dismemberment Plan, thank you, fuck you, and good night. You were great. You really were. Maybe I’ll see you in DC some time.

Lots of love,

Nick S."

Not with the new songs they had been previewing at the last round of shows.

Still, assuming that their summer 2003 Fort Reno show will be their farewell concert, let's organize. I might be able to put up one or two out-of-town guests. We'll go to Fort Reno en masse, round up the guys, and not let them go until they explain to our satisfaction why they can't resolve this.

Well, it's an idea.

If we're lucky they'll dismember themselves :0

Exactly.

Travis replied to that email, btw, just saying 'thanks', so he can't be all that bad.

Travis was throwing in new wave vocal flourishes left and right. And they played "One Too Many Blows to the Head" (which I don't think I had previously heard live)...complete with Travis playing the trombone (badly).

My feet are swimming in my shoes. All my clothes are absolutely 100% soaked.

The City
Girl O'Clock
Ice of Boston
What Do You Want Me to Say
Academy Award
Do the Standing Still
Following Through
Time Bomb
Dismemberment Plan Gets Rich
Face of the Earth
You Are Invited > "I Hope You Don't Mind" (tease)
Gyroscope
One Too Many Blows to the Head
OK, Joke's Over > numerous teases

we have the same birthday, you should send me a present.

I wasn't crazy about Uncanney Valley but I've been listening to E&I and Change a lot the last few days and the truth is I miss these guys.

E&I and Change are downright classics. I remember their social media fb page was very active around the time Uncanney Valley came out, but having just checked it now they haven't posted since 2015. I wonder if they feel embarrassed about the reunion looking back. They rode the wholesome nostalgia wave so hard and then dropped a massive brick