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LOST CLASSICS

Lost Classics: The Dismemberment Plan “The Dismemberment Plan Is Terrified”

They’re nobody’s buzz bands anymore. But since 1993, MAGNET has discovered and documented more great music than memory will allow. The groups may have broken up or the albums may be out of print, but this time, history is written by the losers. Here are some of the finest albums that time forgot but we remembered in issue #75, plus all-new additions to our list of Lost Classics.

:: THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN
The Dismemberment Is Terrified // DeSoto, 1997

Before Fall Out Boy, Hot Topic and emo, Washington, D.C.’s Dismemberment Plan provided the perfect soundtrack to post-college malaise. Terrified is the Plan at its ADD best: welding the unbridled energy of hardcore to the let’s-try-anything spirit of indie rock. (Imagine Shudder To Think crossed with XTC or Queen.) Frontman Travis Morrison embodied the brainy outsider but never begged for your sympathy: alone, naked and drenched in champagne on New Year’s Eve (“The Ice Of Boston”), bewildered by the indifference of the “six or seven kids” watching the band in a Fargo, N.D., strip mall (“Do The Standing Still”) and shrugging his shoulders at being the odd man out in pretty much every setting.

Catching Up: After the Plan’s 2003 split, Morrison released 2004’s Travistan and 2007’s All Y’all. Bassist Eric Axelson played in Maritime with ex-members of the Promise Ring before forming Statehood with D-Plan drummer Joe Easley. Guitarist Jason Caddell is now a producer and engineer and plays in Poor But Sexy. Axelson and Caddell have also spent time in the Gena Rowlands Band. The Dismemberment Plan reunited for two shows in 2007.

“Academy Award”: