What artists are in the same vein as the Dismemberment Plan?

December 11, 2006 3:50 PM

Recommend me some good music in the vein of The Dismemberment Plan.

So as of lately I've been getting really into the Dismemberment Plan and Travis Morrison, but I've worn through Change, Emergency and I, and The Dismemberment Plan is Terrified pretty heavily in the past few months. Are there any other artists out there in this vein (the spoken vocals, almost schizophenic musical feel, not necessarily experimental but with that frantic energy that's there in songs like Dismemberment Plan Gets Rich and Girl 'O Clock) that I should look into? I've heard a little bit of So Many Dynamos and they've sort of got a similar sound, but I'm looking for even more.

posted by Mali to media & arts (18 comments total)

Uh, yeah, about six million. Welcome to the world of commercial emo / post-hardcore.
You may also like Fugazi, Jimmmy Eat World, Embrace, Unrest, Detachment Kit, Les Savvy Fav, Chisel, The French Kicks, ...AYWKUBTTOD (Trail of Dead), Sparta, Modest Mouse, Jawbox, Juno, Shudder to Think, Nation of Ulysseus, Sunnny Day Real Estate, Braid, The Get Up Kids, The Promise Ring, June of '44, Joan of Arc, Super/System, Pedro The Lion...
Not all of those bands will have all of the qualities that you like, but there's a fair overlap. If you want more, especially ones that are around here and no one else's heard of, lemme know. Otherwise, it's probable that you'll like all of those bands.
posted by klangklangston at 4:14 PM on December 11, 2006

pandora.com
posted by matildaben at 4:15 PM on December 11, 2006

Enon and its peredecessor, Braniac, are pretty similar...
posted by lester the unlikely at 4:32 PM on December 11, 2006

Les Savy Fav. They're better.
posted by paulrockNJ at 4:51 PM on December 11, 2006

Pavement.
posted by awesomebrad at 5:04 PM on December 11, 2006

Not to start a flame war, but the Dismemberment Plan are absolutely not commercial emo / post-hardcore...

You might want to check out Travis Morrison (of the Plan)'s solo work...

If it's the singing style that gets you, Joy Division and Cake have a similar thing going (albeit in much different styles)
posted by tmcw at 5:17 PM on December 11, 2006

What tmcw said. There's very little stylistic overlap between the Dismemberment Plan and any of the bands klang mentioned (but then he's got a bad track record with this sort of thing).

Based on what you said you like about Dismemberment Plan, you'll probably like Soul Coughing, and the aforementioned Cake.
posted by jjg at 5:25 PM on December 11, 2006

Girl O'Clock is my favorite Dismemberment Plan song by miles. Here are some songs I recommend that come toi mind, styles may vary wildly (anything by these artists is worth a lookup)--

Xiu Xiu - I Broke Up
the pAper chAse - Said the Spider to the Fly
The Blood Brothers - Every Breath is a Bomb
The Liars - Mr Your On Fire Mr
Q And Not U - End the Washington Monument (Blinks Goodnight)
Mindless Self Indulgence - Kill the Rock
Patrick Wolf - Don't Say No
posted by haveanicesummer at 6:24 PM on December 11, 2006

Listen to "Pattycake" by Self. I freaking love that song. I don't know why I didn't link it up with the Plan whilst I was in college, but they seem to be different branches in the same tree today.

It's off the ca. 2000 album Gizmodery, which I can't vouch for the quality of. All I remember is that the disc was made with toy instruments.
posted by princesspathos at 6:26 PM on December 11, 2006

I can vouch for the quality of Gizmodery, it's FANTASTIC.
posted by haveanicesummer at 7:04 PM on December 11, 2006

I haven't found much that really gets at the D-plan aesthetic on multiple points. But definitely check out Cap'n Jazz, Joan of Arc, and Owls (and all those related, but definitely those three) for some of the spazzitude. And all of the awesomeness, natch (esp. Cap'n Jazz. Get Analphabetapolothology! Now! Go!)

Also check out Liars; spazzish, more spoken vocals. I'm partial to their first album for those qualities (They Threw Us All in a Trench …)

Nothing reminds me of "OK Joke's Over" (off of the album !, which I noticed you didn't list) so much as Theoretical Girls' "US Millie." Kind of. Try it out.

Good luck!
posted by wemayfreeze at 7:11 PM on December 11, 2006

The Dismemberment Plan is pretty unique in terms of musical style, so I think I will only make one suggestion--a band that I don't actually like nearly as much as the Dismemberment Plan, but comes off as being very similiar:

The Hold Steady

Not really experimental, but they have the same dry sarcastic spoken-word interludes that you are looking for and guitar-driven melodies. Try it!
posted by themadjuggler at 7:41 PM on December 11, 2006

"Not to start a flame war, but the Dismemberment Plan are absolutely not commercial emo / post-hardcore..."

Yeah, they really are. I'm distinguishing that from the first wave of emo / post-hardcore, with bands like Rites of Spring, who are much more abrassive. But Dismemberment Plan were part of the same DC scene, and share a lot with DC bands like Super/System (né El Guapo), and with bands like Modest Mouse (not from DC) who share their eclecticism while still proceeding from the experimental side of post-hardcore (best known as Fugazi, but other examples abound). But there's a reason other people are mentioning Cap'n Jazz (and if you like that, you might like Birdsongs the the Mesozoic or some of The Space Negros).

The bands I mentioned share (generally) a similar aesthetic, and if you're really gonna put forth that there's no common thread between, say, Modest Mouse, Unrest or Les Savvy Fav, we're just going to have to agree to disagree.

"What tmcw said. There's very little stylistic overlap between the Dismemberment Plan and any of the bands klang mentioned (but then he's got a bad track record with this sort of thing).

Based on what you said you like about Dismemberment Plan, you'll probably like Soul Coughing, and the aforementioned Cake."

Not sure how that evidences a "bad track record." Bingo didn't know the first thing about indie pop, I gave him some touchstones. And c'mon, you really think that Mali's going to be happier with Cake or Soul Coughing? Those bands both MAYBE justify a best-of, or could fill up one side of a mix tape.

(On a happier note, thanks for this question because it's been about five years since I listened to the band, and I needed an excuse to dig their albums out again...)
posted by klangklangston at 9:57 PM on December 11, 2006

I would say not that klang's list didn't have some sort of stylistic overlap, but that klang's list wasn't particularly useful. Yes they are post-hardcore. I don't know what commercial emo means. But just pulling out a bunch of bands that also fit that label doesn't help the OP out, especially when he gave some specific qualities that he was looking for. And then wrapping it up with "it's probable you'll like all of those bands" is really not helpful.
posted by wemayfreeze at 10:21 PM on December 11, 2006

i'd say to check out any band j. robbins was in or produced. wikipedia can help.
posted by kneelconqueso at 7:26 AM on December 12, 2006

Malajube!

If it's the dance-rock-y stuff that gets you, try The Rapture.
posted by GilloD at 9:12 AM on December 12, 2006

Klang's list is an excellent one, and I would add Drive like Jehu, Polvo, and Faraquet to its hallowed ranks.
posted by saladin at 9:16 AM on December 12, 2006

I don't really know of too many bands like the Plan, unfortunately. It's probably because I've been listening to them a lot lately, but LCD Soundsystem has some similarities. At least on some songs. But I've recommended them in a few threads recently, so maybe they just combine a lot of different styles in their music.

Secondly, and I don't hear it at all, but I've had friends comment in isolated incidences that Travis M. sounds a lot like the lead singer of The Tragically Hip. If it's the voice that grabs you, then you may want to check some of their stuff out (I love the Hip, but their music strikes me as pretty different).
posted by backwards guitar at 11:25 AM on December 12, 2006