The Dismemberment Plan

The Dismemberment Plan was a Washington D.C. based band formed on January 1, 1993. Also known as D-Plan or The Plan, the name comes from a stray phrase uttered by the insurance salesman in the popular comedy Groundhog Day. The band members included Eric Axelson (bass), Jason Caddell (guitar), Joe Easley (drums) and Travis Morrison (vocals and guitar). Axelson, Caddell, Morrison and original drummer Steve Cummings formed the band after attending Lake Braddock Secondary School together in Burke, Virginia. Cummings left the band after the recording of the Plan's debut album ! and was replaced by Easley, who had attended Woodson High School. That cemented the band's lineup for the rest of its existence.

Band History:

Aside from a brief interlude in 1998 and 1999 when they were signed by Interscope Records, the band recorded for local label DeSoto Records. Their breakthrough album, Emergency & I, was actually created during their time at Interscope. However, they were dropped from the label shortly after its completion, and thus took it back with them to DeSoto, where it wound up being released. The EP for "The Ice of Boston" is the only item of theirs Interscope actually released during their tenure there.

Following the massive underground success of Emergency & I, the band received an even higher profile after being invited to open for the European leg of Pearl Jam's 2000 tour. A co-headlining tour in 2002 with Death Cab for Cutie (cheekily called the "Death and Dismemberment Tour") also worked well to raise both bands' profiles and cross-pollinate their fanbases, as well as forge creative ties between several members. Later that summer and fall the Dismemberment Plan started to debut songs for their follow-up to 2001's Change. In 2002 the band put all the music tracks from their last two albums on their website, encouraging fans to remix the songs. The result was 2003's A People's History of the Dismemberment Plan. On January 19, 2003, however, the band announced on their website that they had decided to break up after a few tours that year. A final show was planned for July 28, 2003 in Washington D.C.'s famous outdoor show space, Fort Reno Park. However come show-time a heavy rain had driven off all but the most devoted fans, leading the band to add one more final show. On September 1, 2003, they closed out their career with a sold-out show at the renowned 9:30 Club. Morrison took the post-Change songs with him for further work, and released many of them on his first album, Travistan, released in 2004. Eric Axelson started a band called Maritime with former members of The Promise Ring. They released an album, Glass Floor, in 2004. Eric Alexson has recently left Maritime and has future plans for his career that are not released as of yet.

Travis Morrison has been recording material for his second album with Jason Caddell (as of October 2006). See www.travismorrison.com for more detail.

The Dismemberment Plan reunited for two shows to benefit Cal Robbins at the Black Cat in Washington, D.C. on April 29th and April 30th, 2007.