The Dismemberment Plan -- !

7/10

The Dismemberment Plan's debut, !, is a DIY-sounding rock album with punk rock energy. Most of this energy comes from vocalist, Travis Morrison, and his manic and jittery, "oh no I just drank too much coffee!" delivery. The strangely danceable musical performances (danceable because of bassist, Eric Axelson's, work; strangely because lesser bands' bassists would just strum with the guitars) in ! follow suit. Then again, this album is called !, so this paragraph was useless.
While ! sounds like it could have been recorded in a garage, Morrison's "I'm the smartest guy here" lyrics, while still developing, welcome any listener who's sick of stupidity (Yes, I know there is a song called "Onward, Fat Girl" here. Yes, leave me alone.) and the music...sorry, I made this sentence too long and I lost my train of thought. Let's try this paragraph again.
While ! sounds like it could have been recorded in a garage, the lyrics are more incisive than average, and the album contains several musical moments that hint at possible greatness. !'s closer, "Rusty," contains nearly the least amount of ! on the entire album. It's hard to listen to "Rusty" and not get the feeling that any band who could close out their debut with a track like this will soon be on to something better. Man, I lost my train of thought on that sentence, too. Whatever. The end.


1995 DeSoto Records
1. Survey Says 2:08
2. The Things That Matter 2:25
3. The Small Stuff 3:02
4. OK Jokes Over 4:27
5. Soon to Be Ex Quaker 1:26
6. I'm Going to Buy You a Gun 3:06
7. If I Don't 2:17
8. Wouldn't You Like to Know? 4:27
9. 13th and Euclid 2:50
10. Fantastic! 4:14
11. Onward, Fat Girl 2:46
12. Rusty 4:29