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  www.dismembermentplan.com Unlike Lenny Kravitz, the members of the rock band Dismemberment Plan will never fly away. They have their feet firmly planted on the ground.

By Anthony Bromberg

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

A bloodied head rolling across the stage or knives and blades digging into human flesh might be just a couple of images that come to mind when the words Dismemberment Plan are heard. But, for those in the know, those same two words represent a bastion of musical quality and integrity and maybe even unabashed anti-rock star positivity.

“I like it, because band names should be kind of bad,” said Travis Morrison, Dismemberment Plan’s frontman in a phone interview. “When you think about it, the Beatles are the worst band name in the history of the world. It’s a really feeble pun, and they’re the greatest band of all time.”

For many people in the underground rock scene, Dismemberment Plan, although not Beatle-esque, has taken on importance over the last 10 years as one of the most progressive bands out there. The Plan has been touring in support of its 2001 album “Change” and is coming to the El Rey this Friday with co-headliner Death Cab for Cutie.

The Plan’s touring schedule requires them to be on the move almost constantly, and Morrison is spending his day off doing interviews and playing a variety show by himself.

“I love it,” Morrison said. “I mean what’s tough about it? I mean only musicians would say that touring is tough. Being born in Rwanda is tough.”

Dismemberment Plan and Death Cab for Cutie are trading off opening for each other depending on the city, which, according to Morrison, has been a very effective system for the competitive bands. It inspires Morrison and friends not to look too much like skinny, quirky, “spazzy dingbats,” as well as to make every night as high quality as possible. They don’t want to slip into the laziness of using Juvenile’s “Back That Ass Up” every night for laughs, and also want to be as thorough about a good setlist as possible.

In previous tours Dismemberment Plan almost exclusively played tracks from whatever its most recent albums were at the time. Now, however, with four albums under its belt, Morrison believes the show should be an encapsulation of the journey so far.

  www.dismembermentplan.com Dismemberment Plan is coming to the El Rey this Friday with Death Cab for Cutie and Aveo.

Morrison’s guitar work and lead vocals are accompanied in the Plan by Eric Axelson on bass, Jason Caddell on guitar and Joe Easley on drums, with everyone save Easley taking turns on keyboards.

Morrison describes himself as the guy who wants the ball in his hand, and as the lead singer, the emotional risk taker of the band, but he likes the challenge and the pressure. He likens Easley to the band’s Rasheed Wallace, bringing a lot of passion to the band, but also getting a lot of technical fouls. Easley is the one who kicks people in the ass when it needs to be done. Caddell, according to Morrison, is a private guy who likes to fiddle with pedals, computers and gears.

“He kind of likes to wander off and he comes back and is like, ‘Hey look what I did.’ And he’s put 10,000 samples on a disk,” Morrison said.

Axelson is the true leader of the group, according to Morrison. He’s the one who put up the money to buy the band’s first van, and while the other three abuse each other horribly, to go after Axelson is almost like screwing with Mom.

The offbeat outfit has musical roots in everything from fellow Washington D.C. band Fugazi, to the Go-Go’s, to Mary J. Blige. Morrison feels that too often popular music is ignored for its interesting contributions to music. This happens especially recently in the areas of hip hop and R&B with acts like Timbaland and Destiny’s Child.

“I think Destiny’s Child is doing crazy, crazy stuff,” Morrison said. “I mean that song ‘Bills Bills Bills’ is the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard. Radiohead’s never done anything that crazy. ... People are really blind to how crazy a lot of the current top 40 pop music is. So when people focus on bands like Radiohead, they say, ‘There is some artists,’ but they’re a little blind to the fact that there are some really radical artists making really popular music right now, and ... that’s their loss to me, because I think a lot of that stuff is really exciting too.”

Morrison’s musical openness and idealism extends further to every aspect of Dismemberment Plan’s career, and his open detestation for rock clichés. His current reasons to find songwriting have to do with the desire to look at life from a detached point of view, or in another out-of-the-ordinary way. He cites this detached view as being what all the major religions are about and finds similar inspiration in the work of “bad ass” guys, like physicist Richard Feinman, who were able to completely break down their view of the world and then rebuild it by doing things like inventing quantum physics.

The things that annoy him about the rock world are the things like the supposed teenage rebellion “crap” aspect of rock ’n’ roll.

“I can’t stand the idea of us just being for the kids,” Morrison said. “Whatever, if it’s a really spiritual statement like in Bob Marley or Marvin Gaye, any age can see the power and the majesty and the honesty in that music. It doesn’t matter how old you are when you listen to it.”

After getting the chance to tour with Pearl Jam, the Plan has also had its eyes opened to the unfortunate frustrations of trying to stay underground and have shows go smoothly.

According to Morrison, there are still people in the underground who feel that anyone who wants a show to start on time is corporate, but he’s dealt with the lack of professionalism and he doesn’t feel guilty about it.

He also quickly dispels any notion about a rock band being frustrated by having one record, which people really latch onto, as the Dismemberment Plan’s 1999 release, “Emergency & I.” He says it doesn’t matter if it overshadows the current release, or if being on an independent label limits their visibility. He is proud that his work gets to find an audience at all.

“I’m perfectly comfortable being on an indie label because if I keep at it these songs will find the place that they’re supposed to be on their own, as long as I stay diligent and stay dedicated to music,” Morrison said.

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