The Dismemberment Plan

Here are two examples of bands that have manage to hone their adept musical noodling, affinity for simple melodies and their overwhelming urge to rock and turn those traits into some of the most interesting and dynamic pop music around. Having survived, and perhaps even benefited from the shake-up at Universal, Interscope rejects the Dismemberment Plan found themselves without a label but with thousands of dollars worth of finished recordings and the ability to do what they please, they have returned to DeSoto to release their third full-length release. And it's probably for the best since it's unlikely this daring and occasionally cacophonous hybrid of dissonant post-punk guitar rock and blurping Moog blasts would have made too much sense on a major label. With their prominent keyboard bits, shifting tempos and catchy choruses, tracks like "Spider in the Snow," "The City" and "81/2 Minutes" sound like a cross between XTC and early Genesis. Juxtaposed with those tracks is a rump-shaker like "You Are Invited," which starts off with a drum machine beat that could have been lifted from Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" before breaking down into one of the Plan's trademark warped rock songs.