D-Plan's Travis Morrison Readies Solo Debut
Despite series of strategic missteps, queen's gambit still surprisingly tight

Whatever your opinion of The Dismemberment Plan during their heyday, former Plan frontman Travis Morrison has made one thing abundantly clear in the months since their dissolution: He's doing his own thing now. Over the past year, Morrison has steadily been working on a solo effort that, based on a series of MP3s posted for download on his website, may cover a more diverse range of genres and styles than the D-Plan's literate post-punk pop.

Pitchfork contacted Morrison about the upcoming album, which has been in a near-finished state for nearly three months now, waiting on final mixes and the fickle schedules of planned collaborators, who are, Morrison reports, "moving at an astoundingly slow pace." "They still aren't locked in," he told us via email. "It's making me insane. They may all fall through." Questionably titled Travistan, and produced by Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla, Fugazi/D-Plan engineer Don Zientara, and Morrison himself, the album is still without an official release date or label, but is nonetheless slated for a fall release.

In the meantime, Morrison is hitting the West Coast for two solo shows with... can you guess? No? Well, it's Harvey Danger. You know, "Flagpole Sitta"? No? Well, anyway, Morrison will be opening for them at two California shows. Says Trav: "The solo show will be half songs from the record and half covers, which will range from Ludacris to showtunes. Basically, I'm trying to scare everyone. I can say with certainty that my solo set will not be boring, it will be fun and interesting. Boring solo sets by people from rock bands should be banned."

06-18 San Francisco, CA - Cafe Du Nord
06-19 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour

Travis Morrison: http://www.travismorrison.com