Our new occasional series, “Secret History”, features DCist contributor Brandon Gentry profiling classic D.C. albums as a way of looking back at the District’s contributions to music over time. To start the series, he takes a look at the Dismemberment Plan’s Emergency & I (DeSoto, 1999).

“We’re the Dismemberment Plan, and we’re from Washington, D.C.”

With these words, Travis Morrison, the Dismemberment Plan’s singer, guitarist, and perennial D.C. cheerleader, introduced kids in clubs all over the country (and the world — they toured Japan and Europe, too) to his band’s frenetic brand of sharp-edged, beat-heavy indie rock. Winning the hearts of thousands while at the same time serving as global ambassadors for the D.C. scene, the D-Plan spread the District’s sound and rep far and wide, promoting their hometown with an enthusiasm born of genuine affection.

Over the better part of a decade, beginning with 1994’s Can We Be Mature? and ending with 2001’s Change, Morrison and company (Jason Caddell on guitar, Eric Axelson on bass, and Joe Easley on drums) produced album after album of top-drawer noise, combining a rhythmic sensibility informed by reggae, R&B, hip-hop, synthpop, techno, and D.C.’s native Go-Go with aggressive melodicism, prickly punk-funk, emo introspection, art-damaged paranoia, and, critically, a sly sense of humor.