The Dismemberment Plan Memory Machine

When the Pixies toured through Seattle a few years ago, it was astounding how many of their fans had grown up and had little rock and roll miniatures. The evidence was running around in black-clad, angst-loving circles late into the night.  Not so for fans of the Dismemberment Plan - their retirement in 2003 is recent enough that a good number of original fans are still out there, many in successful bands of their own.

Now, in some kind of twist on indie-as-underdog reality, top selling Billboard album sales are bottoming out, while vinyl sales are, ahem, increasing. Dismemberment Plan fans are doing their part and putting their money where their mouth is. For a band whose albums had never been released on vinyl until this month, it's pretty impressive:

"We pressed 2,000 [Emergency & I albums] initially and they're going fast. The Barsuk store online sold out already, and I'm guessing our distributor will run out sometime soon. We'll be pressing more, but vinyl takes forever so it will take a few weeks before it's in stock. We're super excited with how it's going and, if you're a vinyl fan and a fan of this classic album, you really can't hear it in any better format," says Barsuk label rep Grant McCallum.

The reissue has a few beauty marks, like four bonus tracks, an interview by the Onion's Josh Modell and a full-color sleeve, but primarily, it's pressed into a collectable 180 grams. Also, there's a nearly-sold-out-tour (Japan and Seattle dates still have tickets available as of today). It's not just fans that have been in the black; the band has been busy crafting serious non-musical careers.  Travis Morrison, who may be the only Huffington Post employee with too many friends, sits behind the scenes as a web developer. Mr. Axelson has been teaching AP English in Motherland D.C, undoubtedly inspiring future vinyl breakouts. If the hard-knocks tour life couldn't sustain, please let it be vinyl that keeps it all rolling.