Sgt Dunbar

Seasons

2008-06-17T12:40:00.001-07:00

Alex Muro

This song has been floating around the internet for a while at a couple different places but I decided to put it up here anyway. The first verse of a song is a translation of a Zen enlightenment poem, which is a poem written by a monk right after becoming enlightened. The rest of the verses are much less enlightened.

mp3: Seasons

Cause & Response

2008-03-13T18:27:00.000-07:00

Tim Koch

Every action in time is irreversible and affects what will happen in the future. Isn't that crazy?
Many thanks to Jon Fink (Jon of the Atom/Dead Canaries/New Wave Dirt) for recording the clarinets.

mp3: Cause & Response

Mushroom Nova Scotia

2008-03-03T14:09:00.001-08:00

Dan Pardee

This song depicts the theoretical effect of a nuclear explosion in Nova Scotia.

mp3:mushroom nova scotia

Emma Goldman

2008-02-05T18:57:00.000-08:00

Dan Pardee

Emma Goldman may or may not have anything to do with this song in a similar fashion as whether or not she had anything to do with the death of William McKinley. Influences are funny that way.

mp3:Emma Goldman

Goin Nowhere

2007-11-30T22:14:00.000-08:00

Alex Muro

This is what our band sounds like now. I think its pretty neat. Can you pull the acorns from your chest where your ribs meet up?

mp3:Goin Nowhere

You Know What Happend? The Tide Came In.

2007-10-15T19:04:00.001-07:00

Tim Koch

One day I woke up to thunder. My first thought was that it was a bombing (how often do you hear thunder at 9 am?). It was coming from the south. Delmar, NY is south of my bed and my friend Dan works in Delmar. For an instant I was really scared. Then my brain woke up, and more thunder boomed, and I understood what was going on. So I woke up and wrote down my first thought of the day, and then wrote the first verse to this song later that morning. Then, that evening, I discovered that it was Semptember 11th. I thought that interesting enough of a coincidence to share. Thanks to the German American family next door who unknowingly let me and Dan record their wind chimes and creepy kid repeating "You know what happened? The tide came in." The picture is of a forest fire in Oregon that I could smell from my tent.

mp3: You Know What Happened? The Tide Came In

The Table and The Cup

2007-08-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

Tim Koch

Another song with all the lyrics plucked from the pages of Rainer Maria Rilke. It's the last song written for an EP almost entirely based on his major prose work, "The Notebooks of Malte Laudris Brigge", which is available at b3nson.net or just by asking us.

mp3: The Table and The Cup

Realism is the Purest Form of Art

2007-07-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

Alex Muro

Is realism the purest form of Art? Does that even have anything to do with this song what so ever? I feel like this is a good time to point out the commenting system that we recently implemented on our web page where you can tell us what you think.

I also think it might be a good time to point out the donations button over on the side of the page and the fact that not a single person has ever dropped even a dime in our proverbial internet guitar case.

mp3:Realism is the Purest Form of Art

Passing Time

2007-07-25T00:22:00.000-07:00

Alex Muro

We are done writing an entire new full length that will probably be coming out for real real in September but we like to post versions of the songs on the website for the people who check here. I still like the website better than album's, its really like one ridiculously large album.

In anycase this is the first song on the The Ting About Time, and it kind of sets the mood in a couple different ways.

ps. I updated the file for Don't Fall Asleep its got some new stuff on it / its way better.

mp3:Passing Time

A Life Learning Languages

2007-06-15T12:56:00.001-07:00

Tim Koch

"It would be difficult to persuade me that the story of the Prodigal Son is not the legend of him who did not want to be loved."
-Rainer Maria Rilke

This is a musical interpretation of the last chapter of Rilke's "The Notebooks of Malte Laudris Brigge", a beautiful telling of the Prodigal Son.

"We do not know whether he remained; we only know that he came back."

mp3: A Life Learning Languages

Tarmac in Alaska

2007-06-15T12:53:00.000-07:00

Tim Koch

This song is for a friend who could be anywhere on the planet right now to the best of my knowledge.

mp3: Tarmac in Alaska

Don't Fall Asleep

2007-05-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

Alex Muro

This song has been around for a while but I haven't gotten around to posting it. The month of May should be a good one for the website though as I finish up recording a lot of songs that are mostly complete.

mp3:Don't Fall Asleep

A Seconds Worth of Breath

2007-04-15T19:05:00.000-07:00

Tim Koch

Eric left his banjo at our house and when everyone left the house for the weekend I had nothing else to do but play the banjo. I didn't know how to tune it, so the recording is kind of dissonant, but it grew on me despite of its faults. Eric has now reclaimed his banjo, and until one appears in the house again this will have to do.

mp3: A Seconds Worth of Breath

In My More Slowly Disappearing Hand

2007-04-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

Tim Koch

This is really two songs that I didn't know how to finish and so I put them together into one longer song. I've been reading The Notebooks of Malte Laudris Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke and it is providing a lot of inspiration for writing lyrics.

mp3: In My More Slowly Disappearing Hand

Move Your Memories Part I

2007-03-20T07:20:00.000-07:00

Alex Muro

This is a song about whether or not its possible to waste time. I'm pretty sure it lands on the side of impossibility which doesn't really make very much sense, but what are you going to do?

mp3:Move Your Memories Part I

Watchen the Sun

2007-02-28T18:05:00.000-08:00

Alex Muro

I wrote this song while I was trying to learn how to play the banjo. My brother Adam actually plays the banjo on the recording though. The vocals were supposed to be a scratch track but they had too much character to throw away.

mp3:Watchen the Sun

Empty Pockets for Full Sails

2007-02-27T12:51:00.000-08:00

Tim Koch

A lot of this song was inspired by a Rainer Maria Rilke poem. I believe it is the first time I swear in a song.

mp3: Empty Pockets for Full Sails

The Hoborchestra Plays Jeneric's "You're the One"

2007-02-27T12:33:00.000-08:00

Jeneric, arranged by Tim Koch

The imaginary one man brass orchestra gathered to play a rendition of Jeneric's tune about ghosts You're the One.

mp3: The Hoborchestra Plays Jeneric's "You're the One"

Harvest

2007-02-20T20:51:00.000-08:00

By Tim Koch

This year the harvest is in February.

mp3:Harvest

Dave's Song

2007-02-20T20:35:00.000-08:00

Alex Muro

This is a sing a long song.

mp3:Dave's Song

My First Last Dream

2006-11-16T08:32:00.000-08:00

Tim Koch

I don't remember many dreams but when I do I write songs about them.This is one of them.

mp3:My First Last Dream

Travelling Standing Still

2006-11-16T08:30:00.000-08:00

Alex Muro

This is a protest song!

mp3:Travelling Standing Still

The Greatest Gravity

2006-11-16T08:28:00.000-08:00

Tim Koch

This song plagued me for weeks. I'm glad its finished, the first one in a while.

mp3:The Greatest Gravity

The Weight

2006-11-16T08:26:00.000-08:00

Alex Muro

I wrote this song on a bus.

mp3:The Weight

Time Machine

2006-04-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

Alex Muro
I realized recently that reading a little caption about a song isn't necessarily interesting to most people. I always want to know more about songs that Im listening to especially what the person who wrote the song was thinking about when they wrote it or what they think about it in general. It had never struck me that maybe only song writers are interested in stupid little blurbs like this one, well actually like the other ones on this page, this one has nothing to do with the song at all except to say its in topic, a different kind of song than any one I've ever written before although it started out being one of my lonenly songs (like charlotte or to be so scared parts 1 or 2).

mp3:Time Machine