Album Review: Sgt. Dunbar

Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned is a band with musical talent bursting out of every moment of their music. The octuplet from Albany (is someone from Albany an "Albanian"?) released their latest EP, Charles Mingus' Garbage Pile, recently and it will be available to be shipped on March 30th, which is this upcoming Monday (according to their the band's MySpace). The tracks had been out on Sgt. Dunbar's MySpace for a while, but the EP is an all new recording, which serves to solidify the atmosphere of the EP. Sgt. Dunbar does great work, and this album is no different. The atmosphere is definitive and the songwriting is stylish and clever. The band utilizes its members, and it doesn't feel like they'd be able to do it with any less than eight, because of the array of different sounds that the listener hears every song. The song's have an improvisational feel, and while they don't technically appear to be largely impovised, they have a "sloppy" feel which makes them infintely more enjoyable to listen to. It can be difficult to listen to bands that take themselves too seriously, but Sgt. Dunbar is all about having fun while playing and that element really comes through. I've always envisioned the band dancing around having a ball listening to their recordings, and while I have no proof, I'll bet there's some dancing that takes place. The EP is short, clocking in at just over 16 minutes, but demands repeated listens. It's still getting heavy play time for me right now. We did an interview with Sgt. Dunbar, and gained some amazing insight to how they function as a band, and also discovered that they are hilarious. You can check out that interview here. Also check out their MySpace for buy links for the new album, and be sure to support them whenever possible. Seriously, if they are coming near you drop everything and go see them live. Thanks to Sgt. Dunbar for letting us know about the upcoming album.

Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned's MySpace

-Donovan