Dan Brenner

Dan Brenner (born Daniel Abraham Brenner, December 19, 1963) is an American songwriter, composer, and musician.
Brenner was a member of the band Magnet, with Moe Tucker (former drummer in the Velvet Underground) in the late 1990s, and of the rap/performance-art band Razor Magnet with his brother, filmmaker Evan Brenner from 1985-1988. He was a member of the Boston bands Green Fuse and Gunga Din in the early 1990s, and prior to that, while a student at Harvard College, The Love Monsters, with brothers Matt Wilson and Dan Wilson, who later formed the Minneapolis bands Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic. Brenner has written the scores for three feature films, including Rhythm Thief (Special Jury Prize at Sundance, 1995), Spare Me (Priz Tournage winner Avignon Film Festival, 1993), and The Riddle (a.k.a. Sasha’s Riddle, winner Long Island Film Festival, 2010, official selection Toronto Film Festival 1997). Brenner also co-wrote the script for The Riddle, for which he was awarded the 2010 Mario Puzo Screenplay Award. Some of Brenner's film composition is credited as "Danny Brenner," while some of his acting work is credited as "Daniel Brenner." He is credited as Producer on the Foggy Notion CD Mission.
In 2011, Brenner released a solo CD, Little Dark Angel, produced by nine-time Grammy Winner Jay Newland. Little Dark Angel featured Larry Campbell (guitar, pedal steel, banjo, fiddle, mandolin), Will Lee (bass), Shawn Pelton (drums), Brian Mitchell (keyboard, harmonica, and accordion), and former Morphine member Dana Colley (saxophone, bass clarinet). Several songs from Little Dark Angel received airplay on American college radio stations, reaching the top 10 at 6 stations, and peaking at #2 on WVIC in Ithaca NY.

Personal life

Dan Brenner was born in New York City, attended Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn Heights, and graduated from Harvard College. Brenner later attended medical school, and was a resident in Psychiatry at the Cambridge Hospital from 1995-2000. He was a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School from 1995-2010, and received psychoanalytic training at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. He is married to Heather Thompson-Brenner, an Associate Professor of Psychology at Boston University. He has three children.

Discography

Solo

• 2011 Little Dark Angel

Compilation

• 2010 Working on a Building (three songs)

Magnet

• 1999 Shark Bait (produced by David Lowery)
• 1998 Which Way
• 1997 Don’t Be A Penguin

Foggy Notion

• 1995 Mission

Razor Magnet

• 1990 You're In good Hands

Green Fuse

• 1987 Sleeping Dairy Death Dirge (7” EP)

I Have a copy of this record and it is a double EP (7") The actual songs are "Dairy Queen", "Sleeping Sara", "Death Dirge", and "Summertime" AND the date on it is 1988

The Love Monsters

• 1984 "Kiss Away The Tears" (7” EP)

Filmography

Composer

• 2000 Wrist
• 1996 The Riddle (a.k.a. Sasha's Riddle)
• 1994 Rhythm Thief
• 1993 Spare Me
• 1993 Two Boneheads
• 1992 Breaking and Entering
• 1989 The Man Who Invented The Twinkie
• 1989 The Starving Song
• 1988 Doctor Fisher
• 1988 Santaphobia
• 1987 Waking Up Crazy
• 1987 Consumed

Screenwriter

• 1996 The Riddle (a.k.a. Sasha's Riddle)
• 1993 Two Bits
• 1988 Doctor Fisher

Acting

• 2005 In Loving Memory
• 2001 Works of Wonder
• 1988 Doctor Fisher
• 1985 Mister Brain

• Holden, Stephen (November 15, 1995). "New York Times Review". The New York Times. 
• "Yahoo Filmography (partial)". 
• "IMDB". 
• "Woodlandpattern.org".