"Mourning Song" by Daniel Brummel

[Not Jason]

i just noticed this posted on his MySpace account.  so if you haven't heard it yet, give it a listen:  http://www.myspace.com/danielbrummel

i think i like it better than all the other new songs i've heard.  i still don't know as though i'm too crazy about the style... i just can't bring myself to get that excited about one-guitar folk music... but i do like the song.  I'm not so hot on the crazy tempo slowdowns, but i like them better than a slow song like "mr. brown" with almost no chalenging aspects.  so, anyone else got opinions? 

[Bob511]

This was my favorite one out of the new songs he played on that WHFR.org show, so I was glad to see it make the MySpace page.  Very nice rhythm and imagery to the lyrics.  Now if only the download link worked...

Stripped-down folk is not my bag either, it leaves me with very little to easily latch on to, and so I'm glad when somewhat more (at least, since that all I can go on, superficially) involved tracks like "Sao Paulo" show up, but even in the straight-forward stuff Daniel's voice, melodic inclinations, and obvious enthusiasm for the form make it vastly more appealing to me than the lionshare of the genre itself.

[funwithsponges]

i just can't bring myself to get that excited about one-guitar folk music

I'm not so hot on the crazy tempo slowdowns

[Weezey]

I like this song alot. Good chord progression that I expect to hear from Dan, which has seemed to be missing from most of these Speak Easy songs.

I'm kinda sick of Dan's politics though.

[Not Jason]

I'm kinda sick of Dan's politics though.

i was sort of feeling similarly when i realized what the lyrics were saying.  i guess it's his right and i respect his passion, but as an apathetic american citizen, i don't really care.  also, what is all that "bet your future on a song" crap about?  it sounds good, yes, but i'm not sure how well it works when you're trying to drive home a political point... a little too hippyish for me.

but i'm not really a lyrics person anyway, so i can let it slide in light of the fact that i really like the melodies and guitar work in this.  i'm on a slow computer so the percussion in the background sounds pretty muddled to me, can anyone speculate what that is (some sequenced electronic thing or some acousticly generated noise)?  there's way too much muddyness for me to make it out.  but i love the way it sounds.

[Potentially Tim]

Yeah, these lyrics in particular are making me uneasy. I wish I could ignore it, but I can't help but sigh when I hear "towers" and "fall" in the same song.

Still love how this guy writes his melodies, though.

[cesarsalad]

we need more ozma-like songs

[Bob511]

we need more ozma-like songs

On most days I'd put the Ocean Floor Demos and Sound Mind  up with even The Russian Coldfusion EP without hesitation.
Good stuff is good stuff, "Ozma-like" or not, and "we need" music that's cared about much more than forced stuff to placate a fanbase.

[Not Jason]

yeah, i don't want him to make more ozma stuff, still, i'd lying if i said i was really that excited about most of the new stuff he's been making. 

i as well am a monstro fan, and i was really psched about that project, it may be similar stylistically to what he's doing now, but i don't think he's managing to live up to the quality precident he set with that project.  but obviously, i've only heard 5 of the songs as he intends on releasing them.  i've only strongly disliked two out of the 5, and of those other three, i really enjoyed one and thought the other showed a lot of promise as well.  so, it's quite possible that he could suprise me with future tracks.

[DougieZero]

It's alright... I consider myself pretty liberal, but those lyrics are pretty weak...

"there's a man who knew the towers would of fall"... that's like a really bad livejournal post by someone who got interested into politics.

[Not Jason]

i kind of worry about how those kind of lyrics would be recieved by actual new yorkers... i have no idea, i've never been there.  and i intend this seperate from all criticisms of the lyrics.  just something that occured to me to consider.

[///]

I just want to hear more sao palo -esque songs on his future releases...

I don't care if it intentionally sounds like sondre lerche, I think that was his best so far...

[el alex]

I just want to hear more sao palo -esque songs on his future releases...

I don't care if it intentionally sounds like sondre lerche, I think that was his best so far...

yea, if the rest of the stuff in more in the vien of sao palo that would be great.

I don't this bluegrassy stuff, and I do kinda wish for a more ozma thing... but that would in the form of a band for him. I've come to know DB as playing stuff radically (well, sometimes) different from ozma, and I like that.
If he were going to go back to the power-pop (which I don't expect) he shouldn't do it solo form... and if so adopt a moniker like ben gibbard did DCFC... although he did do the contraband... I actually don't much about that, because i never heard sound mind, just network to care.

[Not Jason]

i respect daniel imensely.  i don't always like everything he does, but i tend to respect it regardless in at least intent.  this is no exception.  i don't think it's his best work, but i do think he's capable of Samuel me like he always has, and this most recent song, though not lyrically precisely, proves that he can still write with the best of them.

i don't predict dan returning to rock music any time soon, but god wouldn't i love it if he did, and threw together a good band underneith him.  but... that's just a dream.

[OMGWTFBBQ]

I think Dan has actually said his plans were to put out this record, then ultimately put together a new band... to 'reclaim the rock throne from which he descended', or something like that.

[Not Jason]

I think Dan has actually said his plans were to put out this record, then ultimately put together a new band... to 'reclaim the rock throne from which he descended', or something like that.

god that would rule.  doesn't even have to be ROCK so much, just something with more layering and some good old electric guitars.

[Ianny]

As an actual New Yorker who heard the song performed live in Brooklyn a few months back at his acoustic show, people took it quite well.  There were plenty of cheers, and the guys I was with found it more "Whoa" than anything.  No qualms here.