Friday Face-Offs: “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” – 4th Place

YES. All you need is 4:13 – END.

I downloaded this Girl Talk album to feel young . . . guess what, LOL, mission absolutely not accomplished . . . LOL, I’m old-school when it comes to mash-ups, I prefer more than 5 seconds per song, come on, give a senior citizen time to mix his Metamucil . . . but this little taste of “Brandy” is so freaking neck-snapping, I almost snapped my neck in half when I first heard it . . . it’s like the guy drilled into my head when I was dreaming and extracted my ultimate musical fantasy . . .

This gives me the biggest mash-up headrush since “Bring The Noise” got mashed with “Come On Eileen” back in olden mash-up times …

… almost as bank-robbingly good as the immortal MIDI marching band arrangement of “The Suffering” . . . (by the way, when will someone mash that up in a remix and get it so remixy-mashy that I can rock it all day with mix-maximum remashiness?)

FRIDAY FACE-OFFS! Doo-doo-dee-doo-doo-dee-doo-doo-dee-doo-dup!

Friday Face-Offs: “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” – 6th Place

Is it just me, or is the energy in this room sort of intense? Definitely seems like one of those nights where, deep down, the kids are thinking, “This is weird. Grown-ups are weird.”

I empathize with the singer and his UFC shirt, though . . . sometimes with this song, you want to go so far beyond your normal singing voice, it’s hard to know what to do with the melody . . . you wanna wrap the mic cord around your arm like Henry Rollins and jump up and down in your bike shorts and get all energy-drink on everyone . . . . . . when I karaoke this song, I’m usually screaming by the bridge — definitely by the final chorus . . . “MY LIFE MY LOVE AND MY LADY — IS THE SEA!” . . . how do you not scream that line and immediately put your foot in a wall?

She’s in love with a sailor but the dude is always out floating around on the sea and whatnot. All she has is that locket.

Then again, you could always kick it in mellow mode, like this fellow — this performance seems less fraught than the one above:

Friday Face-Offs: “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” – 7th Place

This is called a jam session. What happens is, two friends get together. The guitarist wants to record a version of one of his favorite songs . . . his friend just wants to toot on his clarinet.

GUITARIST: Do you want to hear the song before we jam on it?

CLARINETIST: Whatever dude, press Record, I’m ready to flow!

GUITARIST: Will it bother you if I make my guitar sound like it cost 99 cents?

CLARINETIST: (Already gettin’ his toot on.)

“You’re like a harmonica player in nice clothes.” LOL, WTF? (4:50)

Friday Face-Offs!!!

Guess who’s back?

Friday Face-Offs.

Welcome to the NINTH INSTALLMENT of an internet legend!

This week’s FRIDAY FACE-OFF is: “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” by Looking Glass. Watch the original version here:

This is one of my top five karaoke jams. I will always murder this song at karaoke, and yes, you will get goosebumps. Are you kidding about what a stone jam this is? You can’t be serious if you don’t pump this LOL-loud whenever it comes on the radio.

That doo-doo-dee-doo-doo-dee-doo-doo-dee-doo-dum chorus will put all other choruses in traction. BELIEVE THAT.

Pay attention, first contestant up next.

The bailout worked! FRIDAY FACE-OFFS IS BACK!!!

But Wait A Minute, I Read “The Kite Runner!”

What a difference seven years makes!

The flow of (Afghan) returnees has slowed since 2006. But here in the eastern part of the country, which has absorbed more than 60 percent of this year’s nearly 300,000 returnees, the situation is dire.


In a clear sign that life is untenable for many new arrivals, 40 percent of Afghan returnees left the nation again in 2007, citing insecurity and a lack of shelter and jobs, according to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

My emphasis.

Refugee crisis, food scarcity, a hard winter approaching . . . we got unexpected twists all over the place! LOL, “Who’s writing this foreign policy, M. Night Shyamalan?”

Please watch this video about how different things are in Afghanistan as opposed to seven years ago. Things are so different, it’ll make your head spin. I guess it’s understandable, though — after all, it’s only been seven years. What could you possibly hope to accomplish in a mere seven years? Years, months, minutes, it’s all the same, right? Time is, like, totally relative ‘n’ stuff. So if you’re wondering why things aren’t better after seven years, it’s like asking why things aren’t better after seven minutes, dig? How could you fix anything in seven minutes, right? You can’t even listen to an entire RUSH song in seven minutes, can you? So how could you do anything in seven years, since a year is like a minute?

war.005.gif
LOL, I made this comic in October 2001, seven years ago.

More Articles About Guess Who? ME.

Does anyone read these? I thought posting any and all articles about GYWO would whip the media into a total frenzy and propel my book onto the bestseller list . . . but perhaps it just makes me look like a desperate monomaniac?

WHO CARES?!? “Don’t hide your light under a bushel,” right?

“This little light of mine, I’ve gotta let it shine,” right?

“Buy fifty copies or else,” right?

In any case, two articles from two of the hottest publications in all the land:

CHRONOGRAM (Hottest magazine in the Hudson Valley — which is a magical valley where all the richest millionaires — like me — live.)

STYLE WEEKLY (Hottest magazine in Richmond — which is the best city on the come-up, LOL, small scene burnin’ up in Richmond, LOL, I hear they have the best Christmas carolers.) This is the article where I talk about my new musical venture with a certain soon-to-be-ex-president:

REES: We’d have to see how the first LP does, the first EP. We’re gonna record it, he’s got a private studio in Crawford — a lot of space, just a nice vibe, nice big acoustic room. You know, you … get some of that room sound in the mix. And just lay down some tracks, and try to get on Warped Tour next summer, and hopefully people will come out.

(Photograph by Jennifer May.)

DUMBO Event Tonight

REMINDER: I’m doing one of my final NYC GYWO readings tonight in the super-hip neighborhood of DUMBO (I only read in the hippest neighborhoods; email me if you need the passcode to enter this ultra-exclusive nabe).

David Rees live
Melville House
145 Plymouth St.
Brooklyn, NY
7:00 PM

See you there . . . don’t forget to bring Kanye West (hip rapper, in case you didn’t know).

Friday Face-Off Comeback!

SPREAD THE WORD: Friday Face-Offs is BACK tomorrow.

BACK stronger than ever . . .

FRIDAY more than ever . . .

FACES COMIN’ OFF harder than ever . . .