Happy Birthday!

Well it's been a whole year since the very first post on Crazy Chester and the Old Fashioned Sugar. We've laughed, cried and maybe even bled depending on whether or not you took Brendan's advice on public bathrooms, oh so long ago. In the last year our fan base went from 0 too about 10ish completely by word of mouth and we're hoping to get 10 more for next year! Me and Brendan have covered everything from strange philosophies on life to Christmas to Neil Young to a whole bunch of music reviews this year and plan on keeping that up and more.
So the next big question is "where is CCatOFS going to be in another year?" well, Brendan and I will be seniors at Lockview High next year and we'll both be turning 18 near the end of 2010 which means we'll be able to vote here in Nova Scotia. I'll be Co-Prez of Students Council which will make me busy but I will try to post at a more regular rate. Also I'm hoping to get some sort of group together to jam with/do little shows with and maybe get into making some short films. If any of that happens I'll be sure to keep all you guys posted on it.
That's all I got to say I think... Here's to one year of the Olde Shug! I hope to see all you guys (and maybe some new comers) here this time next year!

Happy B-day Crazy Chester and the Old Fashioned Sugar!

-Grant

PS: Brendan got his wisdom teeth removed that's why he hasn't been posting lately

RIP King of Pop

As a aspiring musician there is a part of me who feels obliged to honor the late Micheal Jackson because he is just one of those legends who really changed the game for everyone. His Thriller album is the best selling album of all time and I'm not afraid to admit that I have a copy of my own. For someone like my self who is only 16 I grew up in a time where the only time I ever heard Micheal's name was when he was on trial and when Neverland was shut down so I always had the "look at how crazy he is now" side of the story and it took me a while before I really realised what he had done and how he influenced almost the whole world. I hope now that he will be remembered for his music and not the weirder things that he was know for when I was growing up.

RIP Micheal you're the King

-Grant

PS: Enjoy

Danger! Mouse!

Brian Burton AKA Danger Mouse is a producer that I'm a huge fan of, so I was pleasently surprised when I heard about his new album. But this isn't just any regular album... It's a blank CD-R. I know you're all thinking how could he release a blank CD and expect it to sell? Well here's the story; Mr. Mouse has gotten into arguments with the label EMI and so he won't release the actual music for fear of getting his ass sued off the planet. so he's just going to release a blank CD with a 100+ booklet with original photo's by David Lynch (who is on the album) that are inspired by the music. My first question was what about the music? Is he just going to forget about it and never let it see the light of day? No. According to the website "Danger Mouse remains highly proud of Dark Night of the Soul and hopes that people that are lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are excited as he is." now upon first reading that just seems that only select people will be able to hear it but if you read it again it says "by whatever means" Now on all the articles I've read on the story this is essentially Danger Mouse saying "I want people to hear this so I don't even care if you download it." very formally, and to that I say kudos Danger Mouse! You are a great example of the music being more important then the money and I respect that a lot. Personally I have already found a torrent for the album (It's incredible) and plan on buying a copy as soon as I get a job and the money to pay for it. I think that if you love music you should pick up a copy of the CD and download the tracks just to support the idea of music over money.

So now that I'm done talking about Dark Night of the Soul I'd also like to mention that I never realized it until recently but Danger Mouse is in a lot of my favorite albums. He produced Attack and Release which is my favorite Black Keys album he also produced Demon Days by the Gorillaz which is awesome and even Beck's new CD. He also teamed up with MF DOOM to make DANGERDOOM and made one of my favorite hip hop albums, The Mouse and the Mask. He's half of Gnarls Barkley and last but certainly not least he mashed up Jay-Z Black album and the Beatles White album to make the Gray Album which is incredible!

So now that I'm done writing about being obsessed with Danger Mouse I will sign off

It's not just good it's great depression.

-Grant

PS I would have no idea on where to find a torrent for that album *cough*.*cough

Change

Change is always happening. We can't stop it. We can only learn to deal with it, make the best of the situations we are presented with. Lately I have been seeing a lot of changes going on, in my own life and the lives around me. I'm not one who likes change, hell... I don't think anyone does. I'm to focused on living in the past. Reminiscing on better times when everything seemed so simple. Of course, at the time, you never know how simple it really is. So years from now I can look back and think about how simple things were right now. It's all perspective. I guess that is what keeps me sane.

“Life can either be accepted or changed. If it is not accepted, it must be changed. If it cannot be changed, then it must be accepted.”

Song Recommendation: "I Feel A Change Comin' On" - Bob Dylan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94n39Gc652g

-Brendan

Highly Illogical

I consider my dad to be a fairly wise man. He's full of so many sayings, quotes and stories with strong morals that too the untrained ear he sounds like he's talking in riddles. Although he's passed all his knowledge and sayings down too me there was always a few stories my dad told me that seemed out of place. For you see my dad as a kid/teen was a fan of the adventures of the United Star Ship Enterprise. That's right... Star Trek. Now as a kid I always saw Star Trek as the nerdiest thing and I usually ignored those stories, but there was one in particular that I always thought was a great story anyway. It was a particular episode where the Enterprise comes in contact with a planet that had been engaged in a massive war and there were only two survivors. The survivors were on opposite sides so as you can imagine they get in a bit of a scuffle on the bridge. One of the survivors (Note: These guys were both white on one side and black on the other) was claiming that the other should be arrested and was obviously "inferior" the crew of the Enterprise was confused about why he was inferior. So after a while of trying to get them to see why he was so inferior he points out that their sides are inverted. (one has the black side on the left the other has black on the right) I always thought this was a great story about how we're all the same and that we need to put aside our minor differences. This story was especially moving because the episode would have been released around '69 where racial issues would have been an issue still.
Now that I'm older, with the help of my dad and the kick start of seeing the new Star Trek movie I began watching the original series. This not only taught me why my dad talks the way he does (weird Shatner like pauses and all) but I've also learned that they make a lot of commentary on their own culture. In one episode the Enterprise gets flung back in time to the '60's and they beam aboard a fighter pilot who is stunned at women on the deck. This is interesting because since the Enterprise is in the 60's they are in the time period that the episode would have been written making it a direct commentary on the treatment of women in that time. Also Lieutenant Uhura (the head communications officer) was played by Nichelle Nichols who was an African American woman which was a double whammy for it's time.

Live Long and Prosper
-Grant Hawkins

Song Recommendation: Fearless by Pink Floyd. I had the time of my life laying on the floor of my room listening to this on my dad's old record player (No, I was not Inebriated)

Autumn's sweet but we call it fall, I'll make it to the moon if I have to crawl

well Brendan put it best. We are unmotivated. So now I'm here feeling bad about not posting in forever and trying to squeeze something out to say.
Well lets see... I went to Joel Plaskett last week and it was incredible. He had the girls that sang back up on Three to add a new vibe to some old songs and do what they do on the tracks from Three. Also I watched the Big Lebowski like 10 times which is still the greatest movie ever just in case you didn't know. I also got the new Doom album Born Like This and I'm listening to it right now and it's the bomb. Aaannnd I've been helping out with student council activities at the school now that I'm co-president elect it's making council next year look pretty promising. I haven't been doing much else really... The only thing I'm really motivated to do right now is get my record player fixed. The automatic thing that controls the needle is off so it cuts off to early so I miss the end of the last song on most records which is a real pain since I just got a nice 7" with three unreleased tracks from the Joel Plaskett concert and I can only listen to one full song and the other two cut too early.
I guess that's all for me... I like Brendan's little song recommendation thing so I'll do one too

Listening Recommendation: Doom (formerly known as MF Doom) Born Like This

Keep it easy dude.. I know you will
-Grant Hawkins

Motive-nation

It has been about twenty-two days since my last post. Andy every one of those days bloggin has crossed my mind. From time to time I would check the old blog, see if my compadré has written about his life lately but sure enough no post since May 8th. "Why?" You may ask. Well because of MOTIVATION! (I thought the caps would emphasise... but it kinda makes me sound like a tool) Both Grant and myself are the least motivated people you will ever meet. I can not even imagine what we could do if we tried (mostly because imagining takes effort) It is our duty as Internet celebrities/Heroes to keep our audience entertained. And we have failed... again. It has almost been an entire year sense Grant and I finally decided to get off our ass and startedwriting our thoughts down... well i guess we didn't even have to get off our asses, we sat down at the computer. If you Google "theoldshug" The first six links are to our site, right after "Did you mean: theoldscout" If that isn't fame than I don't know the definition of the word.

 Today is also the first day of June, that's cool... or not cool, it depends if you're taking that literally. 

 Music is still a big part of my life, I have been playing a lot more lately. Hauling my drums around is a pain in the ass, which is why I like to play harmonica. I've been playing with a lot of different people lately, it is important for a musician to play with a wide variety of people, change things up a bit. I have decided to move on with my musical-ness and start writing/making my own music again. This is due to MOTIVATION (It's the word of the day)

Song recommendation: "Sitting" - Cat Stevens

 Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be. 

 - Brendan