A Great Guitar Player, An Even Better Friend

budgie · Post by **budgie** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 11:45 am

Dave writes this in the Brown Brigade's latest blog

In life we experience things that can really hurt us and make us sad. That perfectly describes what news occurred over the weekend. I had to call the Craigulator and let him know we are going to look for another guitar player. The news was very sudden and yes I am a complete dick for not letting him know when we first had the feelings this was going to happen. As a friend I feel I let him down by staying quiet during these times. It was hard to even let the words leave my throat while on the phone with him. I should have said what was on my mind. It's a mistake I made that will hopefully not throw a rift in our friendship outside of music.
Craig and I met when a guitar tech I worked with had taken another bands offer. I spoke to Craig (To let him know about my rig and get a feel for my new friend) and immediately hit it off. I had first asked him to join Brown Brigade while it was still an internet only project in '05. We were on tour with sum41 on a "14 Days Across the Universe Tour" I believe the show I asked at was in Tokyo, Japan. Since we started touring "Chuck" Craig and I have become close friends and have been geeking out on music whenever we hang out.
When Brown Brigade became active in June '06 Craig was already neck deep in re-learning some guitar wizardry he had put on the back burner to learn how to become a tech with what it takes to fix any situation. This along with his sound engineer background (armed with an ear I am in awe of). Became an integral part in the recording of our first EP: "Appetizer For Destruction." Staying with me until 4am most nights just to finish tracking what we had to track to meet a week long deadline. I'll never forget almost reaching the brink of insanity on that one as we were very ill prepared. After many calls to "Master Kenny Luong" about our broken new computer we finished "Appetizer" and prepared for tour.
After touring with Pennywise, Cricle Jerks, and Ignite in Sept '06 while getting ready for the recording of "In The Mouth Of Badd(d)ness" We realized we were not as tight enough as we wanted to be to give the recording proper justice. To put in perspective we had been in motion for about 10 months once "Badd(d)ness" was recorded. So we went forward and practiced like ninjas every night. Just getting things straight and rockin. During this time Craig needed to get some dough together to be able to survive and be in Brown Brigade at the same time. So as any guitar tech would do he ended up making money touring. It was during this time that we finally started getting the note delivery and chemistry going. Upon Craigs' return we had been practising together for about three weeks and it was obvious there was a lot of work to be done. Our lineup never recovered from this. As a band we all got tighter but still didn't quite grasp the precision we expected from ourselves. During this time Craig could not be found without a guitar practicing scales and new techniques. One of the shit things in life is hopes don't always workout according to plan, this is the hardest pill to swallow. But Craig is good to life, so life will always good to Craig.
I will always look up to Craig like a big brother and hope we can continue to sail our friendship on the Seas Of Cheese. His reign on Lead guitar spanned from: summer 2005 - summer 2007. Make no mistake in the fact that we would not be where we are right now without an extreme amount of help from Craig. Not only did he play guitar, he fixed things that were broken, hooked us up with Kenny Luong Engineer, Russ Mackie Producer, and countless other selfless acts. He is always going to be a part of Brown Brigade and welcome to come and guest appear and jam with us as our goal in the end is to unite and play music.
Long live Craigulator and thank you for everything you have done for us. Especially dealing with the DVP. NOTHING, has gone unappreciated bredren.
Dave

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... D974315267

Post by **Nic** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 12:46 pm

This was posted yesterday on the main site bud.

budgie · Post by **budgie** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 1:08 pm

damn, i saw the headline, but i didnt click on the full story

Rick · Post by **Rick** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:46 pm

nooo he was the guy from st catharines!

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 6:48 pm

why did the fire him?

jsd2 · Post by **jsd2** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 6:11 am

i couldn't quite figure it why they fired him. the way i understood it was that craig had to take a time out on tour to make some cash to live on for about 3 weeks or so and during this time the band got super talented and when he returned his skills were subpar to the rest of the band because he wasn't practicing like they were.
I'm probably wrong or something but thats just the way I understood it.

charle22 · Post by **charle22** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 7:19 am

yah i dont get it
theres a lotta boring crap in there

Post by **Dylan** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 2:04 am

jsd2 wrote:i couldn't quite figure it why they fired him. the way i understood it was that craig had to take a time out on tour to make some cash to live on for about 3 weeks or so and during this time the band got super talented and when he returned his skills were subpar to the rest of the band because he wasn't practicing like they were.
I'm probably wrong or something but thats just the way I understood it.

if thats true, thats a horrible reason to kick someone out of a band!

Craig could just get more practice time in and everything would be good. i hope thats not why he's not in anymore....

http://www.last.fm/user/cbar05 · Post by **Bobbyjames** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:10 pm

The Jester wrote:yah i dont get it
theres a lotta boring crap in there

haha, yea it was bit of a chore to read

Mr-David-Blues · Post by **Mr-David-Blues** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 3:54 pm

yeah lol thats probably the most ive ever read at the 1 time

the 506 music · Post by **the 506 music** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:11 am

that sucks. i m sure he was on an animal on the gee tar

Post by **Jeremy Kill** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 8:11 am

Yeah, he must've been pretty good for sure. Bummer.