2009-12-18: Planks celebrate Rio Theatre holiday open house

The Rev. Lucian Rumblebucket has ushered us in to help fill the room (and what a room! The Rio Theatre at 1660 E. Broadway @ Commercial Drive) with holiday spirits (Jacob Marley, pleased to meetcha!) along with the help of such fabulous performers as The Wet Spots! Maria in the Shower! Tall Brothers! Tribal fusion bellydancer Luciterra! Jenny Magenta! Burgundy Brixx! Lindsey Cherry! DJ K-tel! aaaaand "a Santa Claus who gets more inappropriate as the night wears on!" We're scheduled to hit the stage around quarter to 10.

The house will also be conducting a movie poster sale. Entry by donation; proceeds to the Food Bank!

2009-12-15: Rump Planks back at Blackstrap Sadie's Old-Time Jamboree

Sarah Jane "Blackstrap Sadie" Scouten seems to have decided to have us back! From 8 pm on tonight, a couple of Creaking Planks are outnumbered (for once) by the Lawn Dogs and a whole host of holidaying Scoutens (including Anna and Jacob) determined to make Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main Street at 28th Ave) as much fun as their favorite front stoop. Also on the bill: David Faber and his fabulous autoharp! Bring your most owlish nanny and make sure she's darned good and ready to hoot!

2009-11-12: Creaking Planks on Live From Thunderbird Radio Hell

Picking up on an invitation from former Butchershop Floor cohort Ben Lai, the jug band of the damned convokes at UBC for the first time ever in order to spread our curious musical taint out over the public airwaves (CiTR 101.9 fm or later as a podcast) as the second hour of a special two-hour station fundraising extravaganza installment of the long-running live music radio show Live From Thunderbird Radio Hell. Beware! We go live from 10-11 pm!

Edit! Missed the live broadcast? Fortunately, the show podcasts!

Track listing:

• 1. Dead Man's Pants (1:31)


• 2. I'm A Lousy Lay (3:58:)


• 3. The Girl In The Pink Canoe (10:31)


• 4. I Want You (But I Don't Need You) (13:52)


• 5. Rhymin' And Stealin' (20:15)


• 6. Fight For Your Right (To Plunder) (23:15)


• 7. Insane In The Membrane (31:33)


• 8. Womanizer / Toxic medley (34:51)


• 9. The Song Of The Count (45:07)


• 10. Kiddie Closer (48:23)

2009-11-05: Memewar issue launch at the Railway Club

Celebrating the 10th issue of Memewar Magazine (on the theme of "Adaptation") at the Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir) with the Planks at midnight and other musical acts Wintermitts and MT-40 as well as readings from Neil Rayner and Maria Lénàrt -- and the thrilling conclusion to Thor Polukoshko’s multimedia post-modern advertising genre mash-up Cereal Junkies!

Doors at 8:30; $10 admission includes a copy of the magazine.

2009-10-31: Hallowe'en with the Whiskeydicks

The jug band of the damned is going insane in the Samhain with their most booze-fuelled fiddle-rapping comrades ever the WhiskeyDicks from 10 pm on at Malone's Bar & Grill (608 W. Pender @ Seymour). $10 doesn't only get you admission to this bash, but a chance to compete for fabulous costume prizes in the categories of best Thriller, best killer, best sexy (yes, the chiller and diller get short shrift yet again), and best overall costume (don't be confused).

2009-10-30: Velowe'en on Devil's Night!

As ancient lore tells it, Veloween is an age-old festival where for one day of the year old, dead, abandoned, dismembered and forgotten bicycles awaken to roll amongst the well-oiled and able-framed. We will celebrate together in copious ritualistic beer drinking and dance, possessed by the rhythms of the Creaking Planks, the Fur Bearing Animals and DJ Steamboat Fatty. A practice known to raise the dead follows, the eldritch Jackson Zombie Dance Off. Offerings to the shadow world will be made by Little Woo and her shadow puppet fairytale.

The best dressed bicycle competition commences the moment Critical Mass arrives at the Anza Hall (3 W. 8th Avenue at Ontario); the rider of the best-dressed bicycle wins never-ending pints all night.

At the strike of one am -- for those who are most fearless amongst us -- we will ride naked in circles around our celebration (did we mention that the event is a fundraiser for the 2010 World Naked Bike Ride?) to chase the bikes of the dead back to the underworld!

8 pm - 2 am; $10 / $5 if in costume with Critical Mass

2009-10-27: Blackstrap Sadie's Old Time Jamboree #2

Blackstrap Sadie (perhaps best not to ask what those straps are for) mounts the second of her extraordinary hootnannys down on Cafe Montmartre's cozy little stage (4362 Main Street at 28th), the next best thing to a front porch, where the bill boasts "everything from blues to bluegrass to old time to originals and all the beauty that there is, in between." Fortunately for us, that grey liminal zone is our specialty.

We (who? Anna Scouten, Andrew Beaty, Sarah Jane Scouten, Martin Riesle of Maria in the Shower), the Lawn Dogs, and more!) play for tips at Cafe Montmartre!

2009-10-26: a Deet Street Hallowe'en party at the Railway Club

It’s that spooky time of year again and in the run up to All Hallow’s Eve, the Deet Street is getting psyched to bring a couple sets from some Railway veterans to get you movin’ your ghostly feet. The Creaking Planks, Vancouver’s own pirate jug band of the damned is back to bring you a musical experience unlike anything you’ve ever heard, the perfect accompaniment to your haunted pre-hallow’s Monday evening.

But before their spooky set, be sure to check out Gadjo’s Django Reinhardt-inspired gypsy swing; jazzy virtuosic mellowness at its best.

But wait, there’s more: be sure to get there early so you don’t miss a very special set from Al Mader, The Minimalist Jug Band. Al’s inimitable brand of beatnik punkabilly is something you won’t find anywhere on this earth.

Furthermore, being as we’re approaching Halloween, the Deet Street invites all of you to dress up as your favourite dead (ie: Michael Jackson, but he’s still merchandising his ass off), almost dead (ie: Amy Winehouse, poor girl needs to chill out) or should be dead (ie: Keith Richards, PS: WTF how the hell is he still going) musician. As always the beers will be cold, the music rocking, the company excellent and the times great. It’s the spookiest Monday night this side of a Scooby Doo Halloween Special.

The Railway Club is at 579 Dunsmuir Street (at Seymour, upstairs). Doors at 8:30PM, show at 9. Admission is $7 / $5 for Railway members.

...

Even if we were on too late for the photographer to catch us, Lauren Eldridge of Backstage Vancouver soundly enjoyed this show, and wasn't afraid to tell everyone -- on its blog and on its Twitter feed! She came back for more the next night and got a very different beast at Blackstrap Sadie's 8)

2009-10-23: pre-Hallowe'en at the Rickshaw

Much to everyone's excitement and, all right, dismay, the original line-up of this Catfish production (and our first of several Hallowe'en shows) has been being gradually whittled away through eerie attrition like the cast of Poltergeist. Unfortunately this means that we won't be playing with the Tom Glenne 5.5 (a meeting of the minds pending almost two years) but we're still on to interweave dueling sets with folk-rockers Harm's Road, among a costume contest and other spooky seasonal festivities!

This all goes down at the Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings), the hottest live music venue at Hastings and Main since the Theatre E in the same location a decade prior! (No hard feelings, Balmoral! And that doesn't let the Pantages restoration efforts off the hook!) $10, doors at 8 pm ('til late!)

Hallowe'en bonus to thorough readers: Rudyard Kipling's story The Phantom Rickshaw, which comes up when you google "harm planks rickshaw" in an attempt to dig up information on this show.

2009-10-15: Creaking Planks feature at the Little Mountain Neighborhood House open mic

Even with no Oven Mitts, we managed to not only survive but thrive at HPVIII (for this to make any sense, you might well have to have been there), playing a set after being sweetly set up by rising uke superstar Rian O'Hara, hobnobbing with Dennis from the Ging Gang and Anton from Chervona for the benefit of the Accordion Noir radio show.

But having settled all those extraordinary transportation and sleeping arrangements, we're back here in time and blasting the word out to you lucky folks that in a few scant hours (doors at 7:30), a rump Creaking Planks will be featuring again at Rick Keating's open mic at the Little Mountain Neighborhood House (3981 Main Street at 24th Ave.)  Stay posted for further details about our k-razy slate of Hallowe'en shows!

2009-10-05: Planks at In the House's "Accordion to This"

In The House, which is trying on squeezeboxes as a theme for one of their monthly house concerts (perhaps as practice for their annual festival?), has engaged the services of the Creaking Planks to close a line-up highlighting the diversity of the free-reed aerophones known as accordions. Joining us on the bill are a Serbian Trio of kolo proportions and Marian Rose. The house in question this time around can be located at 2186 E. Pender St, with doors at 6:15 pm and the show starting at 7:00 pm. Tickets: $18 adults / $13.00 kids ... purchasable online in advance.

2009-10-04: Creaking Planks play the LMG during the Drift

The annual Drift Main Street artwalk has come upon us and with it, a good excuse for visiting our old haunt the Little Mountain Gallery (195 E. 26th, formerly Little Mountain Studios) to play an afterparty of sorts. And who better to play with than our cronies in Mezamazing, last seen provoking a police visit at the Accordion Noir Festival launch party? Where everything is forbidden, everything must be permitted. Joining us, when he is not up the street at Cafe Montmartre, will be LMG honcho Ehren Salazar.  The show is likely to run from 8-11 pm ish.

2009-09-11: Creaking Planks headline the second annual Accordion Noir Festival's launch party at Cafe Montmartre

We had so much fun closing last year's Accordion Noir Festival in the middle of the night (sold out, line-up down the stairs and out on the sidewalk) that we just had to open a supplementary stage at this year's festival to give us another chance to play at it (while opening some room on the mainstage the next day for Story and Jason Webley.)  Seeking some squeezy acts with smaller stage footprints and performers with lower individual profiles in this town, we managed to secure a very exciting line-up of some of Vancouver's choicest bellowers:  Andy Fielding, Dawn Zoe (Alchemy), Tina Tew (Wintermitts), Barbara Adler (of the Fugitives), Joanna Chapman-Smith, the Balkan brass razzmatazz of Mezamazing at what can charitably be described as long last... and the Planks close again, because why mess with a tradition of such success?  We'll be starting at 8 pm and seeing just how much we can squeeze in by 1 am.  We play for tips at Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main at 28th Ave.) but a suggested donation would be seven dollars for all these great acts!

2009-09-09: Planks at Fringe Festival Gala afterparty

The Planks are chuffed to be playing (from 10:30 pm until... late!) at the St. Ambroise Fringe Bar immediately following the Vancouver Fringe Festival's Opening Gala.  Our performance will be situated in the Agro Cafe (1363 Railspur Alley) on Granville Island with the rest of the Fringe Festivities.  Head-scratchingly, we won't be there on one of the nights it hosts the Plank Club, but I suppose we guarantee one of our own.  We haven't been involved with the Fringe at all since being a backup band in 2005's Jew! A Musical so it's a nice opportunity to touch base with our roots and commiserate with actors crying in their drinks over the latest round of arts cuts.

2009-08-29: Creaking Planks at Bicycle Music Festival!

In keeping with our long association with the B:C:Clettes, we're playing an outdoor set this lovely morning/noon in New Brighton Park (... "near the pool") for the Ginger Ninjas' traveling "Pleasant Revolution" Bicycle Music Festival. Our set should run roughly 11:30 am -12:15. A tentative schedule follows:

New Brighton Park
9:30-10:30 Yoga
10:40- 11:20 Cello Joe
11:30- 12:15 Creaking Planks

Crab Park
2:00-2:30 Aunts and Uncles
2:35-3:05 Stitch Craft
3:05-3:30 B:C:Clettes (Dance Performance)

Vancouver Museum
5:30-6:00 none
6:00-6:30 Bear Dyken
6:30-7:10 Ginger Ninjas
7:15-8:00 Orkestarslivovica
8:05-9:00 Little J

Edit! Well after the fact, we turned up in their video document of their trip! How nice to see the extended intro for "Numbers and Names" appreciated!

2009-08-08: Creaking Planks with Raghu Lokanathan and the Joey Only Outlaw Band at Cafe Deux Soleils

Having been exposed to his striking work at ArtsWells past, when the Creaking Planks learned that songwriter Raghu Lokanathan had moved from Prince George down to Victoria we just had to invite him to do a show with us there, which went off like a house on fire back in early 2008.  He helped us with some travel complications as best he could as well as delivering an immaculate set.  Now another ArtsWells is upon us and immediately following, this musical man will be in our general vicinity (featuring at the Jericho Folk Club Tuesday August 4th as well as on the Accordion Noir radio show Friday Aug 7th from 9:30-10:30 pm.)  (And here that radio session is!)  Needless to say, we're champing at the bit to present him to the hairy hippies of East Van, and have dovetailed a couple of plans in order to do so the evening of Saturday, August 8th, at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive).  The Planks will be tasty sandwich filling in the middle, followed by a dense slice of psychedelic country punk from the Joey Only Outlaw Band!

A tip o' the hat to postermeister Daisy-Jones Locher!

2009-08-01: Creaking Planks at the ArtsWells Festival

Blackbeard Squeezebox has been several years running with his bit on the side, the Joey Only Outlaw Band, but finally this year he gets to reconvene with his old Living Closet cronies with the jug band of the damned in tow!  ArtsWells, BC's biggest little indie arts festival takes place over the BC Day long weekend in the little town of Wells, BC (and neighbouring historical Barkerville) in the Cariboo, from Friday July 31st through Monday August 3rd.  Sharing various stages with us at various times are a whole bevy of buddies both accordion-slinging and non-; a partial look at the stellar line-up this year includes such friends as Ana Bon-Bon, Blackberry Wood, Geoff Berner, Jess Hill and Raghu Lokanathan (we'll be playing a show with him in town the following week) and luminaries such as Fish & Bird, Linda McRae, Rae Spoon and the Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra!

We're slated to be performing an afternoon set at the Barkerville venue Saturday (2-3 pm) and in the downstairs of the main hall Monday afternoon (3-4 pm) but you'll be finding various and sundry Planks all over the festival grounds, nosing out jams and sating our hunger for knowledge at workshops like the accordions in the round session Saturday at noon or Dr. Steelhand's slide guitar workshop Sunday morning (11 am-1 pm) in the school classroom!  (Our regular hunger will be sated by Martin in the kitchen, no doubt!)

2009-07-25: Creaking Planks close the Hidden Agenda #25 Variety Show Spectacular

We've been scattered in recovery from our trip to Vancouver Island at the end of June (expect a recap post soon!), but in honour of another visit from Becky Johnson of Sweetie Pie Press, EC Salazar and the goons of the Little Mountain Studios (195 E. 26th Avenue at Main) have gotten together with us to put on another program of mixed nuts including:

* Dave Shumka
* Ryan Beil
* Officer Mazaltoff, The Beat Cop Poet
* the charming crafty wares of Sweetie Pie Press
* and Unflattering Portraits by Reverend Aitor (by donation)

All that plus a closing set from the jug band of the damned, in what has practically been our only show together since the month began! Suggested donation $5.

2009-06-26 through 30th: the Flogged Round the Fleet tour of Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast

The jug band of the damned finally has some copies of its longago-recorded CD ("Flogged Round the Fleet") together in its swell limited-edition, first-run deluxe packaging edition, and by gum, we aim to seed the entire periphery of the Georgia Strait with them! One gig suggested a circumnavigation and so we're spending a long long weekend making a round trip to introduce some sleepy island-dwellers to our unique brand of demented traditional music new and old.

• Friday, June 26th, Victoria, Solstice Festival for the Folk


• Saturday, June 27th, TBA


• Sunday, June 28th - an afternoon show at the Duncan Garage Showroom, then an evening show following the B:C:Clettes at Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park


• Monday, June 29th - an afternoon show at the Gumboot Cafe in Roberts Creek, then an evening show at the Wild Bistro in Gibsons


• Tuesday, June 30th - a return home at Cafe Montmartre in Vancouver

The first stop is a return to the Solstice Cafe (529 Pandora Ave, Victoria), the site of our standing-room-only Island debut last Spring, sandwiched (with David Simard and Free Range, aka Danielle LP, Meg O'mally Iredale, Marly Iredale and Shanti Bremer) in the middle of three smashing nights of splendiferous Festival performances -- and just the start of a long weekend of Vancouver Island wanderings for us!

Saturday is necessarily under wraps until we finalise the remaining brass tacks, but keep posted for updates!

Sunday Longevity John squeezes us in to his Duncan Garage Showroom (330 Duncan Street, Duncan) for an afternoon show running 2-4 pm, $10, and I promise we will squeeze back. Later that evening, around 8 pm, we follow the B:C:Clettes, our red and black sistren of the bike dance community, for a third encounter for the benefit of the patrons of the Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park campground (near Parksville) at the amphitheatre there. Unplugged! Wheels will roll. Helmets will shake!

Monday, we make good on a longstanding threat to descend upon Roberts Creek's Gumboot Cafe (1057 Roberts Creek Rd), logging an afternoon set there from 4-6 pm, then we mosey along to the Wild Bistro (682 Gibsons Way) in Gibsons to play out the evening from 8-10.

Tuesday night we shake the last of the sand off our saltwater-stained sleeves and take to the Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main Street) stage back in Vancouver to play late into the night (as the following day is a statutory holiday - Canada Day!) and celebrate the 25th wedding anniversary of Blackbox Squeezebeard's parents.

2009-06-13: Planks play another wedding and the Railway again!

Juggling two offers we couldn't refuse, the Creaking Planks plan for a scorching Saturday night whipping down from playing at Phil + Kimla's wedding up at SFU to open the second anniversary of JEff Younger's night (third Tuesday of every month!) at the Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir Street, upstairs)! and he's programmed some of his favorite acts from the series to join him on the stage there that night.

Here's the lineup: in addition to having the jug band of the damned back for the opening slot at 10:30 pm, you get a wild and wacky set of unshorn spoken word from RC Weslowski, a set from Joseph Blood and the Blue Tick Houn' Dogs, JEff Younger's own inbred redneck orchestra The Family Stump, the WhiskeyDicks (who "blast their way through traditional tunes and modern hits with the spirit of the mad and the thirst of a sailor who just got kicked out of his metal band") and finally (late into the night) Very Good, the band which won't have too difficult a time surpassing their name.

Doors at 8:30, admission is $10, $8 for Railway Club members.

PS -- pardon the slip in chronology -- this show happens the day before the Car-Free Festival mentioned in the prior post.

2009-06-14: Planks play Car-Free Festival afterparty!

How better to follow Vancouver's biggest party but with another party? That's right, folks, Vancouver's Car-Free Festival wraps up at 6 pm (8 pm on Main Street) but its fabulous afterparty will already be opening its doors a mere one hour later -- almost precisely as long as it takes for Festival volunteers to fold up tables -- at the ANZA Hall (3 West 8th Avenue at Ontario Royal Canadian Legion hall at 2205 Commercial Drive (at 6th, upstairs). Admission is free for Festival volunteers (a humble $5 for everyone else, though no one will be turned away due to lack of funds) and those who just can't stop giving of themselves should have a blast at the start of the night with a jam session. It's true! That unscripted musical mayhem will be followed by live music from two acts -- a blast of Balkan brass with the Orkestar Slivovica and an uncanny visitation from East Van's jug band of the damned, the Creaking Planks. All this plus sest on the decks from DJs Osmunda and Kaminanda, hosting by Jessica Rabbit, and the much-vaunted blinking lights of the Revelry Society!

PS -- if you're not careful, you might catch us earlier in the day visiting John Barbour's musical barricade and logging an appearance at Venus' birthday party amidst all the festival hubbub bustle and hustle.

2009-06-06: Planks at Lugz Coffee Lounge

A mixed evening (as they say, "COME EARLY OR STAY LATE!!!") of what is billed as "spoken word / pirate jazz", at the corner of Broadway and Main (Lugz at 2525 Main Street), the Creaking Planks enjoy the unusual distinction of having the most staid name of all the performers on the bill, sandwiched between Sacred Mint and Cosmic Cobbler. (We have since been joined by Johnny McRae, whose name is harder to poke fun at.) $6. Doors at 9 pm; we should be taking the stage around 9:45 pm, if all goes according to schedule, for a first set of about 45 minutes... then returning for further strangeness later on.

2009-05-23: Cedar Cottage Community Gardens Spring Festival

a snapshot from our musical visit to their open stage in September 2008

Located beneath the SkyTrain tracks at Victoria and Hull, the Cedar Cottage Community Gardens are having a Spring festival, and we are playing at it sometime after 2 pm. From noon on, they'll be giving tours of the garden site, discussing its past and future, as well as offering garden membership and plots and participation in a fundraising 50/50 draw. The Environmental Youth Alliance will be offering basic gardening workshops at half past the hour, and there will also be food plants for sale: "lettuce, spinach, scallions, beans, beets, peppers, basil, soybeans, carrots, peas, sunflowers, many varieties tomatoes, gooseberries, dill, cilantro, broccoli, strawberry, raspberry canes, borage, yarrow, and more."

As well as drumming from Cease Wyss, the festivities will include a garden-themed poetry contest, rewarding those who can best handle subjects randomly drawn out of a hat.

2009-05-20: Savor at the Heritage Hall, then the "Spring Fling" One Cool Word launch at the Biltmore!

It's an improbable and, quite frankly, somewhat foolish weeknight twofer from the Creaking Planks... but with this many good causes at classy venues, who are we to turn down the invitations to make our unmistakable mark?  Starting the night, The Neighbours Organic Weekly Co-operative (NOWBC) hosts a benefit for the CityReach Care Society's "Food for Families" project.  As well as a potluck dinner and fabulous prizes, the evening presents a slate of performers (kid-friendly up 'til 7:30 pm):

• 6 p.m. D'Arcy Stainton, children's performer


• 6:45 Lily Jo


• 7:00 Melodious Mandolins


• 7:45 Friends of Thieves


• 8:30 Creaking Planks


• 9:15 Yer Blues

and here's its poster!

But by the end of that line-up, we'll already have shuffled up Main Street to help celebrate the launch of One Cool Word magazine's 13th issue (you remember, they presented our pal Bob Uker back in issue #5 in Spring 2007) at the Biltmore Cabaret (395 Kingsway)! (keep an ear open for the rendition of Dead Man's Pants from our demo on the accompanying CD!) Here are the rough plans for THAT night...

• 9:30 The Contemporary Lovers


• 10:20 Creaking Planks


• 11:10 Analog Bell Service


• 12:00 Fur Bearing Animals

plus …and special guest models from Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School!

And here's its poster!

Update! April Smith of AHA Media (backing up Rob "The Delete Bin" Jones' report for Miss 604 -- whew, what a tangled web! -- where we are described as "jug band music as played by Tom Waits’ feral stepchildren") caught us out at the Biltmore and posted a couple of videos of us on YouTube (as well as a schwack of photos from the whole evening on Flickr)!

Here we are performing Creep...


... and here's our Psycho Killer! The classics always have something new to offer upon revisitation.

2009-05-16: Planks back at Cafe Montmartre with Petunia!

Following our bombastic April Ship of Fools variety show, Ali has seen fit, in his ultimate wisdom, to turn the Montmartre stage (4362 Main Street) over to us for another Saturday night filled with much merriment and musical mayhem. Joining us tonight for a tasty set in the middle is our pal Petunia!

2009-05-08: Planks play Gutter Punk Space Opera opening at the Gallery Gachet

Pre-Plank Colin Upton's old buddy Bryce-Thing (né Rasmussen) finally makes good on a longstanding threat to recruit the Planks into performing at an exhibition of his visual work at the Gallery Gachet (88 East Cordova). We will give it our anarchic best (cutting ourselves short only of Puke Theatre), and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Also featuring the opening of Florida artist Jordan Massengale’s work Sub-Urban Commentaries.

But what of Bryce's work?  Let the curatorial blurb speak for it:

Vancouver-based Bryce Rasmussen’s Gutter Punk Space Opera chews on the themes of outsider, a reflection of his childhood, weaving epic personal myths, populated with monsters, spaceships and bedraggled heroes that seem to stumble through the backwaters of the mind. The work emerges through a liberal use of whatever medium is available - most often from the alleys around town. Focusing on isolation and rebellion, filtering the street culture through a wonky lens.

The only thing that could improve this grouping would be if his co-exhibitor's show was instead entitled "Sub-Human Commentaries". For a taste of his work, enjoy the two (decade-old) photos below of some of his earlier work on similar themes:
.

...

Clark Nikolai took a heaping tablespoon of photos over the course of the evening:

the Planks Creak on
Our fervour was so vehement, we even stopped people in their tracks passing by on the sidewalk

The show was visited by our friends in the Margaret Charles Chopper Collective (MC3)

The joint, as they say, was jumping... albeit while we were still setting the PA up.

Caught in the act!

Rumblebucket manipulates his intriguing theremin.

Daisy Jones-Locher's santur also provoked its fair share of questions.

The artist is moved to join us on the harmonica

At long length, the Puke Theatre principals determine they can't keep up with us

2009-05-02: Planks celebrate Shel Silverstein

A Sunday afternoon sharing (at a secret location -- but not THE secret location) of musical arrangements of the children’s poems of author Shel Silverstein (whose "Polly" we've been getting some good mileage out of since debuting it at our Penthouse gig)... plus Planks covering some of his more famed songs already covered by others. (Meta-covering?) For more information about the particulars of the show (contested by the Silverstein estate), please contact the ringmaster of the arrangements at peppermillrecords.com/contact

2009-04-29: Planks at Big Screen Barrelhouse at the Rio

Running from 8 pm until well past midnight, this culmination of the Rio's (1660 E. Broadway at Commercial Drive) April series of concerts will be featuring screenings and musical accompaniment by Tarran the Tailor, Blackberry Wood and Maria in the Shower, including special guests the Mind of a Snail puppet troupe (of "the Laughing Disease" fame)... and (of course!) the Creaking Planks, joining forces with Travis to demonstrate a certain magical, musical spirit cabinet. A craft market will be set up and the first few rows of chairs removed to maximalise DANCE PARTY potential! Admission is $15, but these supertoys last all summer long.

2009-04-26: Planks back at LMS

The facts are well-established: We do good work at the Little Mountain Studios (195 E. 26th Avenue at Main), and we do good work with Erin Graves.  Why not put one in the other?  (A: because the LMS will not fit inside Miss Graves.)

A command performance for some distinguished visiting dignitaries from Phalonious J. Knucklebones' storied past, this show sees us flexing our creative muscles (there, to the left of the goof glands) in a space that's practically our home away from home. Joining us again is Erin Graves contributing a set on the keys, likely again commandeering a chunk of the Planks to be her back-up ensemble (Gravesdiggers?) Doors at 8; music should certainly be well underway by 9 pm. By donation.

2009-04-11: Planks at the Atlantic Trap & Gill

Never say never! Our piratical and sea shanty days apparently long since behind us (save in our name and iconography), a friend of a relative (and here's where the chain breaks down somewhat, the story garbles, producing results that are difficult to believe). At the end of it, we found ourselves engaged to play a backbreaking three sets this Saturday night at the Atlantic Trap & Gill (612 Davie at Seymour), the home away from home for teeming legions of Maritimers guiltily enjoying the clement climate on the We(s)t Coast. And play we will, musical notes sweating and bleeding down our little arms as we motor through three sets, the first starting at 8:30 pm, then 9:45, then 11. At midnight, we're done... or we cast our nets and chumbuckets to the weird Sargasso of Granville Street and see what treasures we can troll up from the briny deep.

Update! A grand old time was had by all, the gang achieving their most efficient ever square-feet-per-musician ratio in an elaborate arrangement of interlocking mic stands and music holders. I don't think the poor fellows at the Trap & Gill knew what to expect, and by golly we knocked them for a loop from our contorted corner.

Thanks to Qousqous for the photo!

2009-04-10: Planks in BurnBC Bunnarchy at the Waldorf

First up -- PHEW! a big thanks to everyone who came out to the Ship of Fools variety show we hosted last weekend and helped to make it such a room-filling success! Hours and hours of Planks in different textures and configurations!

Now, where were we? Oh yes -- Eventually able to take up a gig invitation extended to us as we turned a room over to RMS, this Friday night we're pleased to return to the Waldorf (1489 E. Hastings) and another party thrown by the incendiary folks at BurnBC, who hope to disseminate Black Rock City ideas and happenings throughout Cascadia, now at the Waldorf on the second Friday of every month. The last time we played one of their shows there we met the fabulous Marmaladies (and Jane "Break Your Freak" Panek, a whole other story 8) and got the scoop on the giant robot spider that's been terrifying people at Car-Free days; this time we're pleased to keep the good company of DJ BTox and Dialectic (live PA) as well as the customary fire show and perhaps an alternative Easter celebration, "Bunnarchy". Our hour-long set is scheduled to start at 10 pm, following an open stage of sorts. Admission is on a sliding scale -- $10 for those "in an expressive state" (as judged by the people at the door, presumably) up to $30 for the plebs in their everyday street duds.

2009-04-04: Blackbox Squeezebeard's April Ship of Fools birthday celebration at Cafe Montmartre

As an experiment into filling a whole night at Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main Street at 28th Avenue) with varied textures of performance from members of our multifarious crew and extended family, the Creaking Planks celebrate Blackbox Squeezebeard entering into his fourth decade with the April (Ship of) Fools Variety Show from 8 pm through "late" (past midnight!) Saturday, April 4th. Performances will include magic from Travis, interstitial improvisation and ukulele from Ehren Salazar and John Barbour, new music from familiar faces Paul Hendriks (aka the Rev. Lucian Rumblebucket), possibly demonstrating his banjo aptitude, and Eryn Holbrook (aka Daisy Jones-Locher -- who worked a wonderful whimsical adaptation of Hieronymus Bosch's "Ship of Fools" into the show's poster!) contributing a solo set a couple of months earlier than usual, sharing her voice-and-keys songwriting not much heard since the days of her Perpetual Dream Theory project. Also joining us will be a very special set from washtub bass outsider Al Mader, the Minimalist Jug Band, and of course a couple of sets of Creaking Planks creaking and planking.

At Montmartre we play for tips, but we anticipate your generosity in support of this jam-packed night and its auspicious occasion.

Edit: phew! What a night! Check out VanCityMike's gallery of shots from the variety show up on Flickr!

2009-03-26: Planks back at Beans on Lonsdale

Slightly under a year later, the Planks return to the wilds of North Van, packing along their unruly brand of demented trad. Starting at 8 pm, we'll be playing a couple of sets at Beans on Lonsdale (1804 Lonsdale).

For the occasion, we re-worked Daisy Jones-Locher's poster template -- a revisitation of old imagery, reminiscent of our previous engagement but still very different. Maybe our set will be, too!

2009-03-17: Planks help restore Hidden Agenda to its native habitat

Licking its hard-earned wounds from the recent critical success at the Waterfront Theatre, the series resumes at the Little Mountain Studios (195 E. 26th at Main) presenting its varied music and comedy variety show, now on a monthly basis.

Acts this time around include the Planks, Stick Twigs, the unique improvised musical stylings of host EC Salazar, & more acts to be announced...

Salazar intones fatefully: "there may very well be multi colored balloons."

2009-03-07: Planks at the Purple Crab

The crew that put the icing on the cake of Obama's inauguration party at Zawa's is back again in a new room, the Purple Crab (3916 Main Street at 23rd), with fewer pesky televised distractions (however historical) cluttering up the performance schedule. (That crew being: Thee Ahs aka Lovenschtein and Schteige, Sister DJ's Radio Band, and a closing set from us.) All that, plus: a set of magic from Dr. Steelhand, in honour of Sister DJ's descent from the namesake of Mandrake the Magician!

2009-03-06: Planks at Trees

Every few months, John Pippus invites us on over to open a session of his weekly Friday night songwriters' circle. The other performers tend to be solo acts, so as we often do, our role here is: contrast. There have been some highs and lows there, but Trees (450 Granville) is a lovely room (dare I say the sole survivor of the war of attrition on the Granville Mall?) with awesome cheesecake. But that's describing the food, not the performances from Susanna Lonsdale and Jesse Nicholson following our inaugural set at 8 pm.

Enjoy and hope to see you out!

2009-02-28: Planks at Cafe Montmartre with Erin Graves

We're back at our monthly appearance at Cafe Montmartre (down at 4362 Main Street at 28th Avenue) with our friend Erin Graves who we met last September at Trees and resolved to do more work with.  The usual sequence of events there has us playing an opening set starting by 8:45 for 45 minutes, then our guest plays a similar set (possibly with some Planks sitting in!), then another one from us.  We play on a pass-the-hat basis, so bring some friends and a great hunger for crepes, wine and hat-filling.

...

And here we were!

Photo by Erin Graves. Daisy Jones-Locher can't be seen just off to the left.

2009-02-19: Memewar Launch "Gods and Idols" issue at the Railway Club

We had so much fun with the crew of Memewar magazine at their last release party that they invited us back.Here's it's poster:

As you can see, once again it's at the Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir Street at Seymour, upstairs), and we're being joined by readings from the magazine (and its "Gods and Idols" theme) from C.J. Leon, Rhoda Hodjati and Tony Power and music from Wintermitts and Victoria's Ballgag 'n Chain Gang... and something involving the Vancouver Cantata Singers.  Admission gets you a copy of the magazine (it's a great business model -- each party's cover pays for the subsequent issue, whose release party pays for the subsequent issue... and so forth).

Next up we've got a private engagement on the 27th (then see how fast we can peel off to catch Geoff Berner's CD launch at the Biltmore!), but stay tuned for another Planky evening at Cafe Montmartre Saturday February 28th!

...

And here we were!

Photo by Missy Clarkson

2009-02-14: I ♥ Kitties - a night of cat-love

... Saturday, February 14th (yep, that's valentine's day)
... @ the Secret Location
... doors at 9pm
... show from 10pm onwards:
... performances by the creaking planks, manpuss, and others
... arts and crafts auction
... dance party featuring dj derivative and more
... entrance by donation

Sir Hobbes the Cat, the noble friend, roommate, attorney, confidant and stalwart of Vancouver nightlife passed away recently. He lived a long and uncompromising life and will live on in the hearts of those he knew as one of the most familiar, most admired, most beloved, and, without any doubt the most extraordinary of cats.

You are invited to a celebration for Hobbes and all cats: A night of performance, art auction, and dance party on February 14th at the Secret Location.

All proceeds go to help Mosa with her vet bills.