Inasmuch as our ensemble can practically be defined as a wildlife preserve for underdog instruments -- all the axes which might be told at some point, "No, we don't want any (x) in our band" -- it brings us great pleasure to take our ukuleles to the table at this ongoing series... and burden them with the drag factor of the rest of our sonic freakshow.
Also featuring performances from Corinne Mundell, Jen Charters, Martin Lunatech, Steven Drake, plus our own Devon 8 and the band Blackberry Wood! One night only, at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive).
The jug band of the damned meets its match in a Pacific northwest grudge match with Portland's purveyors of "death joy groove", the Strangled Darlings from Portland, Oregon. They'll be rocking out on cello and mandolin, like the Winks -- only different. At least, a different different. (And no, they're not what we get after strangling Oh My Darling.)
9 pm to midnight, Friday July 6th, at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive). There will be a cover, but it won't be much.
Because Hallowe'en comes but once a year (but Hallowe'en weekend is three nights long) it's the profound pleasure of the jug band of the damned to present our spooky show for a second night in a row, next up Saturday, October 29th at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive) from 8-11 pm with our ominous pals Tarran the Tailor and Jeff Andrew, who we did this same gig with this time last year. (This time, though, he'll actually get to play!) $10 for the funnest unofficial Parade of Lost Souls afterparty ever!
(Turn up early and you get to ring in Daisy Jones-Locher's birthday from 6:30 on!)
Bonus! It was a heck of a show, and here's a gallery of photos from it! Thanks to Graham Ballantyne for snapping the shutter again...
We opened for him last year at the Cotati accordion festival and now we're going to do it again at the 4th annual Accordion Noir festival -- San Francisco's infamous Duckmandu, the man who married the unhip squeezebox to the entire back catalogue of the Dead Kennedys, is joining us for the fest's closing party Sun, Sept 25th at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive). Show $10, starts at 8 pm!
Now, enjoy one of the strangest posters we've ever had:
Update: would you believe that Duckmandu got held back at the border by Canadian Customs? The whole festival pitched in side-acts playing a song or two to help fill the gap -- Barbara Adler, Katheryn Petersen, Geoff Berner. Sadly, the chaotic scene depicted in this unique poster would remain merely an artist's fevered vision, never realised.
We missed out on a chance to play with them last August en route to our legendary trip down to California, but the fates have intervened and seen fit to give us another opportunity to share a stage with Portland's Underscore Orkestra, thanks to Jeff Andrew, last seen giving up his own performance spot to allow us to play his double-booked Hallowe'en show at Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive!
Of course, there will be no double-booking there this time. The Underscores straddle all sorts of lively genres from gypsy jazz and swing to Balkan and klezmer music -- with a shot of heady bellydancing thrown in -- and even gruff-voiced Jeff will be having a squeezebox backing him up, qualifying this show to be presented by Accordion Noir, Vancouver's (and, yea, the world's) pre-eminent all-accordion-music weekly broadcast.
Us Planks are still sharpening our alternate set of heady tunes we haven't been coasting on five years of perfection with, so if you missed our anniversary show, we should still have some fresh musical tricks in store for you... and of course, more is yet to come.
Hot on the heels of our first costume ball of the season the night before, the jug band of the damned moves up the street (just a couple of blocks) to Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive) to help raise some unruly spirits (from the remnants of the Parade of Lost Souls, no doubt) with the help of our delightfully dark friends Maria in the Shower and Jeff Andrew with his Crows at Midnight. 9 pm, $10.
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!
Winters in Vancouver can be a gloomy, dreary affair. Even when we're not snowbound and strangled by insidious mists (as we have been for weeks, now!) one can go for days, weeks and, yea, even months without seeing the sun. This contributes to a depressing psychological condition known as SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is often treated with exposure to a full-spectrum daylight lamp. Another treatment recommended by holistic and alternative health practitioners is exposure to AWESOME FACE. AWESOME FACE? AWESOME FACE is a local (or is that loco?) power performance poetry supergroup consisting of charismatic weirdoes par excellenceRC Weslowski, Brendan McLeod and Chris Gilpin (as Dr. WTF??) With a mandate as "the kids' show for adults", for their sophomore engagement at 9 pm this Friday they have boldly proclaimed a goal of nothing less than combating SAD. Poet Sasha Langford demonstrates:
Their method of engaging SAD is to throw a beach party at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive). As such, the wearing of beachwear is encouraged, and will reduce admission from $8 to $5. Sasha demonstrates further:
To further audience involvement, AWESOME FACE have solicited contributions from their fans as lyrics for a new song, to be performed at this event, describing Jet Li kicking SAD's ass (egregiously) at the beach. Similarly, the Planks, who are opening for this crew of well-intentioned miscreants, and whose greatest talent is inverting a song's emotional content, aim to rustle up some lines from our fans also. The trademark macabre CP rendition of summer camp classic "Down By The Bay" debuted at Blackbox's first performance as a Plank, at Miserylovescompany2: A night of sad songs at the old Blim April 23rd, 2005... and has only been performed likely once since (at that year's Horace Phair celebration in Portland.) But in honour of the occasion we are digging deep into the vaults and pulling out an array of splendid tunes to relish in our love/hate relationship with SAD. If you could put on your thinking cap and send us your best faux-grim couplet for Down By The Bay (a sample from Lord Eel: "Have you ever seen a corpse / stabbed with ten thousand forks?") we would find it most useful.
Also joining us will be a display of the ever-boggling talents of legerdemain and mentalism from the Planks' steel guitarist, Dr. Steelhand.
