2011-11-30: Planks at Memewar comedy night!

Has it really been almost a year since Memewar magazine invited us back to the Railway Club stage? Well, we're on our way once again to their comedy night Wednesday, November 30th, starting around 9 pm, with Memewar stalwart Aubyn Rader sitting in again on drums. (Plank codename pending!) Jen Miller will be playing Very Serious music, and improv troupe The Fictionals will be trying to spin comedy cold from the audience's straw. We will try our level best to be comical, but... well, you saw the joke in that last blog post. Normalize? Chuckanut Drive? Maybe we can play instrumentals and double the humour content...

NB -- our next appearance at the Railway, Wed Jan 18th, will be our 7th anniversary party with Raghu Lokanathan and Ana Bon-Bon!

2010-12-19: Creaking Planks at Memewar launch

The jug band of the damned shows its meagre warm and cuddly festive side as we help to celebrate the launch of the 12th issue of Memewar Magazine. We're on from 9:30-10:30 pm at the Railway Club, 579 Dunsmuir Street at Seymour (upstairs).

2010-09-07: Creaking Planks back at the Railway Club for more Memewar

On short notice all around, en lieu of visiting Gibsons again (RIP Wild Bistro! And too darn bad we missed the Gumboot train) we're joining our good friends at Memewar Magazine for another 'do celebrating their rag down at the Railway Club, (579 Dunsmuir Street, upstairs) with the Jeremy Braax Band, Brent Lawrence, and our new best friend for the next week, California's Uni & her Ukulele. (Stay tuned for more information about further upcoming shows with her, and for an account of our adventures in California!)

Things have been so hairy in the coming and going (everything except for Blackbox Squeezebeard, that is) we've even had a few good times come up on us so suddenly we didn't get a chance to talk them up here -- times like last week's other Railway appearance, at Redrick Sultan's tour send-off Aug 29th, the killer Steinberg summer party at the end of July, and our last intersection with our Memewar friends, playing a set of songs about cryptozoology to kids at the CNIB camp on Bowen Island. How awesome is that?

And then of course there's the Accordion Noir Festival coming up in a couple of weeks... but one post at a time, friends!!

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.

2009-02-19: 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

2008-10-09: Planks at Memewar Issue #7 launch at the Railway Club!

The Planks are buffing their splinters for a filthy, filthy return to the Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir Street at Seymour, upstairs) for the third time in two month (and the second time this week! a big change of pace from the nearly two-years' gap prior!)  Hopefully things will be almost-but-not-quite as off-the-hook as last week's show, at which we took the stage of the sold-out Railway Club an hour late (Geoff Berner was well in his element -- some kind of formaldehyde, I think -- and on top of his game can halt a 10-piece band in its tracks with a well-timed anecdote!) well after 1 am.  An hour later they didn't want to let us leave the stage, though we'd exhausted the set.  Roar! Finally, the crowds were beaten back by urging them to become members of Co-op radio and to revisit us six mere days later... at this occasion!

This time we're all playing our hearts out to celebrate the launch of issue #7 of Memewar Magazine, with its focus on censorship (The Song Of The Count: censored!) and obscenity.  (And really, what could be more obscene than a nerd on a squeezebox plaintively crooning songs about explicit matters of sexuality?) Also in the upcoming issue you may find an advertisement for our upcoming album release! (No, this isn’t it.) Other performances will include the Girls on Top burlesque troop (there are two words that don't go together well!), an erotic poetry slam courtesy of R.C. Weslowski, C.J. Leon, Fernando Raguero and Jane "Break Your Freak" Panek with accompaniment from her companion (hm, or not!)  There will be guest readings from the issue, possibly recited by acclaimed pottymouths Elaine Miller and Nathaniel Wolfe, and more musical performances from Bells Clanging and the Barcelona Chair, who will be surrounding our 11:15-starting set like a splinter sandwich.The show starts at 8:30 pm (your $10 admission gets you a complementary copy of the magazine!) and further boasts "more Cereal Junkies" (?!) and naughty prizes!

(And then we're off to HPVII!)