2014-09-13: Squeezebox Rendezvous

Well, folks, that time of year is coming up again: September is when Geoff Berner's offspring has a birthday, and so that's the time of year when he is traditionally close at hand, and so that is the time of year when he is available locally to headline at the Accordion Noir Festival! We've been here since the beginning -- and now it's the 7th annual Accordion Noir Festival. In addition to appearances from local legends and festival favourites such as Geoff Berner, Barbara Adler and Jack Garton, this year marks the first AN Fest appearances of such visiting luminaries as Socalled and Miss Murgatroid -- and the final AN Fest appearance of the Creaking Planks. Gasp! Shock! Say it ain't so! Maybe coasting on a guarantee of future appearances just because the festival basically ran off our backs for several years was making us soft and lazy. Last year's "choose your own adventure" song was a unique and curious presentation, but the programmers have spoken -- and chosen us to headline this year's festival's Saturday night dance party with our inimitable "power set". (And who knows, maybe in time we can be brought back for a command performance "by popular acclaim." But it won't be in 2015.)

But enough about us! Who else is on the bill?

Saturday, September 13th, starting at 8:00 pm
at the Russian Hall (600 Campbell, Vancouver)

Meet up at le coin d'Accordion and Noir where French and English music lovers translate toe-tapping beats from quatre bandes dynamique, into the best dance party of the festival!

Quebec's Ol' Crocodile brings their infamous "Folk Sale" (dirty) folk to the Squeezebox Rendezvous alongside Vancouver's own genre-bending, bilingual six-piece, Wintermitts. The evening also marks the final festival performance of fan favourites The Creaking Planks, led by Accordion Noir Festival co-founder Rowan Lipkovits. This evening marks the first time that Accordion Noir Youth Incentives has sponsored a band to play at the festival. The Plodes, is a smart-punk four-piece led by young up-and-comer Reid Blakley.

Dr. Jack's Jackpot of Cabaret Curios will be there to add to the mayhem.

$12.50 Advance Tickets Online Aug 1 - Sept 10
$15 Tickets at Door

2013-09-12: 6th annual Accordion Noir Festival launch party

Whoops, never got around to making a post about tonight's show on our own website! We've been very, very busy working on our debut performance piece for tonight.

The show will be great all-around; the out-of-towner performers are simply phenomenal and this chance to see them shouldn't be missed. So, ah, here's the promotional boilerplate from the festival's website.

This year’s Festival kicks off with the Accordéon Café, a presentation of accordion artists who boast equal gifts as storytellers, humourists, and genre-bending instrumentalists.  Featuring casse-croûte by Crêpe Bohème the Café is a chance to slow down, listen close, and be transported by the special intimacy that flows whenever musicians and audiences gather under the influence of each other.

Award-winning Francophone accordion legend Steven Normandin from Montreal makes his hotly anticipated return to Vancouver, following his hit performance at the 2011 MusicFest Vancouver. Fans of Normandin know to expect riveting renditions of traditional chansons from France and Québec, enlivened by touches of jazz and swing and performed with a uniquely theatrical flair. Audiences discovering Normadin for the first time will find themselves in the hands of a true master: an artist who can make you laugh, cry and dance in the space of one set of music. Equally accomplished as an instrumentalist and as a songwriter, Normandin has performed in work by Robert Lepage, appeared as a soloist with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, and toured internationally with a host of musical projects and theatrical productions.
The raw feel of blues and country music meet the sensibilities of a first class storyteller in renegade accordionist David P. Smith. Hailed as one of Victoria’s most captivating and original songwriters, Smith is known for visceral, often hilarious narratives that crack open the boundaries between humor and despair. Appearing with his talented accomplice, violinist Rachelle Reath, David P. Smith’s performance promises to reveal why EXCLAIM! Magazine went so far as to call his accordion music a “siren song.”
The Creaking Planks, East Vancouver's jug band of the damned, are the best at what they do.  (Not coincidentally, they are the /only/ ones who do what they do.) A well-heeled crew of folk music misfits, they bring their instruments together to challenge the ghettoizing expectations of their respective traditional repertoires through détournement, the mash-up, and their specialty, the outright train wreck.  This festival's program sees them boldly charging off into uncharted territory (as usual) with an unprecedented audience-interactive suite of songs inspired by the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure children's book series of the 1980s.

(And a tip 'o the hat to Erin & Abe, whose wedding reception we performed at late on September 7th at The Ticket downtown!)