2016-10-09: O Superman

I bet you thought you'd seen the last of our video series! Sure, there's been eight months of radio silence, interrupted only by one blip halfway through. Four months' wait is nothing to us -- our band is nearly 12 years old! We have songs that have been in progress longer than Presidential administrations! (Even longer than election campaigns!)

Tonight's venue, a distinguished and sophisticated room.

A photo posted by Creaking Planks (@creakingplanks) on Oct 9, 2016 at 7:55pm PDT

Anyway, here we are. By which I mean, here I am -- Daisy-Jones and Ludwika wouldn't fit in the hammock, so I believe they were "huh, huh"ing along while packing up their instruments at this point in the set. I don't know how many of the annual Horace Phair parties in Portland we've managed to play -- I like to think that we've at least hit as many as we've missed, but it's hard to prove as they're often not terribly well-documented in the interest of maintaining our ability to freely cross the US border.

Everyone, once more, with feeling - death is not the end! Portland is always privy to a few "we only play these once a year here" songs. If you want to hear them... come on down to next year's Horace Phair!

A photo posted by Creaking Planks (@creakingplanks) on Oct 10, 2016 at 4:54pm PDT

It was Daisy-Jones Locher's first visit in capacity as a Creaking Plank to Portland, Oregon (or "Disneyland for grown-ups" as we like to call it) for our longstanding annual engagement at the Horace Phair party and it was a humdinger! Not only did we have RoJo(tm) the Therapy Llama as our opener, but this performance was just the second act to a will-our-set-happen-won't-it-happen (turns out, it would!) wedding the previous day up at the Kiwanis Camp on nearby Mount Hood. (And a Mazel Tov to Samantha & Chase!) But as much splendid amenity infrastructure as was present at the wedding (zip lines, board games, pizza and yurts), it lacked a hammock in the basement. Happily, the Saluthaus basement addressed that omission, and so our Portland experience managed to be a complete one! Will performing in a hammock become a thing that we revisit endlessly on-stage? I doubt it, but wouldn't that be nice! Supposing we can't perform in a hot tub (I can think of a few obstacles to making that happen) it's a nice compromise. (Nowhere to sling a hammock? How about beanbag chairs? Wait, could anything be less ergonomic?)

Our "Inception" moment comes up on the wedding slideshow. Not pictured - the next photo, of me standing up, photographing this slide. Truly the Panopticon Singularity is upon us.

A photo posted by Creaking Planks (@creakingplanks) on Oct 8, 2016 at 10:31pm PDT

(And a big thanks to Josh for capturing (most of) the performance on his phone!)

New video: Sometimes All The People

We missed our chance at our anniversary show a couple of years ago, when Rod Matheson set up to record us playing "Music Music Music" and had the shot ruined by overenthusiastic dancers enjoying themselves at the cost of posterity. But we had a standing arrangement to set up another video shoot of a live music performance in an unconventional situation, and after only two and a half years, we managed to make good on it! Finally, a good YouTube clip (we already have a popular one, now we need a good one) of our band looking and sounding more like it does today, a complete take of a song we actually know how to play, more or less.



Also, a bit of catchup: congratulations to Loren & Marisol whose wedding reception at 5 International we performed at in late April; hats off to the folks at the 6th annual Stainsbury Block Party we entertained Sept 7th while a real fire truck dazzled all, and greetings to all our old friends in Portland we partied with this Columbus Day weekend as well as the new ones from the Low Tide Drifters and Girls' Rock Camp we made in Eugene at Plank Town! (And thanks to Rachael & Ben for setting us up there, again!)
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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!

HPVII Souvenir Mix

In honour of four years now of service and due diligence, an unlikely trio of Creaking Planks once again find themselves at the Horace Phair (: Know Your Ancient Grains, and Go Straight To The Foreskin) with music to share.  Though our Video In sessions of this Spring are tantalizingly not quite ready for prime time, we like the idea of leaving little bits of ourselves behind ("have you ever seen a leper / drinking Dr. Pepper?") as memorabilia even after we stop playing live and mosey along.  So, although there are no demo CDs this time around, we have compiled a virtual mix (originally conceived of, a bit too late, as a muxtape) to commemorate our times here in different configurations, consisting of live recordings of various Planks performances at various venues over our long and storied history.  They may not be our sharpest-ever takes on these tunes (only those within microphone range), but despite the occasional blue notes there are inspired passages here on some Planks rarities largely unheard on prior recordings and give an impression of breadth beyond the steamroller of our contemporary "power set" (also represented here), documenting our varying energies and confidence levels as we've matured as performers (and not, for instance, as humourists.) Here's the track listing:

• 1. Snazzy Portland (from the Solstice show in Victoria Feb 1st, 2008)
• 2. Sandwich Artist (from our Thundering Word Heard feature at Cafe Montmartre Oct 21st, 2007)
• 3. Re: Your Brains (from the Travis + Rowan PAVI session in the Spring of 2008)
• 4. Insane in the Membrane (from our Cafe Montmartre night Nov 7th, 2007)
• 5. Never Give A Puppy For Christmas (Solstice)
• 6. I Saw Polly In A Porny (from our set at the Penthouse Aug 10th, 2008)
• 7. Man Cougar / Lousy Lover (Penthouse... all run together)
• 8. Taking My Oyster For Walkies (Solstice)
• 9. Blown Away (A night of sad songs 2 at Blim April 23rd, 2005 -- our first show with Blackbox!)
• 10. Love Cats ... and the Song of the Count intro bonus! (Penthouse)
• 11. Osasa (Solstice)
• 12. Numbers and Names (Penthouse)
• 13. Closer / American Wedding (Penthouse)
• 14. Shakespeare's Got a Gun (Solstice)
• 15. O Superman (Montmartre)
• 16. Happy Birthday / Volga Boatmen medley (Solstice)

Here you go! As Douglas Adams might have said, share and enjoy.