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!)
Did you know we have a Google+
page?

2014-09-28: Oktoberfest II: Bier Hierder

Did you know that Oktoberfest actually begins in late September? We are sticklers for authenticity, as the photo below attests, so will not feel compromised at all when don our 'Clinking Pints' hats and show up to Bomber Brewing (1488 Adanac Street) on Sunday, September 28 to entertain the beery masses from 2-6PM. You can get advance tickets here, which guarantee you 2 beers, a commemorative stein, and food!

We may even revisit our classic rendition of Father Abraham's traditional Oktoberfest tune, Smurfing Beer. You can learn the words for the sing along portion by watching the video below. Putting it on repeat works best!



Get the full rundown, and follow the HTML breadcrumbs to purchase your tickets here: http://www.beermebc.com/2014/09/03/bomber-brewing-hosts-east-vancouver-oktoberfest-celebrations/.

2014-09-17: Planks support teachers!

It's been some time since we performed at Bandidas Taqueria (2781 Commercial Drive). Let's be fair, it's a taqueria, not a performance venue. But due to regrettable recent events, we find ourselves aligned again: in support of the striking public school teachers, Bandidas is donating 100% of its Wednesday night proceeds (weekly, until the strike ends) to support Families Funding Teachers. They debuted this initiative this past week, did their briskest business in their history, and the charitable diners lined up outside the front door were entertained by Emma and Roland.

This Wednesday evening, it will be a small contingent of Creaking Planks out on the sidewalk helping the keep high the spirits of hungry teacher-supporting diners. Come for the social justice, stay for the music!

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The @creakingplanks entertained the lineup outside Banditas tonight, as all their proceeds went to supporting BC teachers!

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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

2014-08-29: with Professor Gall at the Prophouse

The Creaking Planks are performing at the Prophouse (1636 Venables Street) Friday Aug 29th in conjunction with a visit from a new friend from the land of old friends, Portland Oregon: Professor Gall comes to us through the Strangled Darlings, which is all the endorsement you need! In October we go to Portland, but once in a while we are given the opportunity to bring a bit of Portland up here: to the "other" Vancouver.

The jug band of the damned join forces with our Portlandian comrade-in-arms to present his "tincture of junkyard folk and steampunk jazz" at that cafe with more lamps per square foot than any other. We'll be playing a low-key set in counterpart to our dance party power set at the Accordion Noir Festival the following month, so fear not -- we'll have different textures in effect! You should totally come to both shows.

(Update: due to family emergency, Professor Gall was unable to make it out to the show -- so we swapped him out in a jiffy with Brooke Lunderville.)

2014-07-17: The Creaking Planks with Eryn Holbrook, & Christie Watson at The Prophouse

Join us on July 17 at The Prophouse Cafe for some good times, sweet sounds, iced beverages (and hot ones too; it is the middle of summer but as you like), astounding lamps, stylish chairs, miniature panthers, and more sweet sounds.

We know it's the middle of July, but it's supposed to be a warm, dry summer so there will be plenty of opportunity to hang out at the beach, and there's really only so many times you can bike around the seawall. Plus everyone goes away in the summer time and we know it can get lonely. So you should come hang out with us. We promise to all be delightful!

Indie Folk Singer songwriter Christie Watson, performs songs from his upcoming debut solo EP and a few new ones too... uplifting anthems, infectious melodies, soulful ballads - expect to feel good.
http://christiewatson.bandcamp.com/


Eryn Holbrook started making music in her garage in the early 90's. Since then, she's fronted local bands Perpetual Dream Theory and The Inference, and currently plays mandolin with The Creaking Planks.

2014-03-28: with My Dearest Friends, Jimy Now and The Milk Pipes at the Railway Club

After our anniversary extravaganza at the Railway, it was a surprise to get the phone call out of the blue from IMU Productions, whose shows you have assuredly seen postered all over the place. Their idea was to have a jug band support the ukulele-filled Milk Pipes, again at the Railway, and, by gum, they sure have found one. We aim to demonstrate to them that we really go for the jugular! The show will start at 9:30 pm, and the cover is $10. This is slated to be our only other public gig this winter, so bring your groundhog along and you can take turns checking each others' shadows. Now please enjoy some potted blurbs!

Friday, March 28th IMU presents MY DEAREST FRIENDS, The MILK PIPES, The CREAKING PLANKS & JIMY NOW @ The Railway Club, 579 Dunsmuir . Show 9:30pm sharp! Cover $10 . Purchase advance tickets online @ http://www.imuproductions.com/tix

MY DEAREST FRIENDS - The stirring sounds of My Dearest Friends fall somewhere between The Beach Boys and Portishead, a 1950s burger joint with rollerskates and Radiohead b-sides blaring out under the covered parking lot. Like all great art, it's indescribably focused, beautiful and irreverent, music that undeniably needs to be heard. Right. Now. http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Dearest-Friends/6094869802

The MILK PIPES - Sounding like a '63 Impala comin' sideways around a corner on two wheels, The Milk Pipes always drop the hammer on their original tunes with a joyful and reckless abandon. Tube amps and classic guitars slash against the solid punch of a rhythm section born to serve the song while keys and ukes underpin the whole cacophony with delicious counter melodies. http://www.themilkpipes.ca/

JIMY NOW - In this solo project, Jimy performs on electric ukulele and guitar. In re-creating the roots of classic rock, rhythm & blues, he captures the timeless music of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and many more in the 1950s to early 60s era. Prepare to be transcended. http://www.facebook.com/Jimy.Now

2014-01-19: the Creaking Planks' fabulous 9th anniversary concert

We did in fact make it to Horace Phair in Portland in October. And though we took November off, we managed to play a swell holiday concert to the Compassion Club in December. Now it is a new year and a chance for our first gig of the year -- which happens to be our annual band birthday party at the Railway Club!

doors at 7:30PM, show at 9:30PM (sharp...really!)
at the Railway Club, 579 Dunsmuir Street (upstairs), Vancouver, BC
$9 at the door
Featuring The Creaking Planks, Glittering Kingdom, and Sidewalk Cellist.

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Nine years is a long time to keep on keeping on, but in recent years the Creaking Planks, East Van's jug band of the damned, have made a tradition of throwing themselves an annual anniversary show at Vancouver's ‘grande dame’ of venues, the Railway Club. Unwilling to allow themselves to be ground to a halt by the ravages of greying hair, sleepless toddlers, grad school and graveyard shift work, they aim to demonstrate that rock 'n roll remains the most prematurely ageing influence of all. With their unruly assortment of underdog old-country instruments, they breathe a new rootsy life into monster pop anthems which have long since collapsed beneath their own sodden hubris and, despite being old enough to know better, compel the moldering leg-bones of also-ran B-side songs that history has unjustly forgotten to jiggle and caper like they are callow and spry again -- some old trick involving a spike of shaved ginger root. Remember when you were young and foolish? You will.

Glittering Kingdom grooves, taps and twinkles through tunes that meander from lonely circus swing to prohibition-era jazz, folk noir to post-apocalyptic acoustic. The sparkly foursome (Katheryn Petersen, Lindy Gray, Jen Rashleigh and Belinda Bruce) braid fine harmonies amidst guitar, accordion, saw, harmonica, snare and tinkly percussion. Glittering Kingdom is jazzed to debut the video of their bittersweet cover of Leonard Cohen's "The Future" at the Railway.

Vancouver's Sidewalk Cellist takes the classics out of the concert hall and throws them into the streets, with the help of her nearly-indestructible carbon-fiber cello! She provides a musical mix of everything from Bach to Nirvana, jazz to heavy metal, and more, building bridges between genres for audiences of all shapes and sizes.

2013-10-25: SpookEasy HallowSwing Cabaret

September has been a blast! The Accordion Noir fest was a winner (isn't it always, though?) -- in promotions it was nice hearing ourselves described as "festival favorites" on the CBC's North by Northwest, and if you like you can find a link to (and, ahem, extensive analysis of) the debut of our interactive choose-your-own-adventure song suite performed over here. (Note: performance recording is not interactive.) Then we played a special dance set for Planks alumnus Venus Soberanes at the local reception for her wedding with Jeremy at the Little Mountain Studio, rounding out a variety show spiked with Al Mader himself! Hopefully we will be manifesting at the Horace Phair party this Columbus Day, but we're getting a bit beyond the scope of this post -- which is about our next public local gig you can enjoy!

You are cordially invited to the Spookeasy HallowSwing Cabaret party on Friday Oct. 25th, a Prohibition era-themed Halloween Party!

It’s time to heed the bell's toll for ghastly, ghoulish and grim Halloween partying with Vancouver's Electro Swing Clubr.

Come in your best retro-horror garb: top hat & tails, flapper, Victorian asylum lunatics, boudoir, silent horror film characters, Carnivale freaks, steampunk, horror circus, Satanic burlesque, Voodoo, Day of the Dead, hospital horror, haunted forest animals, evil clowns, Halloween masks... etc.

In the Cabaret room:
* Every time the Tim Sars Band plays a show, they know it might be their last. While the band is swingin' hot, the lyrics always seem to go to the dark side. The very talented Brendan Krieg on drums and vocals, Roisin Adams on piano and vocals, and Russell Sholberg on bass are complicit in Tim's evil musical plot, and those on the dance floor shall be the victims. During their set we'll have a Hot Beat Swing Dance and Black Bottom Stomp performances.

* Burlesque retro ghost number by Riannaconda

* Sword-swallowing sideshow by Kata Sita, Human BlockHead, Bug eating and more... If this performance doesn't give you goosebumps nothing will!!!

* Haunted Go-Go Flapper Girls

* VooDoo DJs: From Montreal, Speakeasy Electro Swing gang Eliazar Hason. From the Island - AppleCat and local crew Rudy.

* In the Hideaway Room we'll have 3 bands: The Creaking Planks, Meg A Tron and Sound Architecture:

The jug band of the damned, the Creaking Planks, salvage festering songs from the mass grave of popular music, binding their festering choruses together with a thread spun from extinct instruments, making them move once again by perversely introducing the strange spark of life.

* In the Tiki room, we'll have the bad boys SideShow, Doe Ran and DJ Spaz. They're guaranteed to rattle your bones… and reanimate your zombie hearts It won’t mean a thing until the zombies start to swing!

Also expect the visuals to captivate and twist your mind with images from the past and future blended together in one cocktail.

Advance tickets are $15, $20 at the door. Here's the Facebook event announcement.

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!)

2013-08-07: Trout Lake -- One Year Later

It's been eerily quiet here, though we've actually played quite a bit of private functions since we last wrote... Matt Kennedy and Meagan's Canada Day yard party on June 30th (thanks, Lucy!); the West Van klezmer birthday party on July 14th (mazel tov Mark!) and David's wedding to Jennifer at the Fat Moose in Merville this past weekend, just outside of Cumberland on Vancouver Island -- a great time at an amazing venue (...plus perhaps most importantly of all -- the first time we've ever played on the island without totally taking a bath on ferry expenses.) Private functions, alas -- we can't pack our audience along! But here, finally, we have a gig we can tell you about -- the first in months:

It's true -- we had so much fun last year, we had to come back and play another installment in this free outdoor concert series. There's really nothing else like it. Against a backdrop of incomparable natural beauty, sixty empty chairs are set up. An extension cord is run out from the community centre, and then a band sets up a PA and plays two sets, beginning at 6:30. Somehow, from somewhere, sixty bottoms find those chairs and occupy them until the sun goes down. It's magical. Heck, it might even be fun for the audience members!

Hope to see you there! 6:30 pm, Wednesday August 7th, at Trout "John Hendry Park" Lake.

What's He Building (In There?)

Tom Waits night at the Rio has come and gone. The Wednesday morning before the show Blackbox got an excited phone call from his mother about the Planks' newspaper appearance and he had to raise his eyebrows and scratch his chin, then (as those are both inaudible) profess his bafflement verbally. It seems that though there were several higher-profile and bigger-drawing acts on the bill that night, none of them had as sufficiently Tom Waits-ian photos in their press kit, as with this proven winner Robin Hunt took of us at the Steamer Tea party back in '09.

We knew the show had good buzz on Facebook, but you always know when you appear in the paper because someone's parent will catch it. We never had an inkling! Conventional media: it hasn't quite gone away entirely, yet!

We got in early on in the show to make our mark and then make way for broader strokes. Time and again over our musical voyage people have suggested we lift up Tom's substantial mantle and promenade around beneath its considerable shade. But in tone and intention we are already similar enough to Mr. Waits' work that engaging him leaves us essentially imitators parading around in bad Tom Waits drag -- since you can't out-Tom-Waits Tom Waits and we have so far to travel to escape his iconic renditions in order to hash out a truly novel presentation. You can't just strap on the Cookie Monster voice and expect it to work. (We have a bit about the Tom Waits voice: that it's the wet sound remaining of the bark of the enraged dog after hours of baying, after the bark is gone but the evil intent remains. In human terms it's simpler, vocal chords reduced to two sticks of beef jerky slapping crudely against each other.) It had been several years since we participated, in any form, at a Tom Waits night -- Blackbox and Pavel making Misery Is The River Of The World substantially different by backing up Katie Go-Go on lead vocals, the very opposite (impatients?) of Waits.

But here we had an opportunity to indulge our penchant for the impish and perverse: as with the surreally-presented works of Al Mader, the lyrics to the ominous monologue "What's He Building" revealed a quite-conventional metered and stanza'd song structure lurking just beneath the surface, obfuscated beneath a smoky, noisy layer of free jazz. Here we could scratch that goofy Spike Jones Western Swing itch and give up the arrangement of this song that it was originally written for before going down the path less traveled. Instead of making an arrangement by distressing and tormenting the original tune, we could overcome expectations and buck the trend by cleaning it up and sending it out in its Sunday best! Detourne the creepy by making it banal!

Tom has spoken of his inspiration from the song mills of Tin Pan Alley; if not 100% achieving that evocation, we like to believe that here we at least managed to bring listeners for a foray down Aluminum Pot Lane. With, yes, a couple of obligatory nods to the standard version. For lack of an actual innocuous "thing he was building in there" (a cuckoo clock?) to produce at the end of the song, we contemplated performing with this curious construction footage rolling behind us on-screen, but ultimately we went full-bore for the musical presentation on its own:



And with that we took our bows (well, Wyoming Johnny took his) and departed the stage before the sold-out crowd, exciting many and baffling a few (with a lucky handful achieving both states simultaneously.) So let us leave Mr. Waits behind (though you may be fortunate enough to catch us revisiting this arrangement!) and we'll just note that we're currently on-track to next be performing in public back at Trout Lake (sorry, John Hendry Park) starting at 6:30 pm on August 7th. But you'll hear more about that as it approaches. Cheers, and vive la différence!

2013-05-09: East Van Moon Jam

Because we're Trying New Things this year, for the first time we'll be performing in a Field House, located in Slocan Park, a hop, skip and a jump from the 29th Avenue SkyTrain Station. The event, part of a series running most every Thursday, is named The East Van Moon Jam (moonless in our case -- a New Moon night!) and admission is by donation (suggested donation $5-10 sliding scale). We play a set and the public plays a set (that could be you!), with the whole kaboodle starting at 7 pm and wrapped by 9.  How do you like that? (A: We like it just fine, thank you very much.)

2013-03-22: Electro Swing Club pre-fest party

A late-breaking update: we open a free show tonight at the Backstage Lounge (1585 Johnston Street on Granville Island) starting ~9:30 pm. Joining us are Lily of Victoria's Hank & Lily and visiting burlesque phenom Bettina May, plus sets by DJs Phucian and Val Rudy.

More updates coming for more shows in April and beyond!

2013-01-24: Creaking Planks 8th anniversary show at the Railway!

Thursday January 24 2013

The Creaking Planks' 8th anniversary extravaganza with guests The Myrtle Family Band and The Legion Of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra

Doors at 8:30 pm. Cover: $8

For eight years now the jug band of the damned has been celebrated for its consummate deception, pulling out old-timey instruments and using them to improve on the most indispensibly disposable tunes of the 20th century. Steady on, lads! The Creaking Planks bring the sour mash to the mash-up at the down-home hoe-down. Now say that three times fast!

Two fellow acts join us on this august occasion:

Fire-Man puts the wind in the wood, and the fire in that wind. Sculpting an orchestra of demented Dr. Seuss horns wasn't enough for him; he had to also reproduce -- and then exceed! -- the sound of what that looks like. Thus, the Legion of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra.

The members of the Myrtle Family Band are bound by a tie thicker than blood. Those mysterious Myrtle Sisters boil down a thick, juicy slice of Americana to a potent syrup both sweet and salty, then apply it judiciously.

2012-12-14: SFU IT Services Holiday party -- and Sex Elf!

Our one December show was a blast, folks! Thanks to Blake, we opened up with some blisteringly dub-tastic klezmer (so as to make this the most Jewish Christmas since the first one!) and studiously ignored (even abandoning our own seasonal carol, Never Give A Puppy For Christmas, despite rehearsing it!) the reason for the season (that being... the Oppan Gangnam Style dance-off for the iTunes gift card, right?)

At least, until our closing number... a holiday reworking of Soft Cell's classic, Planks B-list stalwart "Sex Dwarf". But just in time for the holidays, refashioned into "Sex Elf":

Isn't it nice? Cider and spice...
Luring naughty children to a land of ice!

I could make a trip, and follow a star...
You'd be a natural the way you are.
I would like you on a candy cane;
I would parade you down Santa Claus Lane!
You've got the attraction, you've got the pull power;
Walk my little angel, walk my little sex elf...
We could make a scene, we'd be a team;
Singing the carols sounds like a dream.
When we hit the roof you just watch them move aside;
We will take them for a ride all right.
They all love your miniature ways --
You know what they say about small...

Sex elf!

I'm in my bobsled -- look, it's so huge!
It's big and it's gold with my dumb reindeer...
Looking to procure (... run little snowman!) Lure naughty children!
Run, my little sex elf, I feel so lonely!
Get my little workbench, make a nutcracker...
Sex elf, in a gold sled,
Making it with the dumb reindeer.

Isn't it nice? Cider and spice...
Luring naughty children to a land of ice!
Sex elf, isn't it nice?
Luring naughty children to a land of ice?

We can make an outfit for my little sex elf,
To match the gold sled and my dumb reindeer.
We'll all look so good we'll knock 'em cold --
Knocking 'em cold with myrrh and gold!
We can have playtime in my little workshop:
Naughty children, my sex elf,
And my dumb reindeer.

I would like you on a candy cane,
You can bring me down to Snowball Lane.
Sex elf, isn't it nice?
Luring naughty children to a land of ice!
Sex elf, isn't it nice?
Luring naughty children to a land of ice!

And that's got to be just about the strangest thing you'll hear until our next gig, our fabulous 8th anniversary show at the Railway Club coming up January 24th with the Legion of Flying Monkeys! But more about that soon...

2012-11-10: For The Love Of The Hippo House part II

It is hard to say anything about this show and have it be both meaningful and understood. As best we can gather, the OperaFeHk community agitates to infect the complacence of orchestral chamber music with an ounce of aggressive avant-garde surrealism, employing shock, costume, and cognitive dissonance. In short, musical terrorism in line with our own murderous tendencies. This manifestation of the series runs two nights -- we're playing on the second, at One Thousand Rivers (54 E. 4th Ave.)

2012-11-02: So You Wanna Be A Ukulele Pop Star part II

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).

2012-10-27: Parade of Lost Souls redux

Though we're not at liberty to disclose in which East side park the festivities will be proceeding in, we are happy to announce our return to the Parade of Lost Souls -- this year on the mainstage! Don't miss us at the very early (but still quite night-time) hour of 7 pm!

2012-09-27: Oktoberfest at the Railway with The End Tree, The Creaking Planks, and Fang!

It's that special time of the year when our Kishka Anthem makes sense! (from a sausage point of view at least).

The Planks will be celebrating Oktoberfest in not quite Oktober at the Railway Club this coming Thursday, September 27 with chamber squawk trio The End Tree, and well-heeled accordion rock weirdos Fang.

The Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir St., Vancouver)
$8 - 8:30pm