2010-06-13: Planks play at Velopalooza finale in Strathcona Park

Unless something goes very wrong (or, if you prefer to have a half-full view, very right), this is anticipated to be the last Creaking Planks performance on our home turf for just about three months. (Hope you got a copy of our CD to remember us by while the getting was good! Of course, our mux of live bootlegs should still be up, however long in the tooth it's getting.) The occasion is the closing party of the estimable Vancouver Velopaloloza festival of bicycles and bicycle culture, with which the CPs have been long (if loosely) associated, dating back to our performances at last year's Bicycle Music Fest, at the B:C:Clettes' Rouge et Noir Cabaret, at the RevPhil's "Bike Porn" film night and still earlier.

Speaking of "earlier", our set will be starting promptly at noon, in Strathcona Park (at Prior between Hawks and Raymur -- out behind the Casa Gelato!), for one half-hour, following a set from Buck and Jess and preceding sets by the likes of Ndidi Cascade, the Carnival Band, the Wonderful Diving Horses, The Thick of It and the Deadwax Collective.

For more information about the festival, please see their website.

2010 Winter/Spring -- What We Missed Telling You About PLUS a homophonic side project

For a season, from mid-December to mid-April, we temporarily lost control of our domain name (in fact, it switched off while I was in the middle of composing a promotional draft here!) and information about the Planks was unavailable from this site. We still played lots of great shows, however, and this is just an attempt to keep the historical record in order. Just because nothing turned up on the website didn't mean that we weren't busy little buccaneers!

2009-12-26 - the Maclean's Boxing Day party in Deep Cove.
2010-01-06 - at Bandidas' anniversary party.

2010-01-12 - Blackbox Squeezebeard on Melodies in Mind.
2010-01-14 - at Trees Organic Coffee.
2010-01-15 - featured at Beats on Broadway.

2010-01-16 - at One Two One Studios' launch.

2010-01-22 - A Night of Pleasing Squeezing with Renee de la Prade and Amber Lee Baker (the Accordion Babes), Gerry O'Brien, and Jack Garton of Maria in the Shower at Cafe Montmartre.

2010-02-26 - Dollhouse Tea Party.

2010-02-28 - Another Night of Pleasing Squeezing with Jeff Andrew, Marie-Josee Houle, Jason Webley at the LMG.

2010-03-28 - with Convertible Kids at the LMG.

2010-04-08 - with Raghu Lokanathan trio at the LMG.

2010-04-15 - Can You Hear Me Now? F*Word fundraiser at the Railway Club.

2010-04-21 - at Ubuntu LoCo at the HD Lab.

We've enjoyed a couple of shows since that we've mostly been able to keep you abreast about here, and are on the verge of splitting for the summer (one more -- set aside noon, June 13th!), but before we go we can tie some Plankian threads together with a Go-Your-Own-Waste presentation of the Music Waste festival featuring frequent CP collaborators Erin Graves and Ehren Salazar with bonafide Plank Eryn Holbrook (aka Daisy Jones-Locher of the santur) and marvelous improv outsider weirdo Aaron Read at the traditional Plank venue of the Little Mountain Gallery (195 E. 26th at Main). This Friday, June 4th! Only $5, and free for festival passholders! 8 pm 'til we're done! The most homophonic bill of the year: Erin, Ehren, Eryn and Aaron in Err On: the Side of Caution. It'll be a slice. (Actually, imagine a pizza divided into four slices, all of which are different flavours, and at least one slice of which isn't even pizza... but maybe apple pie.)

2010-05-31: Planks get good press, play Deet Street birthday party

The morning of the Cabaret of Wonders! we awoke to strange and marvelous news: the recording which we had debuted last June had garnered a positive review in Vancouver's free weekly arts paper of record, the Georgia Straight!

Attendees of early Creaking Planks shows—say, at the first Vancouver Zombiewalk after-party, where Rowan "Blackbox Squeezebeard" Lipkovits (accordion) and Lee Shoal (ukulele, kazoo) did somewhat halting covers of songs like the Kingston Trio’s "Zombie Jamboree" — could be forgiven for thinking the band a joke. A funny joke, and certainly an in-joke, but not a group you might turn to for the pleasures of polished musicianship, even of the jug-band variety. Well, here’s a surprise: as if to illustrate the truth of the saying that a fool who persists in his folly shall become wise, the Planks have benefited from playing innumerable shows locally and throughout the Pacific Northwest. While still richly swathed in irony, the traditionals on this CD (European and/or Yiddish folkie fare like "Tanz Tanz Yidelekh" and "Moscow Nights" and the absurdly deadpan covers—including a new recording of Lipkovits's delightful arrangement of the Minimalist Jug Band's "Dead Man's Pants"—are, in fact, quite beautifully conceived and credibly played.

That night, at the gobsmacking Cabaret of Wonders!, we sold our last two remaining copies of the suddenly-in-demand disc. Perhaps a reprinting will be in order -- though we may have seen the last of the limited-edition stylish metal containers.

But enough resting on our laurels! Moving on from past glories, an increasingly rump Planks (blasted summer travels -- and I'm up next!) will be wigglin' and groovin' tonight at the Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir Street) from 9:15 on with our Deet Street friends, including the slam poetry of Lara, the "folk/rock/blues stylings of the Dennis Pimm Jamtacular Experience", and our favorite -- a puppet show entitled "The Tragic Tale of Pierrot" presented by Carnival Sized Cinnamon Hearts. $7/5 for Railway members!

Bonus! A doodle from Chloe Ziner of the Mind of a Snail puppet troupe!

2010-05-27: Planks close Cabaret of Wonders

Back to the Little Mountain Gallery (195 E. 26th) for the second time this month, this time for a considerably more substantial bill -- hark, hark, the Cabaret of Wonders has come to town! This concerted return to vaudeville was spearheaded by our magical slide guitar player Dr. Steelhand and will feature the many improbable talents of, we are told...

• The incredible juggling and clown of Flying Not Falling!
• Scorching hot burlesque from 2009 Burlesque Hall of Fame Best Debut winner Melody Mangler!
• Musical hilarity from the legendary Ehren Salazar!
• Sideshow stunt brilliance from Sean Covernton!
• Mind reading by the unbelievable Dave Moses!
• Magic from Master of Ceremonies, Travis Bernhardt!

as well as a solo set from our own Blackbox Squeezebeard and a closing set from the jug band of the damned, the Creaking Planks!

Tickets at the door are a bafflingly low $15, $12 if reserved in advance!

2010-05-13: Accordion Noir presents... Still More Pleasing Squeezing

The latest installment in the Accordion Noir radio show's series of exciting alt-accordion concerts, this evening of Pleasing Squeezing (Thurs May 13th) returns to Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main Street at 28th Ave) with an exciting triple-bill: not only does the jug band of the damned return to its old squeezing grounds, but joining us are Fang, the new duo side-project of Barbara Adler (who last played with us there at last year's memorable Accordion Noir Festival launch party) and Winnipeg's fabulous Ingrid Gatin.  We play for tips at Montmartre, so you have no excuse not to join us and our joyful noise!

2010-05-08: Planks join Story and Cud Eastbound from PEI

Trying to get back into the swing of things, one typically strange Planks engagement has already slipped through our nets -- but here's our next show!  An early one, 6-8 pm this Saturday, at the Little Mountain Gallery (195 E. 26th at Main, where we've had so many good times.)  You pays your cover, you gets to enjoy not only the jug band of the damned but also (border delays willing) headliner of the 2009 Accordion Noir Festival, squeezepunk Sam "Story" Wright from PEI, as well as her traveling partner on the "Lost Tour", Cud Eastbound.

2010-04-11: Pirate party at the HD Lab with the Planks, Ursula, The Rough Sea and Jeff Andrew!

After a long and eventful absence, our website is back just in time for us to tip you off about a show we're playing tonight! Sometime soon we'll do a bit of looking back to make you netizens want to eat your hat in regret of what you've missed over the past few months, but in the meantime, there's no better time to jump right back in -- we've got plenty of shows in April and May.

We're the home team for tonight's show, with Jeff Andrew, Ursula and (part of) the Rough Sea all having been on the road for some time weaving and wending as the trade winds blew them. These strange currents deliver us all up (after many changes of plans over the past few months) at the HD Lab tonight, Sunday, April 11th, where the old Memelab formerly was: 1814 Pandora Street, upstairs, right by Free Geek. (Take a left at Chicken Death!) We'll be headlining (last), but things are expected to generally get underway around 8 pm.

And now, a poster!