2012-04: Stupid Tricks for Tracks on Tracks

To demonstrate our tremendous suitability as candidates for inclusion on the CBC's "Tracks on Tracks" musical train tour to Toronto in June, (and specifically, our eminent "good fit" as parties deserving of your vote to progress through the second round of crowd polling -- which you can, ahem, corroborate at http://cbc.polldaddy.com/s/new-survey-3 ) we've been going on a whirlwind blitz through the albums of imaginary photos of rail-related gigs the Creaking Planks never played -- but might have.

Don't think we didn't hear you snickering behind our back at how safe and conservative our last two rail visit photos were. Those horrific disasters were done with and we were just ambulance-chasing, you claimed, visiting the site of tragedy after the fact to safely mug at the camera like Langley teens taking Instagram shots of each other in front of a previously burned-out cop car at Vancouver's Stanley Cup Riots! (Yes, that was oddly specific.) Well, we fired up our Creaking Time Machine again to see about pushing the boundaries and came up with something a little more "extreme" for you:

One of our coldest gigs, to be sure, and the sound check was hellacious -- we had the hardest time achieving a balanced stage mix in the monitors. And the green room was, as you can see, quite draughty. But at the end of the night we each took home a cool fifty dollars in cold cash, so it evened out.

2012-04: Creaking Planks for Tracks on Tracks -- Time Tracks!

Not content with our previous travel through time, in search of grand historical train trips from which to draw inspiration for our upcoming prospective rail voyage, we visited Paris' grand Gare de l'Ouest in 1895. Wacky hijinks ensued. I don't know how this happened, I guess we're just not well-trained.

What a ruckus... it sure was hard to hear ourselves in the monitors! Why all the trains on the brain, anyhow? Well, you may have heard that we're in the running to participate in a little contest which might send us on a musical voyage by rail to the sunny shores of Toronto! This prospect has us so excited, well, to be honest, it's short-circuited our brains a little bit. Anyhow -- would you consider voting for us? (We're down in the "T" section, for "T"he Creaking Planks.)

2012-04: Tracks on Tracks contest -- second round!

It's true, folks, somehow we garnered enough votes to ascend through the ranks of the 300 applicant bands and ended up among the top 50 in the second round. What this means is that we need for you to vote for us -- again! -- over at cbc.polldaddy.com/s/new-survey-3 !! Thanks a lot for voting us in the first round, and we hope for your return electoral business.

If we'd realised that we'd need to be campaigning for a second round, we probably wouldn't have exhausted all of our colour Planks-on-trains photos in the last post. However, tipped off to the new, ongoing nature of the business, we hopped in the ol' Creaking Time Machine (did you know that drummers kept time?), and snapped off a few more.

You can't tell, but Pavel is actually incorporating the fallen locomotive here into part of his kit. What can we say, we brought the house down.

Creaking Planks... on a train? Tracks on Tracks contest!

As you can see, the Creaking Planks have been on a train before:



... that was back in '09, outside Longevity John's Duncan Garage Showroom on the Flogged 'Round the Fleet tour. We look good in a locomotion context! (These glamour shots were snapped by Wyoming Johnny's pappy, who knows his way around a camera!)



We had fun hanging out with Raghu Lokanathan on a chock-blocked train car in Valemount the following summer, but since then our days have been disappointingly rail-free. Individual Planks have more than a little train experience, both cross-Canada and south along the West Coast (and let's not bring Euro-rail into this particular conversation) but never since have we all been on a train together. (Maybe a SkyTrain, which isn't quite as glamourous.)

Well, the "Tracks On Tracks" contest the CBC and VIA Rail are presenting is here to change all that! If we're one of the three winners, as determined by... profuse fan-voting! ... we could be sent on a multi-stop trip to Toronto, playing music and being filmed all the way. Comparisons abound to the 2003 documentary about the 1970 Festival Express train trip, except that this edition would have significantly more Canadian content... and of course rail travel wasn't strictly for the rich back then. (And BC Rail... well, don't get me started.)

TL;DR? Click here to vote for us and up to two other bands that you think would make this train trip one for the ages. Then cross your fingers, knock on wood and see if you can get your friends to do the same! If the chips fall in our corner, we might well be posting new photos of Creaking Planks On A Train in July!

2012-04-10: Two great shows in one evening

North, south, east, west, we're the jug band that's the best... at tightly scheduling in the most performances into one evening.

Southwest, we start off playing to your corner at the Sidney & Gertrude Zack Gallery of the Jewish Community Centre (950 W. 41st), sounding off like a shofar for a half-hour at 7 pm to ring in the latest instalment of the Pandora's Collective's Word Whips, wherein local poets share works written in response to the photos of Judi Angel's Cambodian journey in the exhibition up there TIKUN OLOM: HEALING THE WORLD.

AN EVENING OF MUSIC, ART & POETRY IN THE GALLERY
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012, 7-9 pm
Sidney & Gertrude Zack Gallery,  JCC of Greater Vancouver, 950 West 41st Avenue
Free Admission, Everyone is welcome.

This event features THE CREAKING PLANKS as well as Pandora’s Collective poets inspired by the photographs in TIKUN OLOM: HEALING THE WORLD, a photography exhibit of ‘people and places’ in S. E. Asia. The photos were taken by JUDI ANGEL, while on a three month AJWS volunteer placement in Cambodia.

Co-hosts, BONNIE NISH and PAMELA BENTLEY, ROWAN LIPKOVITS and THE CREAKING PLANKS along with poets, FRAN BOURASSA, MAUREEN EGAN, TIMOTHY SHAY, CHRISTY HILL and DIANE TUCKER will dish up an inspiring & entertaining potpourri of sounds, rhythms, poetry and prose.

There will be time for the audience to participate by writing to the exhibit and reciting their poems during the ‘open mic’ portion of the evening. This event is presented by the Sidney & Gertrude Zack Gallery with Pandora’s Collective and the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library and made possible by the Yosef Wosk Poetry Initiative Grant. For more information, contact Reisa Schneider reisa@jccgv.bc.ca or 604 638 7277

Then we're off to the northeast -- into the Prophouse (1636 Venables at Commercial Drive) to take our belated spin as the features of this month's occurrence of the Vancouver DIstrict Labour Council cabaret. Rumour has it we'll be teaching attendees a folk song after our set there starts at 8 pm!

Don't feel that you have to slavishly adhere to your neighbourhood -- maybe the crosstown trip would be good for you! And maybe you'll enjoy one set by us so much, you'll wish you could have had twice as much! Well, on this one night, you can.

2012-04-07: Big Screen Barrelhouse II

Nearly three years after our stint at the first installment of this series, the Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway at Commercial Drive) swings back into action with another night of East Van bands playing its stage, this time all providing soundtracks to silent film screenings behind them. All the major players are back from last time, plus more more more!

Instead of working in tandem with the magic of Dr. T as we did before, this time we'll be doing music and foley for a black and white animated classic on the theme of responsible libation, which will this time be possible at the Rio! Your $10 (in advance from brownpapertickets, $12 at the door) doesn't just get you these filmic interpretations from some of East Van's most delightfully twisted musical minds, but also an electro-swing dance party at the end!

Depending on how things go, we may have to get together an expanded set to allow us to provide soundtrack to a whole film festival at some point! And speaking of how things went, congrats to the Lunchgroup Heavy Industries' raising of over $1100 at last week's fundraiser show.

Bonus! For your enjoyment, a picture-in-picture presentation of the Creaking Planks providing a soundtrack and foley effects for the 1928 Felix the Cat short Woos Whoopee, performed at this event to great acclaim.

2012-03-29: Creaking Planks Conquer Cancer

Well, we must all do our part. Perhaps remorseful at their petrochemical contributions to our carcinogenic milieu, the hotly-disputed Enbridge corporation has, since 2008, also presented the annual Ride to Conquer Cancer, a fundraising bike ride. The Lunchgroup Heavy Industries consortium, including our own Daisy Jones-Locher, is participating in that ride and in the fundraising. To, er, fundraise for the fundraising, we are performing two sets of our best whimsical music at a benefit dinner at Amber Jack’s Tap House & Grill in Surrey (at 9850 King George Highway, or just next to the King George SkyTrain station.) Tickets are only $20, and include dinner! (You can also donate to their cause even if you aren't able to attend.)

(Fans of Daisy-Jones in her other musical incarnations are also invited to the 7:30 pm supper show at the Railway Club this Wednesday, Mar 14, to hear her latest project, The Inference.)