2012-09-14: ACCORDION DANCE PARTY at the 5th annual Accordion Noir Festival

The jug band of the damned (that's us!) return again to the Grandview Legion (upstairs at 2205 Commercial Drive) for our annual appearance at the Accordion Noir Festival of all squeezings dark and gritty (this is their 5th annual! Yow, outta sight!) Hopefully this party will simmer only slightly under the fever pitch of our last AN Fest appearance there, and perhaps be a bit less explicit than our last visit to the Grandview Legion.

We're joined by two other East Van all-star bands, High Society (who we've been waiting a year to play with) and the Flying Folk Army, recently reconvened after a 7-year hiatus, for what's been described as "a night of bellows-driven foot-scooting and boogying". So bring your dancing shoes and come prepared to cut a rug!

The jug band of the damned THE CREAKING PLANKS (ab)use old-timey instruments to pull modern pop music back in time, kicking and screaming, to a folksy bygone era with more dancing and less chin-stroking.

The soul groove of HIGH SOCIETY screams out joyful into the night and leaves you drenched in sweat and eager for more. Chelsea Johnson and Adam Farnsworth will be flipping coins to see who has to give up squeezing their heart out to give the other one a chance.

Because politics don't have to be dull, the FLYING FOLK ARMY has come off of a 7-year hiatus to remind people why music that matters... matters! Alison Jenkins rocks the box here while her crack squad of rebel folkies display precision musical maneuvres.

Thanks to Julie the Bruce for the accordionista avatar artwork.

2012-08-01: Creaking Planks at Trout Lake!

Tonight tonight tonight for one night only! The jug band of the darned travels to the lovely climes of Trout Lake Community Centre, the east side of the big building in beautiful John Hendry Park, to play two 45 minute sets of music the whole family can enjoy outdoors starting at 6:30 pm! It's part of a series of Wednesday concerts and who knows, if it goes well we might come by again! As Ludwicka lePearl says, come for the music and stay for the full moon!

2012-07-06: Madness & Mobility opening at the Gallery Gachet

There's our old friend Carmen Papalia at the head of that conga line (actually it's Blind Field Shuttle, a non-visual art walk -- read on!), from many a Memewar night at the Railway Club and a certain notorious Bowen Island summer camp sing-along that had a room full of blind children intoning Jonathan Coulton's chorus "We're not unreasonable / No one's gonna eat your eyes" all weekend long.

Carmen is part of this art exhibit (fully subtitled The Art of Inclusion), curated by Gabriella Solti, as well as works by Melodie Acero, Dean Bennett, and Lavinia Chu. And we are playing at its opening, before rushing off the Cafe Deux to play with the Strangled Darlings, a show that has the Straight excited. 7 pm at the Gallery Gachet, folks! 88 E. Cordova!

PS, mazel tov again to Bob and Elizabeth for having us back a month later for the wedding reception for their friends and neighbours on Gabriola Island! Truly one for the books.

2012-07-06: Planks and Portland's Strangled Darlings

The jug band of the damned meets its match in a Pacific northwest grudge match with Portland's purveyors of "death joy groove", the Strangled Darlings from Portland, Oregon. They'll be rocking out on cello and mandolin, like the Winks -- only different. At least, a different different. (And no, they're not what we get after strangling Oh My Darling.)

9 pm to midnight, Friday July 6th, at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive). There will be a cover, but it won't be much.

2012-06-21: Make Music Day

A local version of France's "Fete de la Musique", Make Music Day sees musicians setting up in public places and performing by the truckload. Not a band to be frightened away by nonstandard metrics, we had to throw our hat in the ring and consequently are scheduled to be performing in a small but passionate format just in front of the Oriental Rug Bazaar (at 347 Water Street) from 6:15-7 pm, sandwiched between sets by Elvis Was a Blonde and Marry Me. The last time we performed in Gastown was at a tattoo parlour and we thought that would be as strange as performance venues got. Think again!

Apologies to anyone who turned out to catch us at the Bike to Work Week wrap party. At the last minute, Blackbox was called aside to help deliver his firstborn. A good excuse, but one you don't get to use very often. (Lightnin' Hopkins, on the other hand...)

Hats off also to retired (reformed?) Plank Orange-Eye Sabertooth Skipper for producing a miniature Plank (splinter? 2x4?) of her own a couple of weeks earlier, and to Daisy Jones-Locher for successfully reaching Seattle on her bicycle and, with her cycling team Lunchgroup Heavy Industries, successfully raising ~$17 000 for cancer research.

2012-06-01: the Creaking Planks wrap Bike to Work Week

Despite a lack of any formal connection beyond, er, people-powered fun, the Creaking Planks have had intersections with all sorts of interesting bicycle-culture events here in town: Velofusion, Velopalooza, Bikesummer, Critical Mass, B:C:Clettes... even opening for a very strange screening of bicycle pornography, from which Wyoming Johnny may never quite recover. Icing this cake, this Friday (June 1st), a contingent of Creaking Planks will be acoustically giving 'er down at the Olympic Village plaza (at Manitoba and Athletes Way or, otherwise put: by the statues of the giant birds) in celebration of another Bike To Work Week successfully pulled off by the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition. We'll be holding forth between 5 and 6:30 pm! Consider rolling by along the False Creek seawall and saying hi!

Update: called on account of delivering a baby! We warned 'em!

Also, a very happy birthday to Allan Macinnis, who had the Planks open for his birthday screening of Death Watch at the VanCity Theatre Sunday May 27th. Many happy returns!

2012-05-25: Pirate Party

This Friday night, the jug band of the damned hits the Grandview Legion (2205 Commercial) to lend some real dance music played on real instruments to the Revelry Society's annual Pirate Party, a Critical Mass afterparty. Other acts include: "Timothy Wisdom, Lola Lush, DJ Wellsie, Scantily Clad Clowns' EveKnevil, the Liana dancers, Oker, Bombus and a pirate peep show. Your MC of the evening will be the queen of the pirates Jessica peg leg Mansoon."

Doors at 9 pm. Tickets are $15, or $10 in advance from Highlife Records or revelrysociety.org

The organizers stress: "Please, no ninjas."

Also, an unrelated thanks to Bob and Elizabeth for having us play their wedding at the Peretz Centre on the 20th and showing us the length of their ... commitment and affection! We've portrayed a Jewish wedding band twice on stage now but this was the first time it was for reals. The gags and clowning made us feel almost as if we had been magically transported to Chelm itself, and of course having drag kings and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada as side acts never hurts!