2009-09-11: Creaking Planks headline the second annual Accordion Noir Festival's launch party at Cafe Montmartre

We had so much fun closing last year's Accordion Noir Festival in the middle of the night (sold out, line-up down the stairs and out on the sidewalk) that we just had to open a supplementary stage at this year's festival to give us another chance to play at it (while opening some room on the mainstage the next day for Story and Jason Webley.)  Seeking some squeezy acts with smaller stage footprints and performers with lower individual profiles in this town, we managed to secure a very exciting line-up of some of Vancouver's choicest bellowers:  Andy Fielding, Dawn Zoe (Alchemy), Tina Tew (Wintermitts), Barbara Adler (of the Fugitives), Joanna Chapman-Smith, the Balkan brass razzmatazz of Mezamazing at what can charitably be described as long last... and the Planks close again, because why mess with a tradition of such success?  We'll be starting at 8 pm and seeing just how much we can squeeze in by 1 am.  We play for tips at Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main at 28th Ave.) but a suggested donation would be seven dollars for all these great acts!

2009-09-09: Planks at Fringe Festival Gala afterparty

The Planks are chuffed to be playing (from 10:30 pm until... late!) at the St. Ambroise Fringe Bar immediately following the Vancouver Fringe Festival's Opening Gala.  Our performance will be situated in the Agro Cafe (1363 Railspur Alley) on Granville Island with the rest of the Fringe Festivities.  Head-scratchingly, we won't be there on one of the nights it hosts the Plank Club, but I suppose we guarantee one of our own.  We haven't been involved with the Fringe at all since being a backup band in 2005's Jew! A Musical so it's a nice opportunity to touch base with our roots and commiserate with actors crying in their drinks over the latest round of arts cuts.

2009-08-29: Creaking Planks at Bicycle Music Festival!

In keeping with our long association with the B:C:Clettes, we're playing an outdoor set this lovely morning/noon in New Brighton Park (... "near the pool") for the Ginger Ninjas' traveling "Pleasant Revolution" Bicycle Music Festival. Our set should run roughly 11:30 am -12:15. A tentative schedule follows:

New Brighton Park
9:30-10:30 Yoga
10:40- 11:20 Cello Joe
11:30- 12:15 Creaking Planks

Crab Park
2:00-2:30 Aunts and Uncles
2:35-3:05 Stitch Craft
3:05-3:30 B:C:Clettes (Dance Performance)

Vancouver Museum
5:30-6:00 none
6:00-6:30 Bear Dyken
6:30-7:10 Ginger Ninjas
7:15-8:00 Orkestarslivovica
8:05-9:00 Little J

Edit! Well after the fact, we turned up in their video document of their trip! How nice to see the extended intro for "Numbers and Names" appreciated!

2009-08-08: Creaking Planks with Raghu Lokanathan and the Joey Only Outlaw Band at Cafe Deux Soleils

Having been exposed to his striking work at ArtsWells past, when the Creaking Planks learned that songwriter Raghu Lokanathan had moved from Prince George down to Victoria we just had to invite him to do a show with us there, which went off like a house on fire back in early 2008.  He helped us with some travel complications as best he could as well as delivering an immaculate set.  Now another ArtsWells is upon us and immediately following, this musical man will be in our general vicinity (featuring at the Jericho Folk Club Tuesday August 4th as well as on the Accordion Noir radio show Friday Aug 7th from 9:30-10:30 pm.)  (And here that radio session is!)  Needless to say, we're champing at the bit to present him to the hairy hippies of East Van, and have dovetailed a couple of plans in order to do so the evening of Saturday, August 8th, at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive).  The Planks will be tasty sandwich filling in the middle, followed by a dense slice of psychedelic country punk from the Joey Only Outlaw Band!

A tip o' the hat to postermeister Daisy-Jones Locher!

2009-08-01: Creaking Planks at the ArtsWells Festival

Blackbeard Squeezebox has been several years running with his bit on the side, the Joey Only Outlaw Band, but finally this year he gets to reconvene with his old Living Closet cronies with the jug band of the damned in tow!  ArtsWells, BC's biggest little indie arts festival takes place over the BC Day long weekend in the little town of Wells, BC (and neighbouring historical Barkerville) in the Cariboo, from Friday July 31st through Monday August 3rd.  Sharing various stages with us at various times are a whole bevy of buddies both accordion-slinging and non-; a partial look at the stellar line-up this year includes such friends as Ana Bon-Bon, Blackberry Wood, Geoff Berner, Jess Hill and Raghu Lokanathan (we'll be playing a show with him in town the following week) and luminaries such as Fish & Bird, Linda McRae, Rae Spoon and the Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra!

We're slated to be performing an afternoon set at the Barkerville venue Saturday (2-3 pm) and in the downstairs of the main hall Monday afternoon (3-4 pm) but you'll be finding various and sundry Planks all over the festival grounds, nosing out jams and sating our hunger for knowledge at workshops like the accordions in the round session Saturday at noon or Dr. Steelhand's slide guitar workshop Sunday morning (11 am-1 pm) in the school classroom!  (Our regular hunger will be sated by Martin in the kitchen, no doubt!)

2009-07-25: Creaking Planks close the Hidden Agenda #25 Variety Show Spectacular

We've been scattered in recovery from our trip to Vancouver Island at the end of June (expect a recap post soon!), but in honour of another visit from Becky Johnson of Sweetie Pie Press, EC Salazar and the goons of the Little Mountain Studios (195 E. 26th Avenue at Main) have gotten together with us to put on another program of mixed nuts including:

* Dave Shumka
* Ryan Beil
* Officer Mazaltoff, The Beat Cop Poet
* the charming crafty wares of Sweetie Pie Press
* and Unflattering Portraits by Reverend Aitor (by donation)

All that plus a closing set from the jug band of the damned, in what has practically been our only show together since the month began! Suggested donation $5.

2009-06-26 through 30th: the Flogged Round the Fleet tour of Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast

The jug band of the damned finally has some copies of its longago-recorded CD ("Flogged Round the Fleet") together in its swell limited-edition, first-run deluxe packaging edition, and by gum, we aim to seed the entire periphery of the Georgia Strait with them! One gig suggested a circumnavigation and so we're spending a long long weekend making a round trip to introduce some sleepy island-dwellers to our unique brand of demented traditional music new and old.

• Friday, June 26th, Victoria, Solstice Festival for the Folk


• Saturday, June 27th, TBA


• Sunday, June 28th - an afternoon show at the Duncan Garage Showroom, then an evening show following the B:C:Clettes at Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park


• Monday, June 29th - an afternoon show at the Gumboot Cafe in Roberts Creek, then an evening show at the Wild Bistro in Gibsons


• Tuesday, June 30th - a return home at Cafe Montmartre in Vancouver

The first stop is a return to the Solstice Cafe (529 Pandora Ave, Victoria), the site of our standing-room-only Island debut last Spring, sandwiched (with David Simard and Free Range, aka Danielle LP, Meg O'mally Iredale, Marly Iredale and Shanti Bremer) in the middle of three smashing nights of splendiferous Festival performances -- and just the start of a long weekend of Vancouver Island wanderings for us!

Saturday is necessarily under wraps until we finalise the remaining brass tacks, but keep posted for updates!

Sunday Longevity John squeezes us in to his Duncan Garage Showroom (330 Duncan Street, Duncan) for an afternoon show running 2-4 pm, $10, and I promise we will squeeze back. Later that evening, around 8 pm, we follow the B:C:Clettes, our red and black sistren of the bike dance community, for a third encounter for the benefit of the patrons of the Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park campground (near Parksville) at the amphitheatre there. Unplugged! Wheels will roll. Helmets will shake!

Monday, we make good on a longstanding threat to descend upon Roberts Creek's Gumboot Cafe (1057 Roberts Creek Rd), logging an afternoon set there from 4-6 pm, then we mosey along to the Wild Bistro (682 Gibsons Way) in Gibsons to play out the evening from 8-10.

Tuesday night we shake the last of the sand off our saltwater-stained sleeves and take to the Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main Street) stage back in Vancouver to play late into the night (as the following day is a statutory holiday - Canada Day!) and celebrate the 25th wedding anniversary of Blackbox Squeezebeard's parents.