2011-07-30: Creaking Planks back at ArtsWells!

At the time the performance was a bit of a headache -- a beautiful historical chapel in a refurbished ghost town, but one mysteriously without electricity to even out our disparate sound levels. (Little did we realise, the entire district was temporarily without power. Worst of all, the ice cream in the coolers was starting to melt and being given away for free!) But we've gotten a lot of mileage out of that set, first on the inside cover of last year's festival program, and now again, thrusting us front and centre on Page A8 of the July 22, 2011 edition of the Vancouver Sun:

Did You Know: The Creaking Planks are a duo? It's going to be very awkward breaking the news to the other dozen or so of us... I suppose this is why it is so vital we publish our book, that at least one other print source compete with this bold claim from our newspaper of record. That said, it's nice to be considered the epitome of what a Vancouver-based folk ensemble looks like. (And it will be nice to Mike Fawcett to get credit for that photograph as well.)

We'll be playing at the ArtsWells festival this year at 8:30 pm at the Downstairs Hall on Saturday, July 30th. Unlike last year, we're not playing any other shows up there, but the festival is of course very worthwhile with sets from our friends in Blackberry Wood, Fish & Bird, the Joey Only matrimonial band, Raghu Lokanathan and Jeremy Stewart, Nice Verdes, Namgar, Mind of a Snail, High Society, Linda McRae, T. Nile, Jeff Andrew, John Pippus, and of course Geoff Berner.

Blackbox Squeezebeard (or, after last year's fundraising depilation, "Airbeard") will be hosting the Accordions in the Round session noon to 1 on the 31st also at the Downstairs Hall, and the Rev. Lucian Rumblebucket will be teaching a washtub bass workshop at 2 pm in the school.

But first, we're playing for a private wedding party July 23rd!

...

2011-06: We got caught by surprise

One of the classic benchmarks of the Creaking Planks is that we know we'll have an awesome time if we're not the strangest thing on the bill. (Don't get me wrong, we also have a great time when we are the strangest act, which we overwhelmingly are, but anything stranger than us really demands sitting up and paying attention to.) This past weekend we had the pleasure of enjoying two such shows on two consecutive days!

Saturday, June 25th, the Creaking Planks had their second performance in their stripped-down Royal Doilies format, playing without Airbeard, who was away hosting at the Campbell Bay Music Festival. This saw an unruly handful of Planks assemble at W2 to celebrate the book launch of The Amaranthian Testament, illustrated by the namer of the Planks, one Olo J. Milkman. Joining us on the bill were numerous experimental noise and video performance acts we hadn't crossed paths with since our very early days, as well as Vancouver weirdo music elder statesman Veda Hille. Sometime well after the show was done, the sound checks finished.

(Video by Joel Snowden)

Sunday, June 26th was Vancouver's first installment of the Mini Maker Faire phenomenon, a little slice of nerdy projects and Burning Man installations getting their test-run before the annual Playa marathon. Between such monumental pieces as the gramophone rail car, the world's largest tricycle and the shipping container gallery could be found tables full of hackers programming LEDs and lasers for good rather than evil. In the far corner outside was a musical stage featuring numerous peculiar and atmospheric acts, and toward the end of the program the Creaking Planks took the stage to show the Makers what we'd made out of some of their favorite songs. Highlights included having the fireball-spitting truck next to us spouting geysers of flame while we performed Peter Schilling's Major Tom, some operator punching instructions in to its Fisher-Price keyboard console in time to the beat. (Boy, playing next to that thing sure got hot, though!)

No photos yet, though it would have made for a killer music video.

2011-06-14: Planks open for Winnipeg's F-Holes

Our good times have been scattered as of late, few and far between but all big, fun times (as in, occasions of large enjoyment.) Some of them have been in unorthodox formats (and for us, that's saying something), and others have just crept up on us while we were consumed with other details (ask Airbeard about his musical Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, for instance!)

Case in point, we had a lot of fun at the Gastown Tattoo Parlour's grand opening Sat, May 28 -- one of the very, very few kinds of rooms we'd never played before. But you never found out about it until now. Well, do go check them out -- even when they don't host damnable jug bands, their ink is something quite special.

We're not going to let tonight quite squeak on by -- at the Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir, upstairs) from likely 9 on we'll be opening for another of our new Manitoban friends, Winnipeg's wholly decently-named F-Holes, delivering a heady mix of gypsy jazz, zippy dixieland, and viper blues. We've never played a gig east of BC, but at this rate we'll never need to -- they keep on coming to us!

Now, get your mind out of the gutter -- F-holes are the resonating sound holes in stringed instruments, artily summarized in this old Man Ray 1924 print Le Violon d'Ingres:

But we threw together a poster that includes a few more details:

In short, come on down tonight and join us for an evening of getting completely F'd up!

2011-06-04: The Creaking Planks Big Dangerous Show in the Wild

The wilds of East Vancouver's Prophouse Cafe, that is...

On June 4th, the Planks will take over the back showroom of the Prophouse Cafe (to be found just west of Commercial Drive, on Venables) with special musical guests the Kingsgate Chorus, and special magical guest Travis Bernhardt (Dr. Steelhand's secret identity).  This show is not officially part of Music Waste, or even Go Your Own Waste, but you can pretend it is if that will encourage you to come out and have some fun!

2011-05-22: Masquerading as the Royal Doilies for the Queen's Birthday

An honest to goodness recap (because if it's not listed here, it didn't happen...or is that, if it's not listed on Facebook it didn't happen? anyways, this happened in both places, so it did indeed actually happen in real life, as well as on the internet). A stripped down, pseudo-bluegrass, four-piece version of the Planks, featuring rotating vocalists and a wet-behind-the-ears accordion player, were pleased to take to the stage for the Queen's birthday, sharing the spotlight (or at least disco ball) with a truly eclectic host of local and visiting acts.  And to top things off (before the hardcore electronic music hoe-down) our very own Ludwicka LePearl took to the stage for a jam session with Boogieman and Holzkopf. Huzzah and restrained royal hand waves all around!

2011-04-30: Planking at the Spartacus anniversary

It's true! Everyone's favorite anarchist bookstore Spartacus Books is having a small anniversary party down at 684 E. Hastings, and a small number (possibly very small) of Planks will be down there at 6 to play some pseudo-political music. But you don't have to wait that long -- things kick off with a 10 am pancake breakfast, and there'll be other entertainment in effect over the course of the day including Katie and the Lichen, Anita Sparrow, and our friends in the Gram Partisans.

2011-04-29: Too Much Of A Good Time!

This show tonight is so packed, why complicate it with extraneous words? The Creaking Planks open at the Backstage Lounge (on Granville Island -- 1585 Johnson St.) tonight for three good sets of friends in the Knackers, the Whiskey Dicks, and of course Mezamazing. It's been too long since we've played with any of them, and here we get to play with ALL of them! The show kicks off at 8:30 pm, play running in the attached theatre permitting, and we'll be the first band up. Sometime well after midnight, the musical death march of joy will wrap up.

And isn't this a killer poster? Really, aside from Galiano Island, where we're concerned there are no competing places to hold a candle to being at this show tonight. Fortunately, we don't have to choose!