2011-10-10: HPX

One further omission: typically the Creaking Planks send a serious (well, as serious as we get) posse to Portland over Canadian Thanksgiving / American Columbus Day for the annual Horace Phair house party, to fill its basement with a raucous ruckus. This year, despite much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, all we could manage to field was our fiddler, Wyoming Johnny. Still, he came equipped with his axe and a copy of favorite Planks singalongs, so "we" could still represent on some level.

creakingplanks Rumour (and, well, @mwkelley) has it "7 drunks + 1 banjo + 1 trombone" could not replace us. But were they too drunk, or not enough?

mwkelley @UnwashedMass It occurs to me that our caterwauling of the Planks songbook last night may've amounted to actual character defamation.

Anyhow, naught to commemorate our absence with, but we can re-share our Planks live bootleg mix for @horacephair '08

At least he cut a sharp figure! The camera never lies: that set was one for the ages.

2011-10-30: A little supper music

The Organizing Centre for Social and Economic Justice (a mouthful, but you try saying "OCSEJ" -- actually, usually we call it just "the O.C.") is an eminently worthwhile local umbrella organization perhaps better known for its projects such as Food Security FACTS, Bitter Melons, People's Health Radio and the Vancouver chapter of the Bus Riders' Union. They aren't all for-profit ventures, and neither are we all of the time, so we're lending our strange musical taste to help fortify a fundraiser dinner they're throwing at the Heritage Hall Sunday, October 30th. We'll be sharing the stage with the female chorus The Larks, and everyone will be enjoying a North African dinner. Doors at 6, dinner at 7, music at 8:30. Individual tickets are $20 and costumes are encouraged! Further details over here on their site.

2011-10-29: Carnival of Shadows II w/ Jeff Andrew and Tarran the Tailor

Because Hallowe'en comes but once a year (but Hallowe'en weekend is three nights long) it's the profound pleasure of the jug band of the damned to present our spooky show for a second night in a row, next up Saturday, October 29th at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive) from 8-11 pm with our ominous pals Tarran the Tailor and Jeff Andrew, who we did this same gig with this time last year. (This time, though, he'll actually get to play!) $10 for the funnest unofficial Parade of Lost Souls afterparty ever!

(Turn up early and you get to ring in Daisy Jones-Locher's birthday from 6:30 on!)

Bonus! It was a heck of a show, and here's a gallery of photos from it! Thanks to Graham Ballantyne for snapping the shutter again...

2011-10-28: Creaking Planks at Velowe'en

Another fantastic free Hallowe'en show for Critical Mass patrons ($10 for everyone else, still a steal at that price!) the Revelry Society reunites the Creaking Planks with the Balkan hurricane Mezamazing at the Grandview Legion (2205 Commercial Drive) from 9 pm 'til late for the 3rd annual Witches and Warlocks Masquerade Ball! Let's see if we can sell out the house's supply of drinks in the first 45 minutes again! The line-up also includes a set by the Funk Hunters and a DJ set from Nils Von Hahn of Beats Without Borders.

2011-10-20, 21, 22 ... we lost track of them!

Like the leaves falling from a tree, so are the opportunities to share music in that brief window between Labour Day in Vancouver and the onset of the cold, wet season. We didn't even have a chance to give you a heads-up about all of them... but here we can quickly note our rump (duo!) performances featuring at the Music on Main open mic at the Little Mountain Neighbourhood House Thurs, Oct 20th and at Trees Organic Coffee Fri, Oct 21st as well as a livelier Planks Trio performance the third night in a row, back at the Jericho Garrison Combined Mess Sat Oct 22nd for a private tasting of numerous craft beers.

But enough dwelling on that three-gig weekend -- we have another, very spooky, one coming up -- and if we tell you about it, you just might come out to some of the shows!

2011-10-15: Oktoberfest in Oktober!

It's been a while since our last visit to Malone's Urban Drinkery, but though we were celebrating a slightly different holiday, you've got to admit it was about the same time of year. This time, we'll be the ones dressing up -- in leiderhosen! -- for an Oktoberfest that won't soon be forgotten. The Vancouver chapter of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) takes beer very seriously, and as it so happens that's the critical element of this particular occasion! Fortunately, Malone's are rising to meet them with a festive menu including pretzels, schnitzel, sauerkraut, bratwurst and potato pancakes!

Hopefully things will be tipsy and gemütlichkeit enough for our set to make a little sense through the cheery beery haze, mashing up Planks standards with Oktoberfest beer-hall anthems, and when the yodeling contest starts up, that's when you'll really know you're in the right place.

The whole event (events I should say, pairing Oktoberfest with Harvestfest) runs from noon to six pm, an ale-fancier's dream for a $25 admission (advance ticket purchase!)

Update: The Daughters of Beer felt The excellent beer paired well with the Planks “jugband of the damned” covers of Major Tom and Love Cats and we're inclined to agree!

2011-09-25: Planks close Accordion Noir Festival with Duckmandu

We opened for him last year at the Cotati accordion festival and now we're going to do it again at the 4th annual Accordion Noir festival -- San Francisco's infamous Duckmandu, the man who married the unhip squeezebox to the entire back catalogue of the Dead Kennedys, is joining us for the fest's closing party Sun, Sept 25th at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive). Show $10, starts at 8 pm!

Now, enjoy one of the strangest posters we've ever had:

Update: would you believe that Duckmandu got held back at the border by Canadian Customs? The whole festival pitched in side-acts playing a song or two to help fill the gap -- Barbara Adler, Katheryn Petersen, Geoff Berner. Sadly, the chaotic scene depicted in this unique poster would remain merely an artist's fevered vision, never realised.