Alex “Scruffy Bigbass” Cieslik, who once had a painting stolen while playing guitarrón with Planks at that fateful Rouge et Noir cabaret, hasn’t been seen much in a Plankian context since our Gibsons visit of June ‘09… but does have a new body of visual work ready to present to the public’s scrutiny at the old Little Mountain Gallery (195 E. 26th Ave.) we’ve all logged so many hours into propping up. It’s been Quite Some Time (two and a half years?!) since the last time we played an art opening there, but these strange little gigs were positively fundamental in the development of the Creaking Planks. I highly recommend playing art openings on a regular basis to all new bands!

The exhibition runs from Thurs Aug 12th through Thurs Aug 26th; we will however only be performing there opening night.

Did you see our Church set from last year’s ArtsWells festival in the Barkerville ad on the inside front cover of this year’s Summer Festival BC Musician issue?

Look a bit more closely…

Well, we had so much fun at last year’s ArtsWells Festival at Wells and Barkerville, BC, we’re going back this BC Day weekend.  Around 1:15 pm Saturday, July 31st, the Creaking Planks will be performing at the Sunset Theatre for just about an hour, following Blackbox Squeezebeard’s hosting the “Bellows on Fire” accordion workshop at noon at the outdoor stage.

You’ll see more Planks at the festival, including Blackbox hosting the mainstage Saturday night (featuring our friends from Fish & Bird, Geoff Berner, and The Burning Hell!) and being ritually shorn at Sunday’s 1-Minute Play Contest to further fundraise for the festival beyond what we raised hosting the WellsAid concert earlier this summer… the question on everyone’s lips is of course Will he have to be issued a new pirate codename?

Following the ArtsWells Festival, while we’re all up in thar part of the world we’ve planned to join our favorite songwriter in his hometown, turning the tables, and join Raghu Lokanathan for a show in Valemount Tuesday, August 3rd, at the Anglican-United Church hall (1175 7 Ave).

The next day, Wed, Aug 4th, the Creaking Planks swing over to Prince George’s ArtSpace (above Books & Company, 1685 3rd Ave) to play a show with Johnnie Ninety-Nine, our most northerly gig yet!

Over the course of the three nights of the B:C:Clettes’ 2007 Rouge et Noir cabaret, three women asked if they could join the band and perform with us, one after each night’s show. Anja never did, Lucy became a true Planks regular, and Glenna joined us on-stage on the following night rocking the percussive possibilities of a bike frame; when polled, the audience thought that it was not her but Scruffy Bigbass who was the fresh new Plank (as she was dressed to party while he was just in his civvies.)

Though we did lure Glenna out to a practice after the stupendous cabaret (her self-chosen pirate codename reflective of her taste in tattoo subjects and locations and fondness for the movie Anchorman), we never got another chance to perform with her; now we never will.

A day before her 28th birthday, emerging artist and competitive skateboarder Glenna Evans was killed Friday in North Vancouver when she failed to negotiate a turn at the bottom of a steep hill.

Our intersection was brief but remembered. She will be missed by a wide variety of small and vibrant communities, and the extended community of Planks is just one more star in the mourning constellation.

Unless something goes very wrong (or, if you prefer to have a half-full view, very right), this is anticipated to be the last Creaking Planks performance on our home turf for just about three months. (Hope you got a copy of our CD to remember us by while the getting was good! Of course, our mux of live bootlegs should still be up, however long in the tooth it’s getting.) The occasion is the closing party of the estimable Vancouver Velopaloloza festival of bicycles and bicycle culture, with which the CPs have been long (if loosely) associated, dating back to our performances at last year’s Bicycle Music Fest, at the B:C:Clettes’ Rouge et Noir Cabaret, at the RevPhil’s “Bike Porn” film night and still earlier.

Speaking of “earlier”, our set will be starting promptly at noon, in Strathcona Park (at Prior between Hawks and Raymur — out behind the Casa Gelato!), for one half-hour, following a set from Buck and Jess and preceding sets by the likes of Ndidi Cascade, the Carnival Band, the Wonderful Diving Horses, The Thick of It and the Deadwax Collective.

For more information about the festival, please see their website.