On short notice all around, en lieu of visiting Gibsons again (RIP Wild Bistro! And too darn bad we missed the Gumboot train) we’re joining our good friends at Memewar Magazine for another ‘do celebrating their rag down at the Railway Club, (579 Dunsmuir Street, upstairs) with the Jeremy Braax Band, Brent Lawrence, and our new best friend for the next week, California’s Uni & her Ukulele. (Stay tuned for more information about further upcoming shows with her, and for an account of our adventures in California!)

Things have been so hairy in the coming and going (everything except for Blackbox Squeezebeard, that is) we’ve even had a few good times come up on us so suddenly we didn’t get a chance to talk them up here — times like last week’s other Railway appearance, at Redrick Sultan’s tour send-off Aug 29th, the killer Steinberg summer party at the end of July, and our last intersection with our Memewar friends, playing a set of songs about cryptozoology to kids at the CNIB camp on Bowen Island. How awesome is that?

And then of course there’s the Accordion Noir Festival coming up in a couple of weeks… but one post at a time, friends!!

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!

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.