As you can see, the Creaking Planks have been on a train before:
… that was back in ‘09, outside Longevity John’s Duncan Garage Showroom on the Flogged ‘Round the Fleet tour. We look good in a locomotion context! (These glamour shots were snapped by Wyoming Johnny’s pappy, who knows his way around a camera!)
We had fun hanging out with Raghu Lokanathan on a chock-blocked train car in Valemount the following summer, but since then our days have been disappointingly rail-free. Individual Planks have more than a little train experience, both cross-Canada and south along the West Coast (and let’s not bring Euro-rail into this particular conversation) but never since have we all been on a train together. (Maybe a SkyTrain, which isn’t quite as glamourous.)
Well, the “Tracks On Tracks” contest the CBC and VIA Rail are presenting is here to change all that! If we’re one of the three winners, as determined by… profuse fan-voting! … we could be sent on a multi-stop trip to Toronto, playing music and being filmed all the way. Comparisons abound to the 2003 documentary about the 1970 Festival Express train trip, except that this edition would have significantly more Canadian content… and of course rail travel wasn’t strictly for the rich back then. (And BC Rail… well, don’t get me started.)
TL;DR? Click here to vote for us and up to two other bands that you think would make this train trip one for the ages. Then cross your fingers, knock on wood and see if you can get your friends to do the same! If the chips fall in our corner, we might well be posting new photos of Creaking Planks On A Train in July!
North, south, east, west, we’re the jug band that’s the best… at tightly scheduling in the most performances into one evening.
Southwest, we start off playing to your corner at the Sidney & Gertrude Zack Gallery of the Jewish Community Centre (950 W. 41st), sounding off like a shofar for a half-hour at 7 pm to ring in the latest instalment of the Pandora’s Collective’s Word Whips, wherein local poets share works written in response to the photos of Judi Angel’s Cambodian journey in the exhibition up there TIKUN OLOM: HEALING THE WORLD.
AN EVENING OF MUSIC, ART & POETRY IN THE GALLERY Tuesday, April 10th, 2012, 7-9 pm
Sidney & Gertrude Zack Gallery, JCC of Greater Vancouver, 950 West 41st Avenue
Free Admission, Everyone is welcome.
This event features THE CREAKING PLANKS as well as Pandora’s Collective poets inspired by the photographs in TIKUN OLOM: HEALING THE WORLD, a photography exhibit of ‘people and places’ in S. E. Asia. The photos were taken by JUDI ANGEL, while on a three month AJWS volunteer placement in Cambodia.
Co-hosts, BONNIE NISH and PAMELA BENTLEY, ROWAN LIPKOVITS and THE CREAKING PLANKS along with poets, FRAN BOURASSA, MAUREEN EGAN, TIMOTHY SHAY, CHRISTY HILL and DIANE TUCKER will dish up an inspiring & entertaining potpourri of sounds, rhythms, poetry and prose.
There will be time for the audience to participate by writing to the exhibit and reciting their poems during the ‘open mic’ portion of the evening. This event is presented by the Sidney & Gertrude Zack Gallery with Pandora’s Collective and the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library and made possible by the Yosef Wosk Poetry Initiative Grant. For more information, contact Reisa Schneider reisa@jccgv.bc.ca or 604 638 7277
Then we’re off to the northeast — into the Prophouse (1636 Venables at Commercial Drive) to take our belated spin as the features of this month’s occurrence of the Vancouver DIstrict Labour Council cabaret. Rumour has it we’ll be teaching attendees a folk song after our set there starts at 8 pm!
Don’t feel that you have to slavishly adhere to your neighbourhood — maybe the crosstown trip would be good for you! And maybe you’ll enjoy one set by us so much, you’ll wish you could have had twice as much! Well, on this one night, you can.
Nearly three years after our stint at the first installment of this series, the Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway at Commercial Drive) swings back into action with another night of East Van bands playing its stage, this time all providing soundtracks to silent film screenings behind them. All the major players are back from last time, plus more more more!
Instead of working in tandem with the magic of Dr. T as we did before, this time we’ll be doing music and foley for a black and white animated classic on the theme of responsible libation, which will this time be possible at the Rio! Your $10 (in advance from brownpapertickets, $12 at the door) doesn’t just get you these filmic interpretations from some of East Van’s most delightfully twisted musical minds, but also an electro-swing dance party at the end!
Depending on how things go, we may have to get together an expanded set to allow us to provide soundtrack to a whole film festival at some point! And speaking of how things went, congrats to the Lunchgroup Heavy Industries’ raising of over $1100 at last week’s fundraiser show.
Bonus! For your enjoyment, a picture-in-picture presentation of the Creaking Planks providing a soundtrack and foley effects for the 1928 Felix the Cat short Woos Whoopee, performed at this event to great acclaim.
Well, we must all do our part. Perhaps remorseful at their petrochemical contributions to our carcinogenic milieu, the hotly-disputed Enbridge corporation has, since 2008, also presented the annual Ride to Conquer Cancer, a fundraising bike ride. The Lunchgroup Heavy Industries consortium, including our own Daisy Jones-Locher, is participating in that ride and in the fundraising. To, er, fundraise for the fundraising, we are performing two sets of our best whimsical music at a benefit dinner at Amber Jack’s Tap House & Grill in Surrey (at 9850 King George Highway, or just next to the King George SkyTrain station.) Tickets are only $20, and include dinner! (You can also donate to their cause even if you aren’t able to attend.)
(Fans of Daisy-Jones in her other musical incarnations are also invited to the 7:30 pm supper show at the Railway Club this Wednesday, Mar 14, to hear her latest project, The Inference.)
In celebration of our Jaan Pehechaan Ho video breaking 15 thousand views (and the Heineken campaign fuelling its accidental virality showing no sign of slowing), here’s a low-fi video — an animated .GIF made out of snapshots virtuous band photographer Jonathan Dytook of usthe same night as that viral video was made, three-quarters of a year ago. We have listened to the masses, tightened up our arrangement, and even learned the words to the second verse! There’s a round of recording coming up and this tune is definitely on our hit list.
(Haven’t you always wanted to have a little band in your desk, to take out and put on the shelf to caper and cavort for your amusement at the drop of a hat? I’m of half a mind to violate every design tenet on the book () and put this little animation on the top of our website, for viewers to enjoy on every page.)
Two items of further note: we missed telling you about a gig we played Tues, Jan 31st, fundraising for the Federation for the Organization of Open Desire at the Little Mountain Gallery (where we’ll be back Thurs March 1st presenting you a re-match with Portland’s Underscore Orkestra — but I get ahead of myself) and this Saturday night, Feb 18th, we’ll be joining Blackberry Wood at the Big Blue House again for another jam-packed album fundraiser show there, shuffled among such luminaries as Geoff Berner, Carolyn Mark, and the Orkestar Slivovica. Just keep your ears open as you walk along Salisbury Street, there’s no way you’ll miss it.
