The Creaking Planks strap on forgotten and dismissed instruments of simpler times, preemptively gathering the tunes and jingles of today from the ashbins of tomorrow and re-presenting them in a novel anachronistic setting and style. Together, their sum suggests nothing stranger than the iPod of 1906.
A well-heeled crew of folk music misfits, we scour the wide world of music for songs we can bring close and make our own, regardless of source, genre or era. The Creaking Planks give obscure, hilarious songs by never-heard-of-thems like Bob Uker and Al Mader the Minimalist Jug Band their proper due, performing them side by side with well-considered selections from the canonical songbooks of, for instance, Britney Spears, the Talking Heads, Nine Inch Nails and Sesame Street.
The Creaking Planks strive to achieve a species of cognitive dissonance through re-interpreting new music in old styles and on old-timey instruments (eg. accordion, ukulele, washtub bass, steel guitar) while peppering the stew with some traditional music from the ‘old country’ to keep you on your toes. Everything new is made old, and everything old is new again.
- Blackbox Squeezebeard (accordion, vocals)
- Lee Shoal (ukulele, banjo, harmonium, kazoo, bass)
- Dr. Steelhand (steel slide guitar, ukulele, percussion, legerdemain)
- Phaulonious J Knucklebones (improvised percussion, ironing board)
- Johnny Wyoming (fiddle, banjo, vocals)
- Cap’n Jack Spareribs (baritone saxophone)
- Daisy Jones-Locher (santur, vocals, glockenspiel)
- Ludwicka lePearl (cello, flute)
- Meg May (fiddle, musical saw)
- Spongedev Squareplanks (baritone ukulele, bass)
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| White logo on transparent background | Poster template, group photo |
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| Multiple-exposure montage by Jonathan Dy | Railway Club madness! |
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| Moaning by Mike David Hawley | On a caboose in Duncan |
albums:
- Flogged Round The Fleet, 2009
- “pmux” live bootleg compilation, 2008-10
- untitled demo, 2007
on anthologies with various artists:
- One Cool Word #13 compilation, May 2009, “Dead Man’s Pants”
- The Wire #291, May 2008, “Korobeiniki”
- Very Vancouver Christmas Vol. II, 2007, “Never Give a Puppy for Christmas”
- Vancouver ♥ Portland mix, 2007-10, “Closer”
- Horace Phair fiVe Home Planet mix, 2006, “I’m A Lousy Lay”
dvds:
- Random Shots From Random Places, 2007
- A traditional tune: Creaking Planks – Flogged Round the Fleet – Tanz Tanz Yidelekh:
An obscure cover: Creaking Planks – Flogged Round the Fleet – Opposites Attract:
A famous cover: Creaking Plank Trio – Insane in the Membrane (Cypress Hill), on Melodies in Mind:
A reworked famous cover: Creaking Plank Trio – Kiddie Closer (Nine Inch Nails) – on Melodies in Mind:
“Novelty music for the humiliated… laughing gas for music geeks.”
– The Nerve, Dec 2007.
“If jug band music as played by Tom Waits’ feral stepchildren is your thing, then the Creaking Planks should be right up your street. … They got the crowd on their feet.”
Rob Jones — Miss 604, May 22 2009.
Five musicians who know how to blend humour and musical talent into a great set. So many voices and accents, and hilarious lyrics! Every song was an improvement on the one before … Their covers were fantastic, and I can’t think of any other way to tell you how much you’ll love their music.”
Lauren Eldrige — Backstagevancouver, Oct 27 2009.
As if to illustrate the truth of the saying that a fool who persists in his folly shall become wise, the Planks have benefited from playing innumerable shows locally and throughout the Pacific Northwest. While still richly swathed in irony, the traditionals on this CD (European and/or Yiddish folkie fare like “Tanz Tanz Yidelekh” and “Moscow Nights” and the absurdly deadpan covers—including a new recording of Lipkovits’s delightful arrangement of the Minimalist Jug Band’s “Dead Man’s Pants”—are, in fact, quite beautifully conceived and credibly played.
Allan MacInnis — The Georgia Straight, May 27, 2010.
“… perhaps the most perfect fit for the day’s festivities—baroque, zany and just a little silly, the jug band of the damned thoroughly impressed with their performance. Those unfamiliar with the Creaking Planks were gleefully surprised…”
Fraser Dobbs — DiSCORDER Magazine, September 2011.
“[S]elf proclaimed “jug band of the damned” Creaking Planks tore through their usual assortment of crazy cover songs and oddly rousing originals… Regular staples of the Fringe, Creaking Planks are a not-to-miss experience and seemingly with each gig, their gang of fleet footed fans grows larger.”
Nathan Pike — DiSCORDER Magazine, September 2011.
The front row is Accordion (throw 1 57 or two 58s at it (accordions have different sounds coming out both sides!), plus a vocal mic for the singing squeezer and an armless chair to sit on – these reeds and words are the skeleton the rest of the band hangs on, so put them first in the monitor if possible); Ukulele (now proudly boasting a quarter-inch output); Violin (a 58 usually gets the job done if we’re playing with Johnny; if Meg, she uses a plug-in with DI) …
Middle row tends to look like Steel Guitar (usually travels with its own amp which you may want a mic on, and needs power); Santur (is very very quiet — uses its own contact mic where possible, else a very very close 57 on a boom stand); Cello (has a line-out)…
Then we have the percussion section in the back, putting on the dance show no one gets to see — Percussion (can use a couple of mics above the ironing board and one on the suitcase kick underneath, plus a chair… he also likes to have a vocal mic, whether he should be using it or not); and the big bad Baritone Saxophone (often doesn’t need anything, but we like to pick it up with a 57 and run that through an effects pedal with your choice of outputs.)
Is your soundman crying yet? We like to give at least all the ladies vocal mics also, for power harmonies and occasional kazoo peppering the broth.
The Creaking Planks, in some configuration or another, have performed a show on average every eight and a half days since forming six years ago. The most Planks who have ever taken the stage simultaneously is 11, but half that is more typical.
We imported Vancouver’s first Zombiewalk in 2005, have been a Klezmer band for a Fringe Festival play and one by the UBC Theatre department three years later.
For six years one of our annual highlights has been traveling to perform at the annual Horace Phair party, between which we’ve had regular engagements as the house band at the Little Mountain Gallery and for functions at Free Geek Vancouver.
We’ve performed live on three local radio stations and have played at three wedding receptions, in addition to playing at Velopalooza, the Bicycle Music Festival, the ArtsWells and Music Waste Festivals several times, and closing the first annual Accordion Noir Festival following Geoff Berner.
Other career highlights would include our three-night engagement at the B:C:Clettes’ Rouge et Noir Cabaret, playing at the Pirates of the SeaBus flashmob, our lost Hallowe’en at the rotting hulk of Expo 86’s McBarge, opening for a talk by free software guru Richard Stallman, and playing the mainstage at the 2010 Cotati Accordion Festival with impromptu fortification by Alex Meixner and his band after golden age accordion god Dick Contino opened for us!
Some of our fondest memories are of sharing the stage with beloved locals Al Mader, Petunia, Ana Bon-Bon, the Orkestar Slivovica, Mezamazing, Maria in the Shower and Blackberry Wood, while we’ve also enjoyed playing memorable shows with such traveling performers as Raghu Lokanathan, JR Hill, Ingrid Gatin, Oh My Darling, the F-Holes, Story, Ursula, David P. Smith, Renée de la Prade, Amber Lee and the Anomalies, Uni & her Ukulele, the Underscore Orkestra, Eugene Chadbourne and Jason Webley.
In the summer of 2009 we traveled the west coast of Canada promoting our album Flogged ‘Round the Fleet, and we look forward to wider travels peddling our upcoming book.
Members of the Creaking Planks also perform in such ensembles as Whiskey Jar, the Joey Only Outlaw Band, and Ejaculation Death Rattle — but only here can we really cut loose.
RIYL (Recommended If You Like…)
Richard Cheese, the Lost Fingers, Señor Coconut, Hayseed Dixie, Tom Waits, DeVotchKa, Gogol Bordello
Blackbox Squeezebeard, 604-566-4745, thecreakingplanks at gmail dot com
