2011-11: Catchup

Well, on Sunday, November 6th — the day after our fantastic visit from the Accordion Babes — we had a rump Planks delegation visit the Roseblade house to help celebrate a bonafide 1st birthday party for a 40-year-old, busting out songs from the Planks’ feature set at the Cobalt’s “Ink” open mic five years ago or so.

Then, yesterday, Thurs Nov 24th, we were supposed to join David Roy Parsons (of “Beat Up Old Guitar” fame) for a set in Victoria at the Fort Cafe… but the hoary winter winds of a fierce seasonal storm put the kibosh on that ferry crossing after a very spirited afternoon spent sitting inside a wind-buffetted car. Well, what’s something that CAN go right?

Here’s something difficult to ruin (worse than it already is, at least) — a visual gag a long time in the conceptualising:

Editing some outrageous Creaking Planks live audio in Audacity…

okay, let’s clean this up a little bit…

and… voila. Wait — what?!

Thank heavens for the “undo” function, that’s all I can say. (”Accordion Insanity” photo by Jonathan Dy, and that “normal” band is Clyde Stacy and the Nightcaps. They probably sound all right!)

Update: more normal than normal, and more abnormal than, well, than pretty much anything!

PS: Creaking Planks 7th anniversary show coming up Wednesday, January 18th at the Railway Club with Ana Bon-Bon and Raghu Lokanathan!

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…

2009-06-14: Planks play Car-Free Festival afterparty!

How better to follow Vancouver’s biggest party but with another party? That’s right, folks, Vancouver’s Car-Free Festival wraps up at 6 pm (8 pm on Main Street) but its fabulous afterparty will already be opening its doors a mere one hour later — almost precisely as long as it takes for Festival volunteers to fold up tables — at the ANZA Hall (3 West 8th Avenue at Ontario Royal Canadian Legion hall at 2205 Commercial Drive (at 6th, upstairs). Admission is free for Festival volunteers (a humble $5 for everyone else, though no one will be turned away due to lack of funds) and those who just can’t stop giving of themselves should have a blast at the start of the night with a jam session. It’s true! That unscripted musical mayhem will be followed by live music from two acts — a blast of Balkan brass with the Orkestar Slivovica and an uncanny visitation from East Van’s jug band of the damned, the Creaking Planks. All this plus sest on the decks from DJs Osmunda and Kaminanda, hosting by Jessica Rabbit, and the much-vaunted blinking lights of the Revelry Society!

PS — if you’re not careful, you might catch us earlier in the day visiting John Barbour’s musical barricade and logging an appearance at Venus’ birthday party amidst all the festival hubbub bustle and hustle.

2009-04-04: Blackbox Squeezebeard’s April Ship of Fools birthday celebration at Cafe Montmartre

As an experiment into filling a whole night at Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main Street at 28th Avenue) with varied textures of performance from members of our multifarious crew and extended family, the Creaking Planks celebrate Blackbox Squeezebeard entering into his fourth decade with the April (Ship of) Fools Variety Show from 8 pm through “late” (past midnight!) Saturday, April 4th. Performances will include magic from Travis, interstitial improvisation and ukulele from Ehren Salazar and John Barbour, new music from familiar faces Paul Hendriks (aka the Rev. Lucian Rumblebucket), possibly demonstrating his banjo aptitude, and Eryn Holbrook (aka Daisy Jones-Locher — who worked a wonderful whimsical adaptation of Hieronymus Bosch’s “Ship of Fools” into the show’s poster!) contributing a solo set a couple of months earlier than usual, sharing her voice-and-keys songwriting not much heard since the days of her Perpetual Dream Theory project. Also joining us will be a very special set from washtub bass outsider Al Mader, the Minimalist Jug Band, and of course a couple of sets of Creaking Planks creaking and planking.

At Montmartre we play for tips, but we anticipate your generosity in support of this jam-packed night and its auspicious occasion.

Edit: phew! What a night! Check out VanCityMike’s gallery of shots from the variety show up on Flickr!

Planks wrap up October: Parade of Lost Souls, Petunia at Montmartre

We had so much fun at Horace Phair VI that we couldn’t keep still. (Especially Scruffy Bigbass, who had a claustrophobic call of the wild in the middle of past-midnight highway construction in the vicinity of Everett.)

This year, for HPVII, with under half as many Planks on board, things were a little more sedate for us…

though Nite Brite, The Pathogens and Oven Mitts were quite literally rocking the block while everyone else drank their head off with a pint of the homebrew Budd Dwyer ale on tap.

Then our timing belt broke in Olympia on the way back, but that’s  a whole ‘nuther story (and a happy departure to a Planks tradition of strewing dead automobiles across the West Coast.)  Do you have your copy of our HPVII mix yet?

…

A week later, we hunkered down with Whiskey Jar to wish our mutual friend Wyoming Johnny a very happy birthday, and tonight, Saturday October 25th, we are letting our online following (all other locals have already made up their minds about attending this regardless of our participation) know that, following a seasonal squash-mangling, we will be logging an appearance (an earful at least) at tonight’s Parade of Lost Souls, from six to nine pm in the Black Zone (at the intersection of William and Maclean, for the living.)

Tomorrow night, Sunday Oct 26th, we take to Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main Street at E 28th Avenue) to join roots showman Petunia in a brief opening set around 8 pm… to be followed by a drunken pumpkin-carving contest.

And as for Hallowe’en?  Do keep posted… we have a special surprise in store.