“Novelty music for the humiliated… laughing gas for music geeks.” — The Nerve

2011-10-29: Carnival of Shadows II w/ Jeff Andrew and Tarran the Tailor

Posted: October 25th, 2011 | Author: Blackbox Squeezebeard | Filed under: Show announcements and recaps | Tags: , , , , , , | No Comments »

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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…


2011-07-30: Creaking Planks back at ArtsWells!

Posted: July 22nd, 2011 | Author: Blackbox Squeezebeard | Filed under: Show announcements and recaps | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

At the time the performance was a bit of a headache — a beautiful historical chapel in a refurbished ghost town, but one mysteriously without electricity to even out our disparate sound levels. (Little did we realise, the entire district was temporarily without power. Worst of all, the ice cream in the coolers was starting to melt and being given away for free!) But we’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of that set, first on the inside cover of last year’s festival program, and now again, thrusting us front and centre on Page A8 of the July 22, 2011 edition of the Vancouver Sun:

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Did You Know: The Creaking Planks are a duo? It’s going to be very awkward breaking the news to the other dozen or so of us… I suppose this is why it is so vital we publish our book, that at least one other print source compete with this bold claim from our newspaper of record. That said, it’s nice to be considered the epitome of what a Vancouver-based folk ensemble looks like. (And it will be nice to Mike Fawcett to get credit for that photograph as well.)

We’ll be playing at the ArtsWells festival this year at 8:30 pm at the Downstairs Hall on Saturday, July 30th. Unlike last year, we’re not playing any other shows up there, but the festival is of course very worthwhile with sets from our friends in Blackberry Wood, Fish & Bird, the Joey Only matrimonial band, Raghu Lokanathan and Jeremy Stewart, Nice Verdes, Namgar, Mind of a Snail, High Society, Linda McRae, T. Nile, Jeff Andrew, John Pippus, and of course Geoff Berner.

Blackbox Squeezebeard (or, after last year’s fundraising depilation, “Airbeard”) will be hosting the Accordions in the Round session noon to 1 on the 31st also at the Downstairs Hall, and the Rev. Lucian Rumblebucket will be teaching a washtub bass workshop at 2 pm in the school.

But first, we’re playing for a private wedding party July 23rd!

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2010-03-04: Creaking Planks with Jeff Andrew and Portland’s Underscore Orkestra

Posted: February 16th, 2011 | Author: Blackbox Squeezebeard | Filed under: Show announcements and recaps | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »

We missed out on a chance to play with them last August en route to our legendary trip down to California, but the fates have intervened and seen fit to give us another opportunity to share a stage with Portland’s Underscore Orkestra, thanks to Jeff Andrew, last seen giving up his own performance spot to allow us to play his double-booked Hallowe’en show at Cafe Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive!

Of course, there will be no double-booking there this time. The Underscores straddle all sorts of lively genres from gypsy jazz and swing to Balkan and klezmer music — with a shot of heady bellydancing thrown in — and even gruff-voiced Jeff will be having a squeezebox backing him up, qualifying this show to be presented by Accordion Noir, Vancouver’s (and, yea, the world’s) pre-eminent all-accordion-music weekly broadcast.

Us Planks are still sharpening our alternate set of heady tunes we haven’t been coasting on five years of perfection with, so if you missed our anniversary show, we should still have some fresh musical tricks in store for you… and of course, more is yet to come.

Admission is $10!

Underskore orkestra


2010-10-30: Creaking Planks at Cafe Deux Soleils

Posted: October 21st, 2010 | Author: Blackbox Squeezebeard | Filed under: Show announcements and recaps | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Hot on the heels of our first costume ball of the season the night before, the jug band of the damned moves up the street (just a couple of blocks) to Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive) to help raise some unruly spirits (from the remnants of the Parade of Lost Souls, no doubt) with the help of our delightfully dark friends Maria in the Shower and Jeff Andrew with his Crows at Midnight. 9 pm, $10.

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