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

2011-06-04: The Creaking Planks Big Dangerous Show in the Wild

Posted: May 25th, 2011 | Author: LeeShoal | Filed under: Show announcements and recaps | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments »

The wilds of East Vancouver’s Prophouse Cafe, that is…

On June 4th, the Planks will take over the back showroom of the Prophouse Cafe (to be found just west of Commercial Drive, on Venables) with special musical guests the Kingsgate Chorus, and special magical guest Travis Bernhardt (Dr. Steelhand’s secret identity).  This show is not officially part of Music Waste, or even Go Your Own Waste, but you can pretend it is if that will encourage you to come out and have some fun!

11-06-04 Planks at Prophouse


2010 Winter/Spring — What We Missed Telling You About PLUS a homophonic side project

Posted: June 1st, 2010 | Author: Blackbox Squeezebeard | Filed under: Show announcements and recaps | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

For a season, from mid-December to mid-April, we temporarily lost control of our domain name (in fact, it switched off while I was in the middle of composing a promotional draft here!) and information about the Planks was unavailable from this site. We still played lots of great shows, however, and this is just an attempt to keep the historical record in order. Just because nothing turned up on the website didn’t mean that we weren’t busy little buccaneers!

2009-12-26 – the Maclean’s Boxing Day party in Deep Cove.
2010-01-06 – at Bandidas’ anniversary party.
bandidas
2010-01-12 – Blackbox Squeezebeard on Melodies in Mind.
2010-01-14 – at Trees Organic Coffee.
2010-01-15 – featured at Beats on Broadway.
2010-01-15 - B-on-B-Jan-15-2010
2010-01-16 – at One Two One Studios‘ launch.
2010-01-16 - Planks at 121 launch
2010-01-22 – A Night of Pleasing Squeezing with Renee de la Prade and Amber Lee Baker (the Accordion Babes), Gerry O’Brien, and Jack Garton of Maria in the Shower at Cafe Montmartre.
Accordion-Noir-Jan22
2010-02-26 – Dollhouse Tea Party.
TP - Planks 2
2010-02-28 – Another Night of Pleasing Squeezing with Jeff Andrew, Marie-Josee Houle, Jason Webley at the LMG.
Accordion_Noir_Feb28_0
2010-03-28 – with Convertible Kids at the LMG.
2010-03-28 cpckposter
2010-04-08 – with Raghu Lokanathan trio at the LMG.
raghu
2010-04-15 – Can You Hear Me Now? F*Word fundraiser at the Railway Club.
BEST Fword poster31
2010-04-21 – at Ubuntu LoCo at the HD Lab.

We’ve enjoyed a couple of shows since that we’ve mostly been able to keep you abreast about here, and are on the verge of splitting for the summer (one more — set aside noon, June 13th!), but before we go we can tie some Plankian threads together with a Go-Your-Own-Waste presentation of the Music Waste festival featuring frequent CP collaborators Erin Graves and Ehren Salazar with bonafide Plank Eryn Holbrook (aka Daisy Jones-Locher of the santur) and marvelous improv outsider weirdo Aaron Read at the traditional Plank venue of the Little Mountain Gallery (195 E. 26th at Main). This Friday, June 4th! Only $5, and free for festival passholders! 8 pm ’til we’re done! The most homophonic bill of the year: Erin, Ehren, Eryn and Aaron in Err On: the Side of Caution. It’ll be a slice. (Actually, imagine a pizza divided into four slices, all of which are different flavours, and at least one slice of which isn’t even pizza… but maybe apple pie.)

Err On Poster


2008-06-05: Music Waste trad showcase with Dyad, Ora Cogan, and Hank & Lily

Posted: May 24th, 2008 | Author: Blackbox Squeezebeard | Filed under: Show announcements and recaps | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

The Music Waste festival is a longstanding hipster tradition in Vancouver, an indie Salon des Refusés in response to the apparently corporatized Music West (and now New Music West); in keeping with its bohemian name, often the acts it hosts are more Metal Machine Music than Top-40, not necessarily the friendliest or most accessible performances but (rest assured) more than cool enough to make up for any unpolished auditory abrasiveness: it’s raw and fresh, like sushi, and like sushi only carries with it a slight chance of making you ill.

Last year, never considering ourselves quite cool enough for main festival inclusion, the Planks put on a musical sideshow in association with it as part of their “Go Your Own Waste” (essentially Bring Your Own Venue) initiative; we descended upon the little underutilized Gastown stage at the back of the Annex (no longer with us) and presented recent musics from Adri Lake and Eryn Holbrook (aka sometimes-Plank Daisy Jones-Locher) at a charming sold-out venue. But you’ll be hearing more about that one soon.

Keen on revisiting a smashing June show, we applied to the festival again in the hopes of mounting a similar show and much to our delighted surprise found ourselves curated right into the main festival program with a stellar program of similar acts we might never have otherwise appeared with: the resolute traditionalists of Dyad, Victorian comic-vaudevillains Hank & Lilly, and Ora Cogan, recently returned from Northwest Folklife! Icing the cake (let us leave that sushi metaphor behind us), we get to all take the stage in the charming heritage room of Radha Yoga & Eatery, above the Brickhouse at 728 Main Street. A far cry from the excesses suggested by the festival name: folk music in a yoga studio? Don’t get too settled, though, as we will find a way to move you.  Planks are slated to start playing at 8:30 pm!

Festival passes (a saving if you want to see more than three shows, and there are plenty of hum-dinger line-ups to pick from) can be purchased for $15 at Zulu Records (1972 W 4th Ave), Scratch Records (726 Richards Street), Limelight Video (2505 Alma Street), Redcat Records (4307 Main Street), and Audiophile Records (2016 Commercial Drive).

Wed - Thurs bill