The original Creaking Planks are Lee Shoal, Lord Eel, and Blackbox Squeezebeard, present players include the Rev. Lucian Rumblebucket, Phaulonius J Knucklebones (formerly Felonious P, formerly Captain John-Paul George LaFitte, formerly Dan de Léon), Cap'n Jack Spare-ribs (formerly Peg-Leg Right-Eye Ryan), Dr. Steelhand, Johnny Wyoming, Daisy Jones-Locher and Venus; the tides of change however have thrown us, flotsam and jetsam, among such luminaries as Orange-Eye "Sabertooth" Skipper, Aja, Jacob Steele, Colin Upton, Melinda Gidaly-Mayor, Ryan Purchase, Saluthaus Seamus, Al Mader (the Minimalist Jug Band), Strangler J, Skulltits McGee, Mad Mouse Mary (now Rusty Sawbones), Strong Brew Lundervillain, Josh Brandon, Stephanie Loveless, Ross Birdwise, Scruffy Bigbass, Ross Bliss, the lovely Lydia Loodifer, the inimitable Bob Uker, and introducing Kat-'O-Nine-Tails on clarinet. (And now even Ana Bon-Bon, Burcu, Nimish Parekh, Stephen Taylor, Ralph Shaw and Richard Stallman! Egad! Let us not forget the occasional contributions of whatever opera divas we may sporadically run across.)
Influences
grog, pirates, buskers, circus freaks, vaudeville (no ventriloquists), flappers & gents, Scandinavian folk music, klezmer, Alan Lomax, all things banjo, uke and accordion, zombies (Lee), improbable covers, generous portions of steaming, buttery mashed ups; [ ]
artists: Big Rude Jake, Black Sabbath, Bob Uker, Britney Spears, the Cramps, The Cure, Current 93, Donovan, Geoff Berner, George Formby, Hank Williams, Harry Belafonte,Irving Berlin, Jason Webley, The Legendary Pink Dots, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Momus, Neutral Milk Hotel, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Raffi, Ralph Shaw "King of the Ukelele", Randy Newman, The Count, Sloppy Seconds, Something About Reptiles, Spike Jones, Sufjan Stevens, Talking Heads, Taraf de Haidouks, Tom Lehrer, Tom Waits, Velvet Underground, Warren Zevon, Weird Al Yankovic, Wesley Willis, Woody Guthrie ... and you? ..
Sounds Like
Q: what's perfect pitch? A: when you throw an accordion into a dumpster and hit a banjo, ukulele, slide guitar, mandolin, glockenspiel, harmonium, banjola, nay, musical saw, slide whistle, kazoo (... this is an increasingly un-punchy punchline.)
In January 2005, two members of "The Creaking Planks", made their first public performance at Raw and Cooked. On this happy occasion they met the accordion player from "That's My Brain And You're Killing It!" and knew immediately that they had found what they needed to perform piratical sea shanties. In the following year, the trio performed relentlessly, playing such venues as Blim, Video In and The Butchershop (now the "house band" of its successor, the Little Mountain Studios) as well as numerous open mics, parks and parties, klezmerizing the BBQ Pit at the 2005 Vancouver Fringe Festival, terrorizing the 2005 Vancouver ZombieWalk afterparty, and touring to Portland three consecutive Columbus Days, destroying two cars playing very few, if any, sea shanties.
In the summer of 2006 the tides shifted and the musical core adjusted, permitting the more wholesale incorporation of contributions by occasional collaborators and other new (old) sounds, expanding the ensemble to nine (with no theoretical upper limit). Today 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.
Drawing on numerous and disparate naive, folk and outsider musical traditions, the common thread running through the performers in this ensemble is that individually, none of them belong in a contemporary musical context – while together, their sum suggests nothing stranger than the iPod of 1906. Keep yer eyes open for more demented nautical circus orchestration from this versatile crew o' musical miscreants.
Indeed I remember it well! I admit I was crossing my fingers that you'd do that song at the Biltmore so that I could make all sorts of zombie noises out in the crowd... but the Talking Heads cover more than compensated. You guys kick ass, looking forward to catching you again soon!
The album cover shall be ready by the impending weekend; a little sooner than I thought, but I've got nothing but time on my hands aside from my coffee imbibing, fruitless job searches and television addiction.
It promises to catch people's curiosity, if anything. I hope you don't mind old men, brownie sashes and cookies, and being depicted as old fish.
Of course I understand that not even the most talented of graphic artisans can ever graze the content of the cd so I am humbly apologizing in advance...
Ahoy! It was cool sharing the mic with y'all on CJSF 90.1 FM. Lookin' forward to sharing the stage with ya at the Highland Pub Feb. 2--love your music! Peace
dear creaking planks! sorry to miss your victoria-action - we loved you at harmonizer and obviously don't check our myspace often enough! see you soon??? xoxo from the vv's
if there were ever an excuse to venture back to vancouver, a planks show would be the most obvious one. bah! they don't even have accordian players who can cover the britney songbook out here.
