The Playing Cards

"We're just trying to write good songs, and play hard," says The Playing Cards tireless guitarist/vocalist Cole Woods (Right Through, Cannon Bros.) about an hour after jamming with a few friends.

"We get compared to pop-rock stuff all across the board," Woods continues. "Thrush Hermit, Pavement, lots of '90s noisier, louder bands like Dinosaur Jr. These are the bands people say we sound like."

Fans of guitar-fixated indie tunes and dueling alterna-rock will find The Playing Cards deal the goods they dig in all the suits in the deck. The post-everything rock quartet began about six years ago when a then-pre-teen Woods and his 12-year-old drummer pal Rob Gardiner started jamming. Fast-forward six years, and the lineup now includes a jazz-infused/Zappa-influenced Woods and the diligent Gardiner (Right Through) with guitarist/singer Alannah Walker (The Wonderful Pipes, Cannon Bros., The 16) and bassist David Schellenberg (Mount Nolan).

"We like to play the three-to-four-minute pop songs," Woods informs.

Those pop nuggets are showcased on The Playing Cards two independently released discs: the full-length Fight Forward (2007) and the Underwater EP (2009). These recordings - and the bands' recent exuberant live shows at the Pyramid Cabaret and the Lo Pub - caught the attention of CKUW 95.9 FM outreach and sponsorship coordinator Ted Turner, a big fan of indie pop rock.

"He asked us to play the CKUW Fundrive 2010 Wrap Up show at the Lo Pub on Feb. 12 with The Middle Names," says Woods. U street-beatin' radio fans can check out more about all this by visiting CKUW.ca or searching The Playing Cards at MySpace.

"We're going to play a lot of new songs at the show," Woods continues. "Maybe a few covers. The songs that we play now are lots of new songs that we haven't titled yet - or the titles are pretty tentative."

"We have a few songs with guitarmony solos - one's called Dog Song and the other doesn't have a name."

Woods says he's a big fan of Frank Zappa, citing the great prolific composer as one of his favourite guitarists: "I really like Frank Zappa. I've taken quite a lot of time to learn the songs off of the Hot Rats album, unsuccessfully, I might add."

Whatever his take on Zappa's zaps, Woods agrees his axe of choice - like Zappa - is most def the Gibson SG.

"Zappa played an SG," Woods says. "It's pretty fat-sounding. Sometimes I play an old Strat, but mostly the SG."
- Uptown Magazine, Don Beat

I can think of very few bands (not owned by the Disney Corp.) who graduate high school poised for world domination. Throwing Muses (maybe), The Zit Remedy (if only Wheels could have kept his shit together) and now Winnipeg power-popsters The Playing Cards.
As bespectacled co-front persons Cole Woods and Alannah Walker sneak shyly on stage you might think to yourself "well shoot, ain't they just the cutest thing..." Wrong Pops!! They're not here to sell you any goddam lemonade. Backed by an energized-rocksteady rhythm section (David Schellenberg-bass, Rob Gardiner-drums) the Cards reel you in with deft pop hooks and sugar sweet boy-girl vocals and knock you out yr socks with fuzzy bombast. Throw in some face melting solos from the spaghetti-legged wunderkind Cole (he of several Winnipeg bands including Right Through) and some startlingly mature songwriting and the future looks damned bright for the Playing Cards.
On the heels of a successful Western Canadian tour and the release of the EP "Underwater" (standout track "Draped in Yellow" could sit nicely on any Breeders album) the next year holds plenty of exciting things for the Cards. Plans are in the works for a full length album as well as a cross-Canada tour next summer.
In the meantime if you're in the Winnipeg area you can check them out..
Sept 16th at Ragpickers
Sept 17th at Gas Station Theatre Patio
and at http://www.myspace.com/theplayingcards
- Gareth Williams NXEW

The Playing Cards.

here’s what i knew,
from listening to their
myspace, all those so many
months ago,
i wanted to see them
Live
Direct
and yet every time
they’ve played
i’ve elsewhere been committed to

(i wanted to see them)
because
Beaver Creek
River Ghosts
Draped In Yellow (”you evaporate right into me”)
What Time is it Mr Wolf
have a yelp and yowl
and Ginsberg Howl
that made me shake
quake
in my poetic soul
deep,down
there’s something, something
to be
seen/heard/danced,to
romanced in my soul,to

The Playing Cards
read their influences
and listen to the songs
and you’ll know
there’s something,something
to be seen/heard
felt deep,down
in your bones

and live, this is what
i felt
Immediately,

Dinosaur Jr
cleaner and crisper
more poppy

Pavement,Pixies
Neil Young yes,yes,yes
but there’s the Jr
there/
it’s there
in the texture
the fabric
of the intricacies
delicacies
of words and melodies

female and male co/lead singers
stage presence
lacking/nerves
experience cures
more and more Playing
Cards, The
shows
Live
banter,stilted,wilted

song titles would have helped
but, there’s a reason why
that didn’t happen…

they played 7 songs
and i Loved 6 of them
the one i didn’t, the 5th song
(the field song)
had something in the middle
that gave me spine tingles,
it was also too long/
(like my poems!)

so here’s the story
here’s the wonder
of The Playing Cards,

after their glorious set,
i found them out back
loading up
and i raved (because
they had me dancing
pure joy/ecstatically
romantically
recalling Dinosaur Jr
in their heyday
gigging in Vancouver
early 90s?)
like a 45 year old
lunatic
that i am, i am
Insane
(in pain)

and i’m asking them for their
set list, for a guttersnipe
poem posting,

and they’re all looking at each
other,

Cole and Alannah
on lead Voices
and guitars
David on bass
(the most animated
on stage, able to let
\Loose/)
and rob on drums

for what was way too long,

“well, 4 of the songs
(of the 7)
don’t have titles,
they’re so new.”

Oh My F#cking Musical Deities!!!!!

i’m flabbergasted
even now,
the tingles are sparking through
coursing through
my sinews
my tissues
they were playing songs that were brand new
and they were (nearly) all so amazingly
great

these kids are ones
to watch and see
Live
preparing for a western tour in August

check their myspace
and hear why this city
is exploding!

http://

catch them live

www.myspace.com/theplayingcards

The Playing Cards
young
unpolished
gem
Stones
Rolling
with the creative forces
unfolding
in their newest songs
pop deities
blessing them

the set list

Untitled
Beaver Creek
Untitled
Draped In Yellow
Field Song
(the one song i didn’t like so much, too long and yet something, that was sweetly infectious, moving me to tingles down my rocky spine, it needs to be reshaped)
Rainstorm
Dog Song

before they began,
Cole promised,

“We’re going to do it for you.”

he told
The Truth
they did it
for us,
for me.
that opening song
a “do it for you”
electric
spine shocking
song. - Eugene Osudar (guttersnipenews.com)

Winnipeg's The Playing Cards bring their new ep, Underwater, to Western Canada starting tonight with a tour kick off show at the Crescent Fort Rouge United Church in Winnipeg. They'll fit 13 shows into the next couple weeks between Winnipeg and Victoria.

In May the band released their new ep, a fuzzy pop gem, taking queues from bands like the replacements and superchunk, then covering their sweet pop tunes with layers of distortion and the occaissional feedback freakout.

Check the band out on the following dates (or via: http://www.myspace.com/theplayingcards)

August 1st Winnipeg Manitoba, Crescent Fort Rouge Tour kick off!
August 4th Medicine Hat Alberta, The Ottoman w/The Birthday Cakes
August 5th Edmonton Alberta, The Artery w/ The Yells and Rabies AB
August 6th Calgary Alberta, The Palomino w/ Fox Opera
August 7th Vancouver British Columbia, cafe deux soleils w/ Stefana Fratila All Ages
August 8th Victoria British Columbia, Ruthie and Winfield CD Release!
August 9th Victoria British Columbia, CFUV Radio
August 9th Victoria British Columbia, Logan’s Pub w/Balacade
August 10th, Vancouver British Columbia, Little Mountain Studios All Ages
August 12th, Lethbridge Alberta, The Slice w/ amilea earhart
August 13th, Calgary Alberta, Dickens pub w/ Nushi
August 14th Edmonton Alberta, The Hydeaway All ages
August 15th Saskatoon Saskatchewan, Walkers Nightclub w/ Slow down, Molasses, A Gentle Forest & Shuyler Jansen - North by East West