TICKETS

(Name Your Price!)

This Friday brings the final installment of our Listen Local concert series at Broad Ripple Park. While the five previous shows have had their share of highlights, we're confident that this line-up has enough tricks up its sleeve to close out our summer experiment in the park with a bang. Oreo Jones will serve as the ring-leader of a miniature showcase of some of Naptown's finest hip hop, paired with a couple of punk rock side dishes in the form of Teenage Strange and No Coast. The line-up should make for the most eclectic and varied show in the series, a fitting bill for a headliner that might be Indy's lone musical chameleon.

For a music scene that's relatively small in size, Indy's often seems fractured and disjointed. Just don't tell that to Oreo Jones. Jones often serves as the glue that wiggles its way between the nooks and crannies of Central Indiana's various musical genres. His list of collaborations is too lengthy to rattle off in its entirety here, but I'll name a few of the big ones. Jones and frequent collaborator Action Jackson set the summer of 2011 ablaze donning blond wigs, leather jackets and bare chests on their infectious "Black Fabio" mix tape. In 2012, he followed up with his solo debut in the form of Betty, a more traditional hip hop release that showcased the rapper's rhyming skills and corrosive wit. Last week, Jones dropped Highway Hypnosis, a six-track EP in collaboration with former Jookabox frontman and local sample-head David "Moose" Adamson (DMA). Listen to Highway Hypnosis in its entirety at the bottom of the post. Both Betty and "Black Fabio" are available on Jones' MFT page.

At first glance, his growing discography looks scatter-brained and unfocused. After diving into these songs, it's more accurately a manifestation of Jones' dynamic personality and willingness to experiment with a variety of musical influences. It also speaks to the insular nature of Naptown's hip hop scene, and its unwillingness to be infiltrated by fleeting national trends. It's not unusual to find Jones in the audience at one of Fountain Square's many psych rock house shows, sipping an ice cold Hamm's and ingesting a wall of distorted guitars. Yet he appears equally at ease hanging at J. Brookinz's annual Gat3way 420 experiment.

So it makes perfect sense that when we approached Jones about participating in the Listen Local series, he wanted to bring some friends along for the ride. Hitting the stage with Jones are Freddie Bunz, Grey Granite, John Stamps, and Sirius Black. Bunz looks like what I would imagine Calvin, of the Bill Waterson comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, may have evolved into once he grew up and quit talking to his imaginary friends. His collaboration with Jones on the track "Needy" made for my favorite cut off Betty and one of the more noteworthy tracks - local or otherwise - of 2012. Grey Granite, in the vein of Naptown elder statesman Rusty Redenbacher, is a one-man tour de force on social media. He manages Heavy Gun Blog, which aside from providing a home to his crew of hip hop misfits often sheds light on unusual work of MC's like Bloomington resident and MFT favorite Beverly Bounce House, among others. I'm less familiar with the work of John Stamps and Sirius Black, but I'm confident in their ability to deliver simply based upon the company they keep.

The talent of Friday night's headliners makes it easy to ignore the strength of the show's undercard. Do so at your own peril. To borrow a quote from Jon Rogers, Teenage Strange is "one of the heaviest, stoniest, sludge-rockinest bands EVER." The group released a monstrous 7" on local imprint GloryHole Records back in March, and it's a release that keeps finding its way to my turntable whenever I'm in search of a dense, pulsating, guitar-driven pick-me-up. The group's brand of adrenaline-infused punk should be enough to sufficiently quicken the crowd's pulse prior to the hip hop showcase. Listen to the single "Eerie Energy" here:

Originally from Kokomo, No Coast is an Indianapolis punk trio built upon a power pop foundation. Unlike most of their punk brethren, No Coast never shies away from melody. This adds an accessibility that a listener like me, with minimal patience for the full-throttle, grinding approach to hardcore punk, appreciates. No Coast released a full-length LP entitled Rock and Roll All Night (yeah right), earlier this year. For more on that release, be sure to check out Jon's write-up from earlier this summer.

All-in-all, the final installment of Listen Local aims to showcase the diversity of Central Indiana's vibrant music scene. Listen Local has seen its share of mellower moments throughout the summer, but we're closing things out with a line-up that is guaranteed to deliver bombastic energy from start to finish. As always, Listen Local is a pay-what-you-want affair, open to all ages, with donations supporting Indy Parks and Recreation. Don't sleep on what promises to be one of the summer's biggest parties. Let's close this thing out with a rager.

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