Tiny Desk Concert? Indy says Yes!

Wow! We were blown away by the number of Indy musicians who entered NPR's Tiny Desk Concert contest. Of the nearly 7,000 entries to the contest, dozens of them (66, to be exact), came from Indianapolis, and we couldn’t resist sharing a few of them with you.

The Whipstitch Sallies

Nuvo once called the Whipstitch Sallies “bluegrass rockers with panache.” Allie Burbrink, who plays banjo and guitar in the band, sometimes describes their music as “alt-bluegrass."

“We have a bluegrass inspiration, but that’s not where we stay. We try to take it to a newer, more contemporary level,” she said.

Along with Burbrink, the Whipstitch Sallies are Katie Burk, who plays fiddle, Sam Roberts on mandolin and guitar, and Kat Erickson on bass. All four of the women take turns singing lead, something Burbrink says sets them apart from a lot of other groups.

The Whipstitch Sallies are celebrating five years of playing together.

Coyote Armada

The band Coyote Armada started in the winter of 2011, when its original members were students at Butler University. These days, they’re living pretty far apart, says singer and guitarist Bob Barrick. But they stay in touch with their music, and their fans.

While no artist wants to put themselves into a box or a genre, Barrick said, he considers Coyote Armada as “more of an Americana band, alt-country. We also venture into experimental ideas.”

Along with Barrick, Coyote Armada is multi-instrumentalist Josh Turner, Craig Middleton on bass, Patterson Day on percussion and Reid Swenson on fiddle.

Rob Funkhouser

To Rob Funkhouser, pretty much anything can be a drum.

A drum made from a propane tank (called a hank drum), stainless steel mixing bowls, aluminum pot lids – those are some of the instruments for his percussion improvisations.

He started playing percussion in high school, and he says that his experiments with the acoustics of everyday objects started by necessity when he was asked to play a gig where taking a drum kit was out of the question.

He left Indiana for the thriving music scene in Austin, Texas for a while, but last summer, he came back.

“Frankly, Indianapolis has given me a lot of what I wanted out of Austin,” Funkhouser said. “I wanted to be in a scene that was growing. Austin’s music scene is very developed. In Indy, we’re trying to grow up as a city in terms of our art scene. That part is fun.”

Tonos Triad

Aaron Ransdell of Tonos Triad was already a fan of the Tiny Desk concert when he heard about the contest.

“I went to band practice, and we put it on our list of things to do, and we made our video and submitted it,” Ransdell said. “It’s kind of like buying a lottery ticket.”

Ransdell describes their music as “jazzpop-Eurofolk” or progressive folk-jazz.”

Ransdell and band co-founder Rod Schindler formed Tonos Triad in 2006, but they met several years before that, when both of them were hired as security guards at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. They became friends, and got together sometimes to play guitar. Ransdell says that a visit to the Wheeler Arts Community in Fountain Square really got them thinking about how they could use music in new and artistic ways. They bought new instruments – Schindler branched out to mandolin and percussion, Ransdell to upright bass. Guitarist Luke Stanley joined the group in 2012, replacing Yevgeny Barburin.

The Bonesetters

Dan Snodgrass has been a fan of Tiny Desk concerts for years, but he learned about the contest from some musician friends who had posted their own entry.

He asked Indy film producer Paul Symons to shoot one for his band, The Bonesetters. Snodgrass founded the Bonesetters founded six years ago with Sam Shafer.

“It was cool to be a part of that – to give something back to something that’s brought joy and entertainment to us,” he said.

Snodgrass wasn’t surprised to hear that more than 60 musicians entered the Tiny Desk contest, given the city’s growing music scene.

“There’s such diversity – there’s just so much going on here and everybody is ingrained in each other’s work – it’s really healthy right now, and a joy to be part of,” he said.

And there's more!

Stephanie Holman (Sphie)

Native Sun

Richard Armada

Mark Benham

Manners, Please

Dr. Bass + vicelikemiami

Sarah Grain & the Billions of Stars

The Knollwood Boys

ToeKnee Tea

Endiana