Ever hear the one about the bored stiff med student? No? Didn’t think so. How about the one about the overachieving med student? Yeah, thought so. And how about the one about the eight-member indie-rock band from Indiana named after a character from Wes Anderson’s film The Royal Tenenbaums? More on the indie rock later; we have restless lifesaver-types to talk about first.

One of those above-mentioned “bored med students,” a youngish guitar-collecting student at the Indiana University School of Medicine named Greg Berman, found time — along with co-founder Joe Frank — to plan and inaugurate the Rock for Riley fundraiser. Defined simply in event literature as “an annual benefit concert that raises money for Riley Hospital for Children,” Rock for Riley first took off five years ago, raising over $25,000 for the hospital its first year and over $200,000 in each year since then.

You know the one about the classic rock legend who “donated” one of his 300 guitars to a charity auction, only to have it bought — and probably resold — by another classic rock legend? Well, Rock for Riley is different. The organization puts together concerts that are accessible to the general public: no black-tie fundraisers, even if there are some big-name corporate sponsors. While the bigger names — Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Wilco, My Morning Jacket and Margot — headline the group’s main annual fundraiser, Rock for Riley also launched a smaller-scale club series last year, bringing to town bands like White Rabbits, VHS or Beta, Tokyo Police Club, Kings of Leon and The Whigs.

Rock for Riley is raising money for a comprehensive outpatient center for children that employs — according to the Best Doctors in America database — 120 of the nation’s top-rated doctors. Riley’s 255,000-square-foot campus was ranked by Child Magazine No. 11 out of 250 on their annual list of the nation’s most treasured children’s hospitals.

Riley Hospital for Children, a leading establishment focused on the health of our country’s future leaders, is clearly the kind of place that deserves — and can always make positive use of — a healthy dose of charity.

Margot comes back to town

Indianapolis’ own Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s could be fast on their way to being mentioned among the Wilcos and Morning Jackets of the music world, having recently wrapped up Chicago-based recording sessions for their proper major label debut record, Animal!, their second album overall.

“I can tell you that [our album] is finally done, and that I’m very proud of it,” said Margot frontman Richard Edwards in a recent interview with NUVO. “It’s an interesting little album. The Riley show will actually be just four days after we get back from Chicago.”

Signed last year to Epic Records, current home to indie superstars Modest Mouse, Margot first hit the blogosphere in the spring of 2005 with their Standard Recording Company-issued debut, The Dust of Retreat. A critic’s favorite hailed to the moon and back, Retreat was re-released a year later by Artemis Records, a move that brought the band to national attention and put their name on the tongues of many of the country’s buzz builders.

But, chances are, you already know all that, as the Margot crew has long been one of the Indiana area’s most consistently discussed bands since the release of Retreat. You probably also know that the chamber-pop band first came together when guitarist Andy Fry and Edwards met in a pet store, both possibly on the prowl for a dog named Buckley.

Edwards moved in with Fry the next day, after playing him some songs. Soon enough, a whole slew of Edwards’ musician friends also moved to Fry’s house, thus forming the core of what is now Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s: Fry (guitar), Chris Fry (drums), Hubert Glover (trumpet), Tyler Watkins (bass), Edwards (guitar, vocals), Casey Tennis (percussion), Emily Watkins (rhodes, vocals) and Erik Kang (violin, lap steel).

“I’d like to play some of the new songs at the Riley show,” said a busy Edwards when asked for some new info about his band. “But I’m not sure that we’ll have time before the show to learn the new songs. We’ll probably play a whole bunch of older songs and six or seven new ones.”

Edwards also talked about the pressure of not just beating the supposed sophomore slump pressure/curse, but doing so with a brand spankin’ new major label record deal. “I think the pressure to further impress existed for a while — maybe we got hung up on it for a moment,” he explained. “But the second album is done now, so any of that pressure has kind of disappeared at this point. It is what it is.”

Animal! will be released this summer, likely in July. If the new song recently posted on the band’s MySpace page is any indication, neither the band nor its fans should fear a slump.

Bon Iver opening

Opening for Margot is Bon Iver, one of 2008’s most noteworthy breakout artists. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon is currently touring in support of his debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, which he recorded over a nearly four-month period while isolating himself in a remote cabin in Wisconsin. According to review database Metacritic.com, Emma is currently ranked the third best-reviewed album of the year, and is sure to become a new winter season classic for folk and Americana fans.

WHAT: Rock for Riley IV presents Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s, Bon Iver
WHERE: The Vogue, 6259 N. College Ave.
WHEN: Friday, April 4, 10 p.m., $22, 21+