INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
When a character becomes a band
by Jeff Napier
Creepin’ CharleyThe Vogue
Thursday, June 22
Creepin’ Charley & the Boneyard Orchestra released their first CD earlier this year, Bright Lights, Wicked City. It’s a bare-fisted ride through an almost pulp-noir cosmopolitan landscape of broken people and dark whispers.
During the past couple years, the band has built up its rep with a killer stage show, featuring Shelby Kelley’s guttural vocals. “Creepin’ Charley started out as a character that I’d created. The band was originally there to back up these songs that I’d had written for this character. But as we went along, it was apparent that the character of Creepin’ Charley was turning into a band called Creepin’ Charley,” Kelley explains.
“‘High Price in Hell’ from Bright Lights is sorta like the beginning of what we’re doing now,” Kelley continues. “And these new songs are really the first songs we’ve done as a band, with everybody pitching in and giving their own two cents.”
Indeed, when the band lost original members guitarist Jeff Kleindorfer and vocalist/percussionist Angie Walker, it was a sad day, especially given Walker’s undeniable presence on the stage. But then Eric Grimmett came into the fold and Creepin’ Charley has stepped up a notch. Grimmett, whom you might remember from such local bands as The Beautiful Authentic Zoo Gods, Transportation and Hypnotic Velvet Propellers, was smarting from the train wreck of his last band, um, Trainwreck, and came into the fold fired up and eager to participate in a more democratic atmosphere.