Lovelines

It’s almost time—this Saturday, August 30th at the Brass Rail in downtown Fort Wayne, we’re producing LOVELINES: A Tribute to The Replacements. This show will feature five incredible bands, including two local “supergroups” and one touring band from Austin, TX. We’re thrilled to be able to present:
 

 
It’s been awhile since we put on a show outside of our own B-Side walls, and this is definitely the one to come out strong with: a night celebrating the joyous, cathartic music of one of the best rock bands in the history of the world, while raising funds for an incredible musician who helped bring all of this music to life, enriching many lives along the way. For all the details about the show, scroll down for an interview with Matt Kelley by E.A. Poorman of the Fort Wayne Reader. Before we get to that, though, a word on the art direction and marketing for this event. I suppose if you have to explain your graphic design, it may not be working! But this poster has a pretty fun story…

“Lovelines” is a semi-obscure song from The Replacements second-and-a-half album, Hootenanny. The story is that the band had the music, but not the lyrics, and so when they were in the studio recording the album, singer Paul Westerberg simply picked up a copy of the Minneapolis City Pages and started stringing together lyrics from the personal ads in the back of the publication. At the very end of the song, you can hear Paul note the date of the issue of City Pages he used.Well, we tracked it down, cut it into pieces, and used the content as the basis of this poster. We created a new masthead, and semi-subtly inserted the names of the five bands playing our tribute show, but all other content is real—word-for-word. (And we have to admit, it’s alternately salacious and touching, hilarious and sad.)We’ll have posters on sale at The Brass Rail on Saturday. $5, and all money will go to the Slim Dunlap Fund.

And, I should mention, I’m in Big Star Big, and we’re on at 10PM sharp! See you then.

E.A. Poorman: So how did the Lovelines show come about? This is more than just a tribute to the Replacements. It’s a fundraiser of sorts too, correct? Raising funds for the Slim Dunlap Fund?

Matt Kelley: Yeah, you know, for the last year or two, One Lucky Guitar had kinda taken a break from booking shows at any venue beyond The B-Side. It felt like it was time to do something again at our favorite bar, The Brass Rail.

The backstory is this: a couple years ago, former Replacements guitarist Slim Dunlap suffered a stroke. He recovered and went home, but his home healthcare costs are enormous and the medical bills stacked up. Slim was the Replacements’ second guitarist, after Bob Stinson, and played and toured the last three albums. After the Mats called it quits, Slim released a couple of solo albums, and they have hooks for miles—just really great, sloppy & poppy & rootsy rock and roll songs. Well, a fundraising tribute record seemed like a no-brainer, but Peter Jesperson (former ‘Mats manager and current head of New West Records) took it to a new place with a year-long series of limited edition 7” singles that were auctioned off on eBay. The first release featured an EP by the reunited version of The Replacements—with their first release of all new material in 22 years—and raised over $100K. Over the course of the year, that was followed up with monthly split 7”’ers featuring the likes of Jeff Tweedy, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Deer Tick and more. (I actually won a couple of auctions, scoring the Joe Henry/Jakob Dylan and Frank Black/You Am I releases.) At the end of the year, the singles were collected on a CD, which is killer.

Anyway, Slim’s story is so moving, and he seems like such an incredible guy, and the more I dug into what was going on, I just wanted to see if there was something we could do to raise some funds for him, and the idea of this show came about.

I contacted Slim’s wife and daughter, and they were beyond thankful that we were thinking of them. They’ve been overcome by the outpouring of love and support from fans of The Replacements.

All money collected at the door will go to the Slim Dunlap Fund, and we’ll also hopefully have some t-shirts and posters that we can sell to raise bucks, too. Hoping to raise $1,500.

“Lovelines” is, of course, a reference to an old Replacements song, and even though that song is about (im)personal ads, I suppose this show is all of our chance to write a little love note to The Replacements.

Oh, and I believe this will be the best show in Fort Wayne this year with the word “Line” in the title.

Who’s all playing on August 30th? Fort Wayne is filled with extremely talented artists and bands, how did you go about asking guys and gals to play the show? 

We have five bands—and the first two are becoming bands just for this show! Plus, The Jury is playing out for the first time in a few years. I saw their setlist and it is going to…{continued}