In a small basement venue, crowded but not packed, Chicago rockers in Young Jesus are set to take the stage, preceding a pair of local Madison bands – Temple and Pushmi-Pullyu. A mingling audience pays little mind to the imaginary stage barrier, one broken throughout the night as the bands play with the crowd.
To the right, a group of 20-somethings devours pizzas and downing drinks. To the left, several more crowd the bar to begin the night’s revelries. It feels like a house party, but there are no bedrooms up the stairs. There is a kitchen, though, where the staff of Bellini’s Italian restaurant is closing up for the night. But here in the basement, the party has just begun.
The Dragonfly Lounge, Madison’s freshest, and probably smallest, venue is up and running on a Friday night. It caters to the local scene driven by Mine All Mine Records, a label essential to the Lounge’s creation.
Mine All Mine shares several connections with bartenders at Bellini’s and the Dragonfly Lounge. Several of the bartenders play in Mine All Mine bands, and nearly all of them are involved in the local music scene. This made the Lounge an organic and inevitable creation, according to Mine All Mine co-founder Corey Murphy, who said he also plays in three bands including Fambly Fun!
Murphy said the space that is now the Dragonfly Lounge had long been an after-hours hangout for Bellini’s employees and owners who shared a passion for music. But its official uses were limited to private events and wedding parties seeking an intimate atmosphere.
“I don’t really know why it wasn’t a venue sooner,” Murphy said with a shrug. “It helped that all the owners and employees are really into music … so we developed a partnership with them via Harrison [a friend and bartender at the Lounge].”
Tom Teslik, a member of Friday’s headliners Pushmi-Pullyu was also instrumental in the venue’s conception. Teslik also volunteers regularly at the Project Lodge, so his musical connections run deep throughout Madison. The cozy atmosphere keeps him coming back to listen and play, even when he’s not on the clock at Dragonfly.
“There’s a great ambiance here and just good vibes, like a speakeasy,” Teslik said. “It’s like a great house party with a full sound system and a full bar.”
Teslik played the Dragonfly Lounge’s first official show, a free release party for his December 2011 EP, It’s On The Sleeve. Later, Murphy said Mine All Mine started booking six-show series, each with a theme. Themes thus far have catered to pop and indie rock, and Murphy said an acoustic series is in the works. Then, for fair contrast, they hope to put on a metal show – if the Lounge can handle it.
Friday’s show marked the start of a new series, and the first one to charge admission.
“The first series was free … to build awareness for the venue and the label. But this is really the first thing MAM has ever done to make any money,” Murphy said, adding that it’s “basically been all charity so far.”
According to Murphy, John Praw had been running the label for five years, offering free downloads for its bands online. While Mine All Mine releases primarily music from Madison bands, its reach spans the globe. The band has put out albums from bands hailing from faraway countries like South Africa and New Zealand, Murphy said. It makes you wonder how such distant musicians catch wind of an independent label in Wisconsin.
“We get a lot of stuff through email from bands that just came across us online,” Murphy said. “A lot of it tends to be kind of weird, ambient stuff, and I think that crowd generally gravitates online because it’s hard to find people locally who will listen to weird stuff.”
As the startup of the Dragonfly Lounge indicates, the Mine All Mine aesthetic is patently DIY. They burn the CDs on their own computer and package them in handmade cases, according to Murphy. Cardboard cases actually give the physical releases more character in a sense, differentiating them from standard jewel cases and mass-produced liner notes. Each copy is unique to its owner, Murphy said.
And the ambition only increases with their projects. MAM Founder John Praw wasn’t present for the interview, so while the details are hazy, Murphy mentioned an upcoming project that will contribute part of its revenue to Heifer International, an organization that donates cows and other animals to families in need as a step towards their self-reliance.
The project will include shows from bands from three major Midwest cities, Milwaukee, Madison and Minneapolis, along with a compilation CD. In a later interview, MAM Founder John Praw explained that a portion of the proceeds from this project and others helps to fund numerous charities, such as Heifer International and SlaveFree Madison. Further income goes toward MAM releases, which launches the music that brings money back through ticket sales to go to more charities; a giving cycle.
Mine All Mine has lofty goals, but they are humanitarian goals that are entirely achievable. Hearing about their charitable projects Friday night made it easy to forget the more immediate work at hand – Teslik had a show to play, after cheering and grooving to Young Jesus and Temple, of course.
As each band in turn nailed its own energetic breed of rock to the Dragonfly Lounge, it was clear this was something much bigger than a great house party.
The Dragonfly Lounge is located at 401 E. Washington Ave. For more information on Mine All Mine records, check out www.mamrecords.com.
Editors note: Several changes have been made from the original article to reflect the fact that MAM is a social entrepreneurship that donates part of its intake to several charities, including, but not exclusively, Heifer International.
