The Alaska Folk Festival wrapped up the weekend of Juneau and drew artists from all over the state and across the nation.
KRBD met with the Ketchikan-based trio of psychedelic rock Dude Mtn, who played four shows throughout Juneau during the festival’s week-long run.
Some bands are difficult to define. Not Dude Mtn is the guitarist and frontman Cullen McCormick.
“Psychadelic jam, psychadelic band, blues and three cool dudes,”” McCormick said in an interview.
The group officially began its journey in McCormick’s garage by 2020. Two of the band members had been playing for a long time in Ketchikan’s music scene that was interconnected.
McCormick as well as Bassist Chazz Gist first met in the latter part of 2010 in their band the Ratfish Wranglers, a ” subaquatic rock” group that was led by Ketchikan artist Ray Troll. The pair then joined forces along with drummer Kalijah LeCornu, who was the support band for open mic night in Ketchikan.
Gist states that experience provides them a variety of choices.
“We have a variety of sets for various kinds of locations,” Gist said.
Soon they started to sing across Ketchikan. In the beginning, they were known as”the Dude Mountain Boys.
“It was a bit to ‘ O Brother Where Are Thou and did not really represent our culture,” McCormick said. “Dude Mtn really sounds like the psychedelic rock of isn’t it?”
The band’s name is a reference to a mountain, which is an infamous hiking trail that runs in the northern part of Ketchikan. McCormick states that it’s a method to carry a touch of Ketchikan to wherever they perform.
McCormick claims he began playing guitar after he had mastered his Guitar Hero games as a young child. He remembers proudly showing off his dad the time he mastered one of the games’ most difficult difficulty.
“He asked, ‘Why should you get rid of the plastic piece and get an actual one?” he said. “So they bought me an instrument, and it just became a fad.”
Dude Mtn played four shows in a trip from Juneau at Juneau’s Alaska Folk Festival, culminating in an Saturday night performance on The Alaskan Hotel as well as Bar on the 15th of April. McCormick states that the show in the Alaskan was a memorable one as they performed for more than four hours in a row without breaks.
“We played and played since it was jam-packed inside — it was impossible to leave the place,” he said. “Didn’t even glance at the clock. We let it go.”
Manager of the bar Morgan Gaither says it was the most successful night for sales that she’s experienced in the three years she’s worked at the Alaskan and perhaps one of the largest in the hotel’s history of 110 years.
“The crowd was never able to take any breaks. The crowd was completely engaged throughout the whole duration, which is remarkable,” she said via phone.
The show also featured the latest element to LeCornu’s drum kit located at the Juneau Salvation Army thrift store: an old fire alarm.
“Nobody’s ever seen an alarm sound in a solo fashion? Who’s to say that honestly that they’ve never seen a solo fire alarm?” McCormick said.
Dude Mtn also played Juneau’s Crystal Saloon and the Sandbar and Grill in their run across The Capital City, plus a special show in the famous downtown dumpling shop Pel’meni.
“It was a sort of ‘if you’re aware’ basis,” he said. “And that place is already small, but it was packed shoulder-to-shoulder. We were playing the entire the acoustic.”
This was Dude Mtn’s third visit to Juneau following an appearance at the Crystal Saloon show last Octoer which was advertised as an “Ketchikan Takeover.” McCormick and his bandmates said it was a memorable excursion along to the Inside Passage.
“We are incredibly grateful for the support here in Ketchikan However, the opportunity to go elsewhere as a group, and to be received as we were did felt really great in our work,” he said.
McCormick declares that Dude Mountain is recording an EP of original tracks that they hope to release before the end of spring or in the early summer. They’re planning to play in the Southeast this summer, with a planned appearance at an event celebrating the summer solstice held at the Ketchikan’s Hole in the Wall Marina in June. They’ll return to Juneau to perform at Alaska Fashion Week in July.
