by: Adrian Varnam

Escape from Dude Mountain: Vandou Du Jour
featuring Subterrene, Bête Tête and Donovan Quixote
Friday, June 26th, 10pm
Soapbox Laundro Lounge, $5
www.myspace.com/escapedude

“And now for something completely different,” as Monty Python-alum John Cleese would say. In a town not known for an experimental music scene, something different has seemed to be brewing just beneath the surface in home studios and social-networking sites in Wilmington for quite some time now. Although pockets of experimentation can often be seen at various venues, studios or galleries around town, rarely do these artists get the opportunity to join forces and dedicate a night to their performances with the intention of sharing it with those outside of their inner circle. Sometimes the decision to be insular is self-imposed; often, it is because there’s very little precedent set in this city for music considered too outside the norm.

This weekend one such group of artists hopes to break down those artistic barriers and bring experimental music to the masses, while inspiring anyone within earshot to move to the beat. Known collectively as Escape from Dude Mountain (EFDM), these artists promise an evening unlike any that has come before it.

Recently, encore spoke with EFDM contributor Bill Donovan, aka Donovan Quixote, about their upcoming avant-garde dance party, Vaudou Du Jour, and about the state of experimental music in the Port City.

e: What is Escape from Dude Mountain, exactly, and in what direction do you see this collection headed?
Donovan Quixote: Escape from Dude Mountain is a collective consciousness—the idea that artists and musicians, poets and painters work together, sharing ideas and helping to promote each other’s work. It comes from a retired restaurant owner, Frank Stuggins of Stuggins Pub and Grille. Driven mad by corporate pressure to franchise globally, when asked what he was going to do after signing the rights to SP&G to Westinghouse in 1978, Stuggins dryly replied, “Escape from dude mountain.” He is now chief A&R over at EFDM online, listening to new, unknown artists constantly and couldn’t be happier. So it’s kind of like his pet thing, but [fellow contributors] T. R. Lang and Brian Lang and I keep it moving.

Eventually we’d like to publish and distribute our and our friends’ albums and books, etc, through Escape from Dude Mountain, in limited-run editions, like Bête Tête’s Ji Mo Di package, which included [a] T-shirt, Chinese coin necklace, trading cards and handmade CD. Or MEOW 2010, an EFDM cat calendar (for cats).

For now we’re constantly making mix-tapes of new bands (or new old-school discoveries), trying to find local shows for bands on the road, seeing our friends’ shows, bouncing ideas off one another, and thinking ahead to the next idea.

e: This upcoming performance, Vaudou Du Jour, is advertised as an “avant-garde-dance party.” Why dance as a complementary art form, and how do you see it and experimental music coming together in this event specifically?
DQ: The music we’re writing for this is more rhythm-oriented. Although I work with beats a lot, they tend to be really murky and cerebral, so it’s a personal challenge as well to write and arrange more direct, more visceral versions of my material. Voodoo drum samples are in high supply.

I know Bête Tête has been listening to a lot of Bronski Beat and Li’l Wayne. Lord knows what they’re concocting, but I’ll bet it’ll be awesome. And you gotta love the dubstep. Subterrene is always molding new beat and bass creatures. Plus, we’re going to deejay after the performances, keep[ing] the roof on fire ‘til 2[am].”

e: Tell me what encore readers can expect from the EFDM show and why should they attend?
DQ: Man, people who come to EFDM shows should expect to hear some new, bad-ass music that they’ve never heard before. At Vaudou Du Jour, they’re gonna shake it like a wet dog, and they’ll know they got something potent and special—music written for one night only, the voodoo of the day.

When they wake up the next morning, they’re gonna smile about it. They’ll be brushing their teeth trying to define the music they’d heard, [and] everyone will have a different answer—their own answer. That’s the beauty of it.”

e: What’s your opinion on the current Wilmington or NC “scene” in regards to more experimental music, and how would you like to see it grow?
DQ: It’s really fertile, and incredibly productive. Local artists constantly release slews of recordings online or in limited press, and many seem to have two or three ideas or projects running at a time. We do it ourselves, even run our own net labels in some cases, with our peers as our core fanbase and most ardent supporters. That’s really the key to our buoyancy—if we didn’t have each other, we’d sink. I can always count on [fellow artists] Bête Tête, Subterrene, FOOD WORLD, the Caucasians, and the 910 Noise posse in general to download my records and attend the performances.

We get some cross-pollination with metalheads and punk fans, but the scene is pretty self-contained. I really would love to see a broadening of those borders though—get more ears hearing adventurously, taking more chances.

Experimental music in Wilmington is going to continue to survive conceptually. There’s no shortage of mad scientists here. But in order for it to thrive, it really needs exposure and support from the community at large. It’s like we’re just outside the radar but right under everyone’s noses.