LOCAL EXPOSURE: Who's Winning?

Well, I can't really tell who's winning, but it's pretty fucking certain that Andy Dixon's near the lead. Formerly of North Vancouver punk band d.b.s. before going on to gain notoriety as glitch-pop artist Secret Mommy, Dixon's a staple of the Vancouver music scene and one who seems to have numerous projects on the go at any one time. Take last Friday, for example. When ThatRockBlog.com caught up with him, he was busy loading gear through the rear doors of 1067 on Granville Street, an underground concert venue that, for how well hidden it is, may as well have been in Surrey and up a hooker's ass somewhere. One of Dixon's many projects, Winning, was just about to open for local septet Fond of Tigers, and shortly after that, Dixon and guitarist Greg Adams had to jog on over to The Media Club to play as two of five in the Secret Mommy Quintet.

Winning is unapproachable. Or rather, it's difficult to get right out of the gate. As Dixon picked up a red toy guitar for the opener and began plucking away at it with no real sense of harmony, the anticipation was unbearable. He started to wail, his voice careening back and forth between a pained indie whine and a soaring, impassioned falsetto. If Thom Yorke ever passes a kidney stone, someone better record that shit because as I found out later that night, anything that sounds like Thom Yorke passing a kidney stone played to Winning drummer Paul Patko's jagged math rock inspired percussion is bound to be fried gold. Punk may be dead as we know it, but this is deconstructed anti-punk at its finest. Elaborately and deliberately composed to sound improvised, ditch all your musical preconceptions, hit up the Winning MySpace and listen to "Voyager". You won't be disappointed.

And if you are, here's a link to Simple Plan and a thread on where to find cheap razor blades.

A drunken detour over to 7-Eleven later -- breakfast taquitos are a sweet, sweet mistress -- I found myself at The Media Club watching another local indie act going by Basketball. Being impossible to find anywhere online with a name like that and of course, being drunk at the time, I only remember distinctly tribal percussion and the lead singer Tony jumping in and out of the throng like a raving chimpanzee in heat. Andy Dixon appeared in the crowd a moment later, clutching a beer glass and bobbing along. Secret Mommy Quintet would be up next.

Sadly, as the minutes ticked away and it became increasingly apparent that I wouldn't be able to stay for SMQ's whole set, I resigned myself to snapping what pictures I could and sneaking out quietly. For the record, their unique blend of Animal Collective-esque freak folk and I-fucking-hate-Windows-98 glitch noise combine seamlessly into a bizarrely unique musical odyssey that is wholly Dixon's own. Maintaining the soul of what Dixon was doing when Secret Mommy was still a solo project, the Secret Mommy Quintet brings together multi-instrumentalists Greg Adams, Merida and SJ (photo above) and saxophonist Shane Something-or-Other to take Dixon's vision out of the laptop and into the live world. I've never been quite so happy to see castanets onstage either.

Secret Mommy plays the Technotown Boogiedown at The Royal Unicorn with Montag and Colby Sparks on Thursday, March 20th at 10 PM.

For more photos of the Secret Mommy Quintet and Basketball at The Media Club, click here and for more snaps of Winning at 1067, go here.

Coming soon: A Fine Frenzy and The Last Scene, with a review of Cat Power's new album "Jukebox"!

Stay tuned. Or better yet, just keep refreshing this page over and over and over and over and over and...