Wendy Spitzer writes and sings all of the songs, and plays the electrified bass guitar. Jay Cartwright plays the accordion. Lawson Bennett plays the organ. Bill McCormick (Billy Sugarfix) plays the drums. Dylan Thurston plays the xylophone/marimba hybrid thingy we bought from a nervous couple in Carrboro.
Influences
Lars Hollmer, Raymond Scott, Sufjan Stevens, The Residents, Deerhoof, Talking Heads & Paul Hindemith.
Sounds Like
Felix Obelix-The Heart Monitor from Billy Sugarfix on Vimeo.
The music the pit orchestra plays at the circus that the shackled bears dance to, on the day the bears, finally, after years of gnawing at the metal of the shackles, are able to break free of them, and suddenly experience true freedom for the first time since they were cubs, and this melody of the freewheeling destruction the bears wreak is balanced by the countermelody of the musicians running for their lives, the happy and the sad, the shackled and the free, the home of saved and land of the scream.
Or, alternately: some people playin some songs, gettin together to jam out, some originals, you know, original material, I heard about this bar that pays, like, $150 if you cover Sweet Home Alabama, dude, I kinda, thought maybe we could play that, you know, get some real gigs and stuff. Could be sweet, I dunno.
Felix Obelix is the songwriting project of Wendy Spitzer (Lemming Malloy, The Physics of Meaning, The Gates of Beauty, Triangle Soundpainting Orchestra, ex-Eyes to Space). Her music is a jerky blend of rocksy whatnot, avant-garde whosit and old-fashioned multiple-meter mathematical moxie: the twisted hits from unpopular Big-Note piano books that never were. Song topics lie squarely in the land of dread. The inevitable march of time, finding meaning in life before death, the sticky mess of memory -- these are all handled with a wry ear for irony, but with ample heart too. Felix Obelix is the idea that you can't go home again, and wouldn't want to if you could, and if you did, you would find it had been razed to the ground, with a Gulp-and-Go built in its place, where you would buy your slushee and marvel in its sweet goodness, because hey you're thirsty, and you always hated that house anyway.
realeditorbest profile toolsrealeditorbest profile tools
What was the October date you told me for ArtsCenter? Right now, it's not yet up on the venue's nor your calendar, and I don't want to chance missing it.
It was a treat to see you, Jay, and the rest of Lemming Malloy last night!
Online Now!
... M A M Y K Ô ... 
MONTRÉAL QUÉBEC CANADA
