I did the voice tracks for this episode yesterday sitting on the wood edge of a large sandbox in a closed public park in Morris Plains, NJ, while my son played with the various digger trucks that adorn the place. Fitting that I should be here now too, writing this. He loves it here. Did last summer too, but is now capable of a bunch more imaginative play than he was a few months ago. Pandemic boredom and being stuck at home has expanded his capacity in that regard notably.

That’s life I guess.

While I’m thinking about it, I don’t really explore it in the show, but I’m continually fascinated by the perceived dichotomy between art and “real life,” as though the function of your day should be menial and any creative endeavor hidden away like a secret masturbatory fetish. No. The art is life. They go together. If you need the one, you need to make it part of the other or you’re sunk. Even if you create alone, you don’t do it in a vacuum and to pretend otherwise is just dumb.

Anyway, the show. It’s good and you should check it out. Will you? Probably not, but if you like lists of bands, here’s one. If you do listen, I kind of go on about music as an escapist trance in the second voice break. Again, while my son digs in the sand. That’s life.

Thanks for listening if you do.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmeradio.com

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 05.15.20

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Radio airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is May 29 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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International economic devastation coinciding with a rise in right-wing nationalism sound familiar to anyone? If not, The Shell Collector might like to go ahead and remind you of the history repeating itself before your very eyes. The Berlin (presumably at least in part by way of Italy) trio released their cumbersomely-titled single-track EP, Raw, Improvised and Live from a Studio in Nalepastrasse, on April 29 to coincide with the anniversary of Italy’s liberation from fascism, and I’ll be damned if the accordingly 29-minute piece isn’t a refresher on how broad freedom can sound, running as it does between psychedelia, progressive metal, classic heavy and six or seven other styles of rock along the winding course it takes. Easy to dig where they’re coming from here in terms of message and groove alike. And let’s say you don’t even make it through the first 10 minutes of the thing. Isn’t the notion of “fuck fascism” worth clicking play once?

To that end, the following:

The Shell Collector – Raw, Improvised and Live from a Studio in Nalepastrasse

We, the Shell Collector, love a great written piece of music. Being in control of every detail. Extracting everything out of the situation, our voices, our instruments. But what about undermining that control? What is left? Just hit record and play.

This is a musical conversation among brothers. Bandmates. Friends.
A resistance piece that is unrehearsed, unedited and free of preconceptions.
We played through limits, common rules and restrictions of time.

Live from a studio in Nalepastrasse, Berlin.

We want to share this half an hour improvisation with you, in commemoration of the liberation of Italy from Fascism, which ended on 29 April 1945. A day when the common people were finally freed and impositions were uplifted, resulting in the hanging of several tyrannic figures as a symbol of political and spiritual freedom.

The Shell Collector is an alternative progressive rock trio, born in 2012 and now based in Berlin. A new EP is going to be released very soon. You can find TSC´s music in Bandcamp, Spotify, Soundcloud, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

The Shell Collector are:
Enrico Tiberi – guitar and vocals
Gianluca Gulino – bass
Kay Ketting – drums

https://www.facebook.com/theshellcollector/
https://theshellcollector.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/theshellcollector/

The Shell Collector, Raw, Improvised and Live from a Studio in Nalepastrasse (2020)