Description
Arden is excited to welcome that most innovative of rock guitarists, well known for his crucial work with Tom Waits and Elvis Costello: Marc Ribot and his explosive trio, Ceramic Dog.
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By May 2020, Marc Ribot had begun to find being depressed depressing. The guitarist and his Ceramic Dog trio—bassist/multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Ches Smith—hadn’t played for months. With precautions in place, the trio headed to Ismaily’s Figure 8 Recording studio in Brooklyn and set about capturing eight originals that reflect the era’s uncertainty. “Originally,” Ribot says, “we were going to call it Better Luck Next Time, but that felt… somehow unnecessary.” Throughout Hope, Ribot flexes minimalist storytelling skills to sketch life’s ennui—a kind of pointlessness that goes far beyond existentialism. “This record, versus that last one, has more of the effects of political burnout,” he says—and the overriding passion that drove Ceramic Dog back into the studio is palpably audible on every track.
Marc Ribot’s trio Ceramic Dog previous LP has Ribot howling in anger at corruption, tyranny, life in general, and nothing in particular. Ribot certainly isn’t the only one piling-on, but if you’ve got a serious case of outrage fatigue, Ceramic Dog’s explosive cocktail of balls-to-the-wall abandon, chameleonic disregard for style constraints, political commentary, and absurdist humor is just the shot in the ass you might need. In fact, Ceramic Dog’s previous album — titled YRU Still Here?— directed in equal parts at themselves, the previous commander in chief, and the listening public — arrived just in time to remind us that it was a moment when anger is not only necessary, and unavoidable, but also good for house plants . Thanks in no small part to the fire, brimstone, and dextrous facility summoned by kindred spirits Shahzad Ismaily (Secret Chiefs 3, Will Oldham, Ben Frost) on bass and drummer Ches Smith (Xiu Xiu, Secret Chiefs 3, Trevor Dunn’s Trio Convulsant), YRU Still Here? comes to the table armed with more than just sloganeering rhetoric. By way of stylistic explanation, Ribot comments: “Yes, we too are subject to the post-modern condition, but we see it as a kind of psoriasis.” Alongside his monumental career forging his peerless guitar style with the likes of Tom Waits, John Zorn, the Lounge Lizards, etc, Ribot has also worked for decades as a tenant union and artist rights activist, where he master ed the agit-prop skills used to such dazzling effect on hits such as “Fuck La Migra” and “Muslim/Jewish Resistance”. As much as it is a rallying cry, though, YRU Still Here? also further consecrates Ribot’s bond with Ismaily and Smith, referring to them as his “musical conscience” and to the band as a “family…although not always in a good way”. “After all the playing I’ve done,” Ribot explains, “there’s just something about this group that still manages to shock me.”