By May 2020, Marc Ribot had begun to find being depresseddepressing. The guitarist and his Ceramic Dogtrio\u2014bassist\/multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismailyand drummer Ches Smith\u2014hadn\u2019t played for months.So, allinvolved decided to head to Ismaily\u2019s Figure 8 Recordingstudio in Brooklyn to record what would becomeHope,setfor release June 25 on Northern Spy. \u201cOriginally,\u201dRibot says, \u201cwe were going to call itBetter LuckNext Time, but thatfelt… somehow unnecessary.\u201dThe band, which has been releasing music since 2008,devised an order of operations to enter the studio,wash theirhands and set up at a safe remove. Ribot, Ismailyand Smith never actually saw each during the sessionsbecause ofthe safeguards; they were working to keep the bassist’s“fucked up“ lungs from compromising his health. Butbecauseof Ismaily’s technical facility, they all „heard eachother better than ever,“ Ribot said. With precautionsin place, the trioset about capturing eight originals that reflect theera\u2019s uncertainty and cap it with a reimagining ofDonovan\u2019s \u201cWearYour Love Like Heaven,\u201d where the trio turns the idealisticpsych-folk effort into a ruminative, spoken-wordpiece.Harnessing pent-up artistic longing, the sessionsalso yielded enough material forWhat I Did On MyLong ‚Vacation‘,something of a teaser for this current dispatch backin October 2020. \u201cWhen I took a taxi over to thestudio with myamp, that was the first time I’d been in a cab inthree or four months,\u201d recalled Ribot, who\u2019s performedwith TomWaits, Jack McDuff, Diana Krall and countless others.\u201cAnd I only took a cab once; the other times I wenton mybicycle. I was a very good boy.\u201d\u201cWanna,\u201d a tune on the new album, simply reflectsthe band\u2019s incalculable joy at being able to playsome rock \u2019n\u2019 rollagain. But on a few songs [check out \u201cB Flat Ontology\u201d]Ribot flexes minimalist storytelling skills to sketchlife\u2019sennui\u2014a kind of pointlessness that goes far beyondexistentialism.\u201cMy \u2018No Wave\u2019 roots are showing\u201d Ribot said about\u201cThey Met In The Middle,\u201d a tune that pulses and shuffles,andbenefits from the outside contribution of alto saxophonistDarius Jones. \u201cIt’s a song about not going anywhere.Youcan go nowhere by staying in the same place, or bygoing in circles. This song is about people who goplaces andthen go back. There are a lot of ways to go nowhere.\u201dSome of Ribot\u2019s recordings have been more immediatelypolitical. HisSongs of Resistance1942-2018from2018was unapologetically agitprop, and Ceramic Dog\u2019sYRUStill Here?, from that same year, spanned the perenniallypoignant „Muslim Jewish Resistance“ and the punky“Fuck La Migra.“ OnHope, \u201cThe Activist,\u201d is moresatire thanrebuke.\u201cI wrote that after sitting at the millionthpolitical meeting that didn\u2019t get anything done,\u201dsaid Ribot, \u201cSo, in thissong, I was channeling people who really enjoyed mouthinga bunch of radical sounding shit, as opposed to actuallydoing what urgently needed to be done.\u201d Smith furthercontextualized the tune, and the album overall: \u201cThisrecord,versus that last one, has more of the effects of politicalburnout.\u201d ***Resisting musical, historical and political categorization,\u201cThe Long Goodbye\u201d and \u201cMaple Leaf Rage\u201d\u2014a pair ofinstrumentals toward the end ofHope\u2014move throughmoods and attitudes while providing a 23-minute ballasttoRibot\u2019s poetic commentary. \u201cI think Marc has a painterlyway of following his intuition about whether we needaninstrumental moment or not after some lyrical, text-basedmusic has happened,\u201d Ismaily said. \u201cI think it’sjust followingthe subtle intuition of balancing the scales and what’staking place in a listener\u2019s emotional experience.\u201dEven as the bandleader crafted detailed snapshotsof pandemic-era life forHope, the overriding passionthat droveCeramic Dog back into the studio last spring is palpablyaudible on every track. \u201cWe were so happy to be playing,recording, and making music again,\u201d Ribot said. \u201cInfuture times\u2014if there are future times\u2014when peoplelook back onthe last year, they’re not going to believe it. Butthis record was our witness… and our life-line.\u201d*** Ribot, on the steering committee of MusicWorkersAlliance.org,now goes to more meetings than ever.<\/p>\n
B-Flat Ontology 00:05:40
\nNickelodeon 00:04:57
\nWanna 00:03:58
\nThe Activist 00:07:03
\nBertha the Cool 00:05:07
\nThey Met in the Middle 00:05:49
\nThe Long Goodbye 00:10:02
\nMaple Leaf Rage 00:13:30
\nWear Your Love Like Heaven 00:05:30<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marc Ribot \u2013 guitars, vocals, E-flat horn, vocoder, farfisa;
\nShahzad Ismaily \u2013 bass, moog, synthesizers, vocals;
\nChes Smith \u2013 drums, electronics;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1012,"template":"","meta":[],"class_list":["post-1002","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-new-releases","product_tag-marc-ribots-ceramic-dog","first","instock","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enjarecords.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enjarecords.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enjarecords.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enjarecords.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enjarecords.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}