Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog

 

Sunday June 22nd 2025 7:30PM | Azrieli Studio, National Arts Centre

Dimanche 22 juin 2025 19h30 | Studio Azrieli, Centre national des Arts

 

(noise rock trio)

CERAMIC DOG: Marc Ribot- guitar/vocals, Shahzad Ismaily- bass/moog/electronics, Ches Smith- drums/electronics

On the band’s 5th studio release, Connection (July 2023), Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog have pushed their long-brewing tension between traditional pop songcraft and avantgarde improvisational music to the breaking point, bridging their customary genre-agnostic approach with elements of glam boogie, minimalist disco, psychedelic boogaloo, garage-punk-against-the-machine agitprop, and so much more. Recorded at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn, NY and mixed by Ben Greenberg (Danny Elfman, Depeche Mode, Lamb of God) the album sees Ribot – whose prodigious, impossible-to-categorize body of work as bandleader and musician spans no wave and jazz, Brazilian and Cuban music, roots and avant-garde and protest songs (often at the same time) alongside legendary collaborations with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, The Lounge Lizards, John Zorn, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Caetano Veloso, and Laurie Anderson (to name but a few) – continuing to utilize Ceramic Dog (with bassist Shahzad Ismaily of Arooj Aftab & Vijay Iyer’s Love in Exile, and drummer Ches Smith of Secret Chiefs 3, Xiu Xiu, etc) as the vessel for his distinctive stream-of-consciousness songwriting, penning three out of the album’s four vocal tracks including the groove-infected “Ecstasy” (showcasing Anthony Coleman’s slinky Farfisa and longtime friend and associate Syd Straw behind the mic). From the anthemic manifesto “Soldiers in the Army of Love” to the unhinged ranting of “Heart Attack” and indescribable “No Name,” Ceramic Dog unleash a fury of complex time signatures, blues abstraction, and free-blowing energy to create their most unapologetically audacious collection thus far, their one-of-a-kind daring evidenced by the unlikely cover of Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz’s “That’s Entertainment,” written especially for the 1953 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical film The Band Wagon but here, in Ribot and Co’s hands, deconstructs Hollywood cliches while simultaneously winking at both the post-punk and post-Cultural Revolution iterations of the Gang of Four. Fueled by what Ribot calls “several bolts of creative lightning,” Connections stands as a vibrant, odd, and in many ways definitive milestone in what is truly a singular creative journey for Marc Ribot and Ceramic Dog, its zeitgeist-busting sound and vision not only affirming their place in the musical universe but raising the stakes for whatever comes next.

Declared by Ribot to be “the best record we’ve ever done,” Connection sees Ceramic Dog furthering their long flirtation with various strains of rock ‘n’ roll while remaining fully entrenched in their signature approach to improvised music, augmented by contributions by such special guests as singer-songwriter Syd Straw, keyboardist Anthony Coleman, saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, organist Greg Lewis, clarinetist Oscar Noriega, and cellist Peter Sachon.

“ Ceramic Dog, a power trio of jazz geniuses who inflect literate rock with formidable chops. The synthesis is frenetic, potent, and at odds with the zeitgeist, even if Ribot’s lyrics decry today’s political oppression: Musically, he rejects both the voguish and the virtuosic in favor of his own whims…His progressive sentiments are welcome, and unfortunately more relevant than ever.”
-Pitchfork 2023

"On Ceramic Dog (which also features Shahzad Ismaily and Ches Smith), Connection, the prolific guitarist and bandleader continues to showcase his versatility through noisy jazz freakouts, Jesus Lizard-like noise rock rippers, and occasionally some dirty funk...With Ribot, an album is never just one style, never simply one thing, and Connection finds him following that instinct to fantastic effect.” -Treblezine 2023

"Connection is the fifth Ceramic Dog studio album and finds Ribot, Ismaily and Smith sounding particularly fired up, both lyrically and musically. -Brooklyn Vegan 2023

"Different styles sit side by side on Connection, which showcases a challenging, exciting, and extremely rewarding listen from angular start to its fully inspired finish." - Glide Magazine 2023

"Hallucinated yet illuminated, there’s guts and progressive activism in a revolutionary new recording that’s definitely worth digging into." - JazzTrail 2023

“Marc Ribot can morph into any style and still come out sounding only like himself, which is central to the jazz aesthetic…He’s a guitarist and artist who takes music wherever the muse goes, diving into jazz, punk, blues, downtown, inside, outside, all sides, avantgarde, spoken word. He’s the ‘beyond’ in DownBeat’s tagline, ‘Jazz, Blues & Beyond.’ That’s especially true with his longtime trio Ceramic Dog.” – DOWNBEAT

“His Ceramic Dog trio with bassist/multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and percussionist/drummer Ches Smith is as much of a sonic vehicle for Ribot’s dry, wry lyrics and sandpaper-y vocals as it is for his reverberating skronk and fuzztoned twang-bar noodlings.” – JAZZTIMES

"...when it comes to Ceramic Dog, his agit punk trio with Shahzad Ismaily and Ches Smith, Ribot mostly eschews nuance in favor aggressive funk, deconstructed flamenco, and scathing punk."
-Aquarium Drunkard 2018 Year in Review

"Guitarist Marc Ribot’s wildest project doesn’t mess around. The guitar legend, with bassist Shahzad Ismaily, and drummer Ches Smith, merges funk backbeats with the taut chaos of Sonic Youth and flashes of Woodstock Santana."
-NY Magazine, 2018

"Ceramic Dog’s bark is just about equal to its bite on the trio’s pissed-as-punk new YRU Still Here? ... The music snarls and snaps with self-awareness, righteous fury, and, inevitably, cynical detachment."-Village Voice

"Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog, whose style is experimental...though much more pleasing on the ears, was one of the best surprises of the festival."
- AV Club review at All Tomorrow's Parties Festival 2011 curated by Portishead