Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2013 June 19 • Wednesday

As noted before, this is a great year for new music releases. We've already had Pete Galub's new CD, Bill Frisell's solo record on Tzadik, Ellery Eskelin's second Trio New York CD, and now we have the second Ceramic Dog record!

It's too early to say but this might be my favorite Marc Ribot record ever. The band is great, the material is great and even though this is a studio recording it's very close to what they're like live, more so than any other Ribot record I can think of. (Though live is still best.)

"Lies My Body Told Me" has a classic Ribot groove, a certain off-kilter and menacing feel that should be familiar to anybody who remembers his Rootless Cosmopolitans band.

The title track is an intrumental with a straight-up rock groove and ferocious guitar playing. "Masters of the Internet" is a much-discussed song about the cost paid by professional musicians for having their music available online in every conceivable format and commonly for free.

"Ritual Slaughter" is a bit simliar to some of the Ribot-penned tunes that Los Cubanos Potizos played. It's another blistering instrumental.

"Ain't Gonna Let Them Turn Us Round" is a scrappy reggae song with a Woody Guthrie sensibility. "Bread and Roses" is Ribot's rock and roll setting for the famous protest poem of the same name.

Perhaps I don't need to mention every track, though. The whole record is great and you should buy it, as in pay for it with real money. Honestly it's worth it just for their demented cover of Paul Desmond's "Take 5"!