YRU Still Here? Ceramic Dog with Marc Ribot, Ches Smith & Shazad Ismaily

• 1Personal Nancy02:58
• 2Pennsylvania 6 666606:15
• 3Agnes03:22
• 4Oral Sidney with a U04:05
• 5Yru Still Here04:44
• 6Muslim Jewish Resistance05:07
• 7Shut That Kid Up08:22
• 8Fuck La Migra02:54
• 9Orthodoxy05:11
• 10Freak Freak Freak on the Peripherique04:51
• 11Rawhide05:52
• Total Runtime53:41

Info for YRU Still Here?

“I got a right to say FUCK YOU!!!” is how the new album from veteran guitarist Marc Ribot’s trio Ceramic Dog starts off, with Ribot howling in anger at corruption, tyranny, life in general, and nothing in particular. 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 (or kick in the arm?) you might need. In fact, Ceramic Dog’s new album — whose title:YRU Still Here? is directed in equal parts at themselves, the commander in chief, and the listening public -- arrives just in time to remind us that now is a moment when anger is not only necessary, and unavoidable, but also good for houseplants.

YRU Still Here? careens from punk to funk to flamenco to surf to rock ‘n roll — all turned on their heads and smudged, allowing us to imagine an alternate history where punk icons Jello Biafra and Ian MacKaye fronted no-wave lounge bands on alternate Tuesdays at the Teaneck New Jersey Holiday Inn.

Thanks in no small part to the fire, brimstone, and dextrous facility summoned by kindred spirits Shahzad Ismaily (Secret Chiefs 3, Will Oldham) 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. 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, labor, and artist rights activist, where he mastered the agit-prop skills used to such dazzling effect on sure-fire hits such as “Fuck La Migra” and “Muslim/Jewish Resistance.”

"Pennsylvania 6 6666" documents Shahzad’s experiences growing up Muslim and Outrageous in Danville Pennsylvania, where “all the children are insane”: rendering these lamentable memories in a cool vaguely Latinoid jazz style all their own (while providing guffaws for Satanists and Glenn Miller fans)!!! By way of explanation, Ribot comments: “Yes, we too are subject to the post-modern condition, although we actually see it as a kind of psoriasis.”

As much as it is a rallying cry, though, YRU Still Here? also further consecrates Ribot’s 10 years of music making 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”. Ribot comments wryly: “Even after all the playing I’ve done, there’s something about this group that still manages to shock me.”

"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)

"Marc Ribot's new power trio, filled out by the remarkable versatile rhythm team of bassist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Ches Smith, is his rawest band in ages." (TimeOut NY)

Marc Ribot, guitars, requinto, farfisa, bass, e♭ horn, vocoder, vocals
Shahzad Ismaily, bass, Moog, percussion, background vocals, vocals in Urdu
Ches Smith, drums, percussion, electronics, background vocals

Marc Ribot
who the New York Times describes as “a deceptively articulate artist who uses inarticulateness as an expressive device,” has released 19 albums under his own name over a 25-year career, exploring everything from the pioneering jazz of Albert Ayler to the Cuban son of Arsenio Rodríguez. His latest solo release, Silent Movies (Pi Recording 2010) has been described as a "down-in- mouth-near master piece" by the Village Voice and has landed on several Best of 2010 lists including the LA Times and critical praise across the board.

Rolling Stone points out that “Guitarist Marc Ribot helped Tom Waits refine a new, weird Americana on 1985's Rain Dogs, and since then he's become the go-to guitar guy for all kinds of roots-music adventurers: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp.” Additional recording credits include Elton John/Leon Russell’s latest The Union, Solomon Burke, John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards, Marianne Faithful, Joe Henry, Allen Toussaint, Medeski Martin & Wood, Caetono Veloso, Susana Baca, Allen Ginsburg, Madeline Peyroux, Nora Jones, Jolie Holland, Akiko Yano, The Black Keys, and many others. Marc works regularly with Grammy® award winning producer T Bone Burnett and NY composer John Zorn. He has also performed on numerous film scores such as "Walk The Line” (Mangold), "The Kids Are All Right," and "The Departed" (Scorcese).

“...he can sit down with just his guitar and simultaneously confound you with technique, beauty, and surprise.” - John Garratt and Will Layman, PopMatters Picks: The Best Music of 2010 for the album “Silent Movies”

This album contains no booklet.