Marc on NPR's Fresh Air w/Terri Gross!
Check out Terri Gross' interview w/ Marc about his latest release, Silent Movies, and more. You can also stream if off the NPR or Fresh Air website by clicking here
Praise for Marc Ribot's "SILENT MOVIES"
"...down-in-the-mouth near-masterpiece..."
- Francis Davis, #3 Best of 2010 Jazz Album, Village Voice
"A one-of-a-kind guitarist equally adept providing an atmospheric backdrop for Tom Waits as he is calling down the heavens with skronky free jazz, Ribot's lush collection of soundtrack work for films both real and imagined only gets richer with each listen. Solo guitar albums can sometimes sound spare or monochromatic, yet Ribot never operates in less than living color."
- Best of 2010 Jazz picks by Chris Barton, LA Times
"Ribot is one of the great guitarists of today, having worked for decades as a versatile sideman and an avant-garde-leaning leader, but he sort of blindsided me here - an introspective solo guitar gem that is utterly beguiling. Ostensibly a soundtrack for movies real and imaginary, this moves well beyond background music. The playing is mostly on acoustic with a minimum of overdubs, yet the guitarist fills all the holes with delicate textured picking and graceful melodies that bear up well with each listen."
- Tad Hendrickson, #2 Best Jazz Album 2010, AOL Spinner
"..he can sit down with just his guitar and simultaneously confound you with technique, beauty, and surprise...The result is solo guitar at its finest."
- John Garratt and Will Layman, PopMatters Picks: The Best Music of 2010
"As much as I've enjoyed the recent outpouring of technically dazzling fingerstyle guitar records, I like the rough-edged power of these electric-guitar pieces even more?they favor raw emotion and dark, harrowing beauty over hypnotizing intricacy. With his off-kilter style and jarring stabs of dissonance, Ribot has always been great at ugliness, but he's never made it sound as graceful and vulnerable as he does here."
- Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader, #5 on Best of 2010
"Fact is, any time you see him leading a band or working as a sideman, it's a treat no matter the setting. Here, on Silent Movies, we have Ribot playing solo guitar - as open, personal and vulnerable as a musician can be - and it's beautiful..One moment he's downtown hip, the next sweet and sad, the next a Latin devotee. But everything he touches on Silent Movies is part of the continuum of his musicianship and artistic being... [taking] you on a joyous, out-of-the-ordinary journey."
- Frank Alkyer, DownBeat
"...emotive, graceful, but with a glint of mischief in his method - not unlike the Little Tramp."
- Will Hermes, Rolling Stone
Praise for Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog - "Party Intellectuals"
"The [Tom] Waits aesthetic has infected Ribot's Ceramic Dog project in a good way. His song "For Malena" feels like a cross between Latin-American cumbia dance music and a sea shanty. And it has a lyrical sensibility that may owe its roots to Ribot's stint backing beat poet Allen Ginsberg. His humble vocals are those of a guitarist, but his lyrics show flashes of brilliance. And just when you thought you had him pegged, he does a punk-funk cover of The Doors' first single, "Break on Through To the Other Side." It is pure anarchic noise and unbridled rhythm and it's proof positive that Marc Ribot sees no borders between genres - only opportunities to surprise and entertain."
- NPR "Day to Day" Listen to the full review by musician/reviewer David Was.
"The musicianship is intense regardless of the subtext, with all three players hurling themselves into their effort. They have an equally convincing way with bruising thrash punk, one-chord-vamp heroics and brooding atmospherics."
- New York Times
"Nothing on "Party Intellectuals" could be classified as straight-ahead -- mercurial, yes, and high on concept -- but all of it is accessible. The band takes its name from the French expression "chien de faience," which, according the record's press materials, means frozen with emotion. It's an apt description of the trio's satisfying mix of smarts and heart, improv and calculation."
- The Washington Post
"It's digi-punk: middle finger raised high, yet anchored in layers of rhythms and noise and brash, overt tones."
- Village Voice
"Chameleon-like guitarist Marc Ribot rocks out with his new trio, Ceramic Dog, on the band's violently eclectic new album, Party Intellectuals."
- Boston Globe
"Party Intellectuals is easily Ribot's most fun album to date and one of his best."
4/5 stars - All Music Guide
"A trio that is as uncompromising as it is daring."
- PopMatters.com
"Party Intellectuals could work as a nice introduction to Ribot's work as a leader for the way it runs so much of his gamut."
- Pitchforkmedia.com
Praise for Marc Ribot's "Saints"
"Exceptionally moody and evocative, a very cool record."
- CMJ New Music Report
"This is an intimate and highly communicative album that, for many listeners, will reveal new and fascinating facets of guitar playing."
- CD Now
"With his biting and twangy electric and acoutic plectral tones, Ribot turns well-known tunes into spacey, left-of-center sound collages full of bite and humor....bold, six-stringed excursions into uncharted sonic territory."
- Amazon.com
"Saints has a certain folksy charm to it, with familiar songs given an unfamiliar spin. The great value comes in hearing a virtuoso play in an unvirtuosic way, turning songs inside out, while somehow getting at their essences...with relatively quiet, fractured renditions that force one to reimagine songs."
- Downbeat
"Ribot found a unique way to wrench these compositions out from the grip of history and make them his own."
- Chicago Tribune
"Mr. Ribot is a deceptively articulate artist who uses inarticulateness as an expressive device."
- The New York Times
"One of the most individual of guitarists and a master of introverted ironies...a stunning new solo album."
- The Village Voice
"Like Thelonius, Ribot knows just how and when to play the right wrong notes. What on paper could appear as a mawkishly sentimental bunch of songs turns out to be nothing short of a triumph. Saints is a magnificent solo guitar outing guaranteed to satisfy the fans but with enough substance to stand the test of time."
- Signal to Noise
"Idiosyncratic and mesmerizing solo recitals...every taut and quivering string is beautifully recorded. Never a dull moment."
- Gary Giddins, The Village Voice
Top Albums of 2001
Praise for Marc Ribot Y Los Cubanos Postizos:
"A brave and beautiful record from a musician who isn't afraid to explore extremes of prettiness and ugliness, or to draw parallels between them."
- Guitar Player
"Ribot's celebration of Rodriguez's legacy is distinguished by informed guts and understated grace. In its soulful warmth and tart guitar invention, this record is everything - bright, daring, alive..."
- Rolling Stone
"At every turn, Ribot dazzles with both his urbanity and his radical streak, creating a wonder of otherworldly Cuban soul."
- Guitar Magazine
"...Ribot's playing is so tasteful and understated... From the cool improvisations of 'Aqui Como Alla' to the slow burning fire of 'Fiesta en el Solar', the album is as refreshing as a rum drink on a hot afternoon."
- Baltimore Sun
"What distinguishes this disk from other Cubanismo collections is Ribot's mix of the soft and sultry with the hard-edged and rocking. The result is a triumphant fiesta that bears repeated spins."
- San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle
"...this tasty Cuban project finds him at his eclectic and unpredictable best, delivering gorgeous melodies and energized solos with equal effect."
- Austin American-Statesman
"It's steamy and sexy, sometimes slightly kooky, but cool and understated (and respectful of the music)--all at the same time. Ribot's guitar playing is precise yet warm..."
- Stereophile
"...Ribot's playing is intelligent, fluid and particularly emotive."
- Guitar World
"...never before has Mr. Ribot's guitar playing been more choppily arresting."
- New York Times
"They sound as if they're waving a flag, declaring their prostheticness as something glorious and authentic. And it is."
- New York Times New York Today
