Party Intellectuals is the debut recording from Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog, a post-everything band combining the energies of two masters of downtown New York City mayhem: guitarist/vocalist Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, John Zorn, Robert Plant, T-Bone Burnett, Marianne Faithful, Lounge Lizards, Elvis Costello) and bassist Shahzad Ismaily (Laurie Anderson, Will Oldham, Jolie Holland, Secret Chiefs 3), with West Coast indie/experimental genius drummer Ches Smith (Xiu Xiu, Secret Chiefs 3, Trevor Dunn's Trio Convulsant). Ribot is a widely recognized original on the guitar, with influence across multiple genres of music, including rock, jazz, punk, Latin, soul, 80s No-Wave, avant-garde and noise. Ceramic Dog draws all of this, along with Ismaily and Smith's indie / electronica experimentation, into the power-packed Party Intellectuals.

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"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." Time Out New York

“Ceramic Dog made a hard kind of sense. With Mr. Ribot on guitar, Shahzad Ismaily on bass and Moog synthesizer, and Ches Smith on drums, it delivered a blast of sound that was variously ominous, crude and sly. There were handclaps and Cuban montuños; there was numbskull punk and roadhouse blues; there was the odd doom-metal drone… Prickly but popular, with a mood both breezy and intense.” The New York Times