Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog have announced the release of their fifth album Connection will be released on Friday, July 14 by Knockwurst Records. Pre-orders are available at www.marcribot.com.

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, which features contributions by singer and songwriter Syd Straw, keyboardist Anthony Coleman, saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, organist Greg Lewis, clarinetist Oscar Noriega and cellist Peter Sachon.

The upcoming album is followed by today’s the music video of title track “Connection,” which is inspired by the history of Lower East Side noise rock from the Velvet Underground to White Hassle.

In the press release Ribot describes the process of creating the Ceramic Dog’s latest tune.

“This song’s (and the album’s) title began with a sculpture by our friend (and Ceramic Dog bassist Shahzad Ismaily’s daughter) Anika (age 6.) A kind of house made by sticking toothpicks into Halloween candies. It’s an odd-shaped house, kind of like the frame of a geodesic dome…if it wasn’t a dome. The little structure is home to a drawing of a smiling gingerbread man.”

Ribot adds: “Very homey. But, as we all know, it was the gingerbread man’s problematic home that caused him to ‘run as fast as he can.’ And what struck us about this home, apart from its odd beauty, was the fragility of its toothpick design, in which Anika perfectly captured the fragility of our contemporary attempts at human connection, the shadow hanging over our post-everything ‘homes.’ Everything else, the words, and the beat — which, music nerds take note, lays a 4/4 drum beat on top of a 3/4 melody — came later. Thanks, Anika.”

Connection Tracklist

1. Connection
2. Subsidiary
3. Soldiers in the Army of Love
4. Ecstasy
5. Swan
6. No Name
7. Heart Attack
8. That’s Entertainment
9. Order of Protection
10. Crumbia