Guitarist Marc Ribot is gearing up for the new album Songs of Resistance 1948-2018, and for a taste of what's in store, you can now hear the track "Bella Ciao" with Tom Waits.
The song arrives via a Jem Cohen-directed video, complete with footage from anti-Trump demonstrations in Washington, D.C.
Calling "Bella Ciao" an "anti-fascist Italian folk ballad," Ribot had this to say: "I played Tom a bunch of the tunes and he immediately bonded with that one. Of course, he brings a certain gravitas to everything he does — my Italian friends say he sounds exactly like an old 'partigiano' (resistance fighter)!"
You can check out the Waits-sung "Bella Ciao" below [via Pitchfork].
In addition to Waits, Songs of Resistance 1948-2018 features other vocalists such as Steve Earle, Meshell Ndegeocello, Justin Vivian Bond, Fay Victor, Sam Amidon, and Ohene Cornelius, Tift Merritt, Domenica Fossati, and Syd Straw.
"There's a lot of contradiction in doing any kind of political music," Ribot said of the album, "how to act against something without becoming it, without resembling what you detest. Sometimes it is hard to figure out what to do, and I imagine we'll make mistakes, and hopefully, learn from them. But I knew this from the moment Donald Trump was elected: I'm not going to play downtown scene Furtwangler to any orange-comb-over dictator wannabe. No way."
Songs of Resistance 1948-2018 is out on Friday (September 14) via Anti-.
The song arrives via a Jem Cohen-directed video, complete with footage from anti-Trump demonstrations in Washington, D.C.
Calling "Bella Ciao" an "anti-fascist Italian folk ballad," Ribot had this to say: "I played Tom a bunch of the tunes and he immediately bonded with that one. Of course, he brings a certain gravitas to everything he does — my Italian friends say he sounds exactly like an old 'partigiano' (resistance fighter)!"
You can check out the Waits-sung "Bella Ciao" below [via Pitchfork].
In addition to Waits, Songs of Resistance 1948-2018 features other vocalists such as Steve Earle, Meshell Ndegeocello, Justin Vivian Bond, Fay Victor, Sam Amidon, and Ohene Cornelius, Tift Merritt, Domenica Fossati, and Syd Straw.
"There's a lot of contradiction in doing any kind of political music," Ribot said of the album, "how to act against something without becoming it, without resembling what you detest. Sometimes it is hard to figure out what to do, and I imagine we'll make mistakes, and hopefully, learn from them. But I knew this from the moment Donald Trump was elected: I'm not going to play downtown scene Furtwangler to any orange-comb-over dictator wannabe. No way."
Songs of Resistance 1948-2018 is out on Friday (September 14) via Anti-.
