Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, Dead Rider emerged in the twenty-first century as an avant-garde rock and funk outfit whose propulsive grooves embed fragments of abrasive texture amid abrupt rhythmic shifts and sudden detours. Echoes of Captain Beefheart, Big Black, the Butthole Surfers, and assorted improvisational experimenters surface throughout, occasionally nodding toward the early catalog of Wax Trax Records. The resulting hybrid of insistent pulse, jagged melodic lines, and deliberately off-kilter vocals first appeared on the 2011 album The Raw Dents, though the group later adopted a looser yet equally turbulent method that foregrounded live percussion on 2017’s Crew Licks, drawing a loyal cult audience while unsettling mainstream alternative expectations.
Guitarist and vocalist Todd Rittman, previously of U.S. Maple, established the project in 2009 under the name D. Rider. Saxophonist Noah Tabakin, keyboardist and trumpeter Andrea Faught, and drummer Theo Katsaounis formed the original roster. Their debut, Mother of Curses, arrived on Tizona that same year and earned critical praise comparable to the band’s dynamic stage performances. While tracking the follow-up, Katsaounis departed; Matt Espy assumed drumming duties in 2010, and both percussionists receive credit on the 2011 release The Raw Dents. Around the time of that album’s appearance, the group adopted the name Dead Rider after Rittman grew weary of repeated inquiries about the meaning of the initial “D.”
The band joined the roster of the independent label Drag City in 2013. Its third album, Chills on Glass, reached stores in March 2014 and featured keyboard contributions from Thymme Jones. Crew Licks, the fourth full-length, surfaced in 2017 and introduced bassist and keyboardist White Christmas while Jones exited the lineup. In 2018 Dead Rider reduced to the trio of Rittman, Espy, and Christmas, which performed several opening slots on the Jesus Lizard’s reunion tour. For the fifth album, The Dead Rider Trio Featuring Mr. Paul Williams, the group enlisted spoken-word artist Paul Williams (unrelated to the 1970s composer of the same name), whose Dada-inflected vocals supplied an additional layer atop the instrumental textures.
