How to go
Who: Dead Rider with Motel Beds and Hyrrokin
Where: Canal Public House, 308 E. First St., Dayton
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Cost: $5
More info: 937-461-9343 or www.canalpublichouse.com
Artist info: www.deadrider.us
Dead Rider leader Todd Rittman was talking on his cellphone last week as the tour van pulled out of Chicago en route to Cleveland. Later that night, the band would launch its tour in Cleveland in support of “Chills on Glass,” its third album and first for Drag City Records, the notable independent label.
For that moment, however, as the van motored eastward, Rittman was focused on discussing the new album and long-awaited tour, which includes a show at Canal Public House in Dayton on Friday.
“It’s been so long for us we’re all champing on the bit to get out there and play in front of people,” he said. “Messing around in the studio is good fun and everything, but you just don’t get as much as when you’re making young girls cry and making young boys jealous at how hard you rock.”
Rittman (vocals, guitar) and bandmates Andrea Faught (keyboards, horns, vocals), Thymme Jones (synth, trumpet, vocals) and former Daytonian Matt Espy (drums, percussion) are ready to get on the road and support the new album, which the Chicago group spent more than a year recording. Like the two previous albums, the musicians recorded, mixed and mastered the material in their own studio.
“I don’t know if this record was any smoother than other records, but it wasn’t any harder,” Rittman said. “It’s just different. It took about as long to record as the last one did, but we also waited a little longer before we started this time around. We were doing a lot of shows for the last record, so it was hard for us to write and record and be in ready-to-tour mode. It seems to be one or the other, but that’s why no one has seen us for a year-and-a-half.”
This is the first Dead Rider release for Drag City but not Rittman’s first time on the revered indie label, which released material from his former bands Singer and US Maple.
“Drag City has a much bigger infrastructure from our last label, Tizona,” he said. “They have a great roster, and I’ve worked with everyone there before and they’re all just wonderful human beings. They’re also fully dedicated to making and selling great rock ‘n’ roll records, so it’s a really great label to be working with.
“They’re big enough to do great things, nimble enough to keep ahead of music industry changes and daring enough to do things people pay attention to and seem to like,” Rittman said. “I can’t say enough about them.”
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