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Bio:
Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders was born out of the laziness, debauchery, malt liquor and NYU food court take-out that was Mike Dillenberger & Gabe Snyder's sophomore year of college. What started as a few recordings for fun on a four-track as "The Nerd Rock All-Stars" became a bit more when they realized they had almost an album's worth of material. They switched their name to Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders and recorded a few more tracks, each more ambitious than the last. Mike would use a combination of the four-track and a cheap sound editing program on his pre-g3 macintosh in order to incorporate extra tracks and drum samples. They sequenced the album and made a few copies using a 2x speed cd burner and a b&w copy machine at somebody's work. They realized that since roommate Mercer Crenshaw contributed to several of the tracks, he was in the band, too. The result was their first album: 2001's Bully!
Bully! is filled with lo-fi silliness: songs about anorexic guinea pigs, depressed drunks, Gabe's horrible future, and Mike and Mercer's genitals. There's a musical interpretation of a Southern chain-store's radio commercial, a song about Mike getting a haircut, and a three part tribute to the fantasy board game Hero Quest: the epic album-closer, "Hero Quest."
Bully! was in fact so ridiculous and lo-fi that it received little notice. In the fall of 2001, the boys moved from their dorm room to an apartment in Brooklyn. Their fourth roommate, Anthony Ripoli, would become their bassist. Anthony had played in bands before with drummer Daniel Gonzalez, who soon joined on as drummer. The quintet had one rehearsal and then played a 9/11 benefit at the NYU Thompson center. The response from the audience was enthusiastic, so they decided to take things a little more seriously. They recorded a few tracks using NYU's Studio Recording class. One of these was River Rock Robot which Mike would later make into a music video for his Experimental Film class. The band played a few parties and a restaurant. The four roommates shared a four-track machine and each recorded demos onto it. Soon Mike & Gabe started thinking about a new album.
After graduation, Mike began working at an audio post house, and had access to a recording booth and ProTools. On the weekends, he and Gabe would go in and record songs. Song by song, the second album came together over the course of several months. Towards the end, Anthony came in and recorded bass parts. We Come Bearing Rock was completed in the winter of 2003. Sonically, it had a lot more going on than in the last record. The lyrics were not quite as vulgar- the album has its racy moments, and is overall quite humorous, but it is significantly less sophomoric than Bully! The album opens with the epic "Mustard On My Plate" and contains songs about video games ("Princess"), dishonest mortuaries ("Pappy's Bones"), Mike's student film ("Jesus Rocks") and the Goonies ("Our Time"). Its centerpiece is the fan favorite, "Blazed", a song about innocence lost that features a rap-interlude by Gabe, performing as the fictional character, "Cheese Drank."
Mike and Gabe played shows as an acoustic duo to promote the album. Through these shows they attracted the attention of drummer Guy Licata (APSCI, Bill Laswell). Soon, Mike, Gabe, Anthony & Guy began rehearsing. Over the course of a year, this new line-up played gigs throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn, and Mike & Gabe had written enough songs for a new album.
In March of 2005, the band began production on the new album at Bunker Studios in Brooklyn, with producer John Davis at the helm. In a marathon 3-day session, all the basic tracks were completed. Over the next few months, Gabe and Mike recorded overdubs sporadically at Mike's work. Mike recorded his vocals at Bunker Studios over the course of several weeknights. When everything was in place, John mixed the album at Studio G in Brooklyn in one all-night session.
Their self-titled third album (also known as "Bitch, Ill") was complete. The album is a huge step forward from We Come Bearing Rock . It's the work of a full band that has been playing the songs together, whereas past albums had been one track at a time studio concoctions with a drum machine. The production is also more polished, and the songs more mature. The humor element remains, but it is subtle enough that it doesn't distract from the excellent songwriting.
When the album was finished, the real world bore its ugly head. Other aspects of life became a priority for several members of the band. Teddy was forced to go on hiatus for an indefinite amount of time.
Mike has a solo project under the name Friend Factory . He released the Hillside EP in 2006 and continues to play shows in New York. Gabe moved to LA to pursue a screenwriting career. Anthony edits films. Guy continues to play with a number of different groups. He is also a teacher of the drums.
