The real Deal: DEAD PIONEERS dial up the anger on latest album ‘Wagon Burner’
DENVER’s confrontational Indigenous punks DEAD PIONEERS showcase album number three with ‘Wagon Burner’ (via Hassle Records) featuring cameos from Jason from Sleaford Mods and Aimee from The Interrupters.
Today’s fiercely political release continues with a sound drawing from the origins of US hardcore punks The Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, and Black Flag, while combining elements of contemporary punk and alt-rock sounds.
“The record was influenced by watching the political climate become more and more exacerbated, and feeling the responsibility that comes along with that,” said frontman and founder Gregg Deal. “Reagan set the stage, Trump is the star of the show, the encore. He’s a really terrible person, but the stage was set for him. We write a song, a year later it’s more relevant than the day we wrote it. That keeps happening and to be honest, it fills me with dismay.
“As a Native person, the past and the present and the future all exist in the same space. My kids can probably school just about anyone on all the historical narratives, because we understand as Indigenous people, that education and knowledge are tools of survival. Every Native person understands you might actually save your skin if you express and articulate something that helps people understand enough to shut their mouths. Forty per cent of Americans believe that Native people no longer exist, that we’re completely extinct. We’re fighting to make sure that people know we are not foreigners in our own homelands, that we are here despite what history has told you. We speak our language, and white people need to hear it, because then you’re hearing the power of our words on our homelands, where our people have existed for thousands and thousands of years. It’s a responsibility that I understand.”
Renowned artist and poet, Deal formed the band in 2020 as a vehicle to tackle the centuries-old culture wars against Indigenous people. His performance pieces include The Last Indian On Earth, Redskin, and Supreme Law Of The Land.
“The line of work and its social awareness goes from racism, stereotypes and cultural appropriation,” he adds, “all in a socially aware lens, to the more specific politics of Native people as a whole and the way it’s engaged both socially – but also through power structures managing these things, like the federal government.
“Punk-rock had made everything seem so accessible when I was a kid. Like, simply having the balls to get up on stage and stage dive and then be carried off by people that become your best friends once they get your feet back on the ground.”
Joining Deal onstage are Josh Rivera (guitar), Abe Brennan (guitar), Lee Tesche (bass), and Shane Zweygardt (drums).
‘Wagon Burner’ was co-produced by Dead Pioneers and Chris Beeble, and recorded at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Catch Dead Pioneers live in July: * 08: Róisín Dubh, Galway * 09: The Workman’s Club, Dublin * 11: 2000 Trees Festival * 16: Back To The Future Festival * 17: Adieu Tristesse Festival * 18: Seepogo Festival *
Further details HERE
(Photo (c) Derek Bremner)
