DEAD PIONEERS - Dead Pioneers (Repress) - LP - Neon Orange Vinyl [MAR 21]

LP - Limited Edition Neon Orange Vinyl (2025 Repress). 

Being embarrassed to be a white American has never been a bigger visceral, laugh filled, joy than when I’m listening to Dead Pioneers. If you think truth needs a great soundtrack… look no further than Dead Pioneers.” - Shepard Fairey

“Dead Pioneers is one of one. Injecting new life into punk rock with an indigenous perspective and an important message. They are beautiful people and great musicians and we can’t wait to go on tour with them as soon as possible!” - The Interrupters

"Imagine if the fucking Vikings or the Mayflower never made it across the Atlantic and One Mocassin’s grandkids electrified the lute his ancestors found in the rubble of the Mayflower that crashed on the rocks.  There would be no Minutemen or Fugazi, only DEAD PIONEERS!” - Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam)

Who were the first punks? Do The Damned have more of a shout than The Sex Pistols? The Stooges or Ramones? Gregg Deal, the acclaimed visual and performance artist behind his new project Dead Pioneers, is making a claim that Indigenous Americans were the first real punks.

Gregg Deal is an artist and activist and a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. Much of his work includes exhaustive critiques of American colonialism, society, politics, popular culture and history. With this work - including paintings, murals and performance art - Deal critically examines issues within Indian country such as decolonisation, stereotype and appropriation. He has exhibited his work at cultural centres nationally and internationally.

Deal suggests that the overarching theme of the Dead Pioneers self-titled album is “an introduction to the band itself.” Created with a DIY disposition and the “love of a scene that saves lives”, they reel off a roll call of marginalised groups and protected characteristics: “Indigenous rights, Black rights, Brown rights, Asian rights, Gay rights, Trans rights, Workers rights and beyond…”. This is central to their identity and focus, saying that “with a North American Indigenous person as the vocalist, being unapologetically upfront on the social, political and cultural side of things doesn’t seem necessary, but paramount to the overall tone of the band.”

This self-titled debut, coming in at a lithe 22 minutes with only one of the twelve tracks exceeding three minutes, is almost over before it begins, but covers a huge amount of ground in that time. Musical touchstones are varied, ranging from Black Flag and The Minutemen via Suicidal Tendencies and Rage Against The Machine through to La Dispute or Idles. Thematically, as much as sonically, it channels the taut energy and directed rage of Fugazi or Henry Rollins at their peak.

Spoken word interludes serve as connections between songs as well as linking back to Deal’s extensive art career. Tracks such as lead single ‘Bad Indian’  uses humour as a way into complex, knotty themes and has the lines, “A woman once asked me my Indian name and I said “It’s Gregg." She was so disappointed she was like “no it has to be Red Eagle, or two Rivers”, “or Greyskull ” I said. “ Yes, wait, is that for real? ” “No, no” I said without her realising my brief but generationally relevant He Man joke, the kind of joke that would tell her while Indian, I’m also having an American experience too."

Tracklist: 

1. Tired
2. We Were Punk First
3. Moving Day
4. The Punchline
5. Bad Indian
6. The Art of Savagery
7. Rage
8. Dreamcatcher
9. World Up My Ass
10. This is Not a Political Song
11. Doom Indian
12. No One Owns Anything & Death is Real