Dead Pioneers: Dead Pioneers – Album Review

Dead Pioneers – Dead Pioneers

(Hassle)

LP | DL

Out 16th Aug 2024

Dead Pioneers use hardcore punk and spoken word as a vehicle to expose and dismantle how Amerikkka treats indigenous people and other minoritised communities. Nathan Brown loves the vital messaging and the way they tackle issues with sarcasm and humour.

This release is important for a whole host of reasons but mainly because it has important things to say and it sounds good. Just the name Dead Pioneers is designed to be provocative. I mean, were these Pioneers murdered? By “injuns”?

On the strength of the video for Bad Indian I was sold. I couldn’t wait to share this video with people. It’s delivered in a similar style to the slow build ups of Suicidal Tendencies’ Institutionalised. A monologue is backed up by the band bashing out a heavy rhythmic riff. Singer Gregg Deal sees your institutionalised and raises you colonialised and marginalised. He addresses the expectations and prejudice laid on him as a North American Indigenous person with sarcasm levels up to the max. He manages to throw dry, cutting, humour into the mix while dismantling the arrogance of the dominant occupying culture.

“A woman once asked me my Indian name
And I said ‘It’s Gregg’
And 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 that while Indian, I’m also having an American experience too.
I finally said to her ‘How about Walking Eagle’
‘Yes! Yes!’ she said ‘But is that true’
‘Yes, it’s totally true’
I never did have the heart to tell her that an eagle only walks when it’s too full of shit to fly
Cos I’m a Bad Indian”

For me, this approach brings the point home in a better way than just being angry. There’s plenty of angry punk bands out there, but not enough are clever and funny too. Gregg sees the importance of this humour: “It’s no small thing to use that kind of thing deliberately, but also important to note that Native people of North America are funny. We will poke fun at you always, and almost exclusively if we like you. We talk, we make fun and always see the power of our words.”

On its own the song Bad Indian would probably be enough but it is an indicator not an aberration. The rest of the album does not disappoint. Bursts of frenetic hardcore energy sit alongside more sedate, poetic, spoken word segments. Dead Pioneers self-released this album digitally earlier this year but have how signed to Hassle who are giving it a well deserved vinyl release.

The self titled album isn’t exclusively about the experience of indigenous people in the USA, but Gregg uses this prism through which to view all that is fucked up and disunited in a nation built on stolen land. Consequently it forms a core theme. Gregg Deal is a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, an artist of many disciplines and an activist. All his work explores and reveals American colonialism, society, politics, popular culture and history. He has exhibited his work at cultural centres nationally and internationally. Punk rock is another art form Gregg uses to explode those issue bombs, but the great thing about being in a punk band is the collective experience and having fun.

The legacy of how First Nations people are treated is not just historical. The impact on life chances and health reverberates down the generations. Discrimination and denial of rights is ongoing. American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier is still rotting in jail. Indigenous people were recently having to fight the Dakota Access pipeline being forcibly imposed upon their land which got in the headlines over here.  We do not hear so much about other ongoing protests from First Nations communities against pipelines and mining in USA and Canada.

Greg’s sarcasm is beautifully sharp and for me it is the star of the show, especially given that 4 of the tracks are spoken word pieces. The spoken word pieces are not far off a close-to-the-bone stand up performance. It’s no joke, it’s harsh reality, but then there is humour too. Guitarists Josh Rivera and Abe Brennan, drummer Shane Zweygardt and bassist Lee Tesche (also guitarist for Algiers) play their music tight and provide a great vehicle for this message. At times they are heavy and rhythmic with a lurking whisper of Black Sabbath and Rage Against The Machine or they speed up to the fast and chuggy classic US hardcore sound in the vein of bands like Circle Jerks, MDC, The Offenders, or Black Flag with some Minutemen or NoMeansNo thrown in.

Dead Pioneers have angry words alongside their humour but they don’t always come across as angry per se, more matter of fact, or perhaps tired of the bullshit. The song Tired starts the album with the proclamation “America is a pyramid scheme and you ain’t at the top” before setting out fundamental problems with the American Dream. None of this is news, but it is somehow refreshing to hear it put so bluntly, and it sets out what to expect from Dead Pioneers.

“America is a pyramid scheme and you ain’t at the top!
Your demonization of those different than you is not just a cottage industry in American but an honest to goodness American value.
The foundation of this country is rooted in slavery and genocide born in the bosom of colonialism
America places the original inhabitants as foreigners in their own lands
Don’t be scared of learning the whole historical story, it’s not going to hurt you
Capitalism can only exist if there is a poor class
There are hostiles on the homelands of Indigenous people
This structure is a rigged game that breed racism homophobia, transphobia, classism and ableism.
It all makes me so so very tired.”

The opening breakneck guitar and drums whip We Were Punk First into a classic early 80s USHC style frenzy. Punks have frequently indulged in a mix of appropriation and appreciation of indigenous American culture. Look at that Mohawk haircut for starters. But beyond that obvious illustration, Gregg has a point – native Americans were punks before punk was invented. And he doesn’t just want language, culture and identity back. He wants land back. He is not alone. Thematically it fits with the following poetic spoken word piece Moving Day which is specifically about how the removal of Indians from their land has been portrayed.

Then we have a song which reminds us of the genocidal war waged by the US 7th Cavalry. The Punchline by the Minutemen was a great choice of cover given that George Custer is the arrow-ridden butt of the joke. It sounds like…the Minutemen. I mean, what else were you expecting?  Bad Indian is sandwiched between this correction of the Custer myth and another spoken word piece The Art Of Savagery which reveals more of the day to day reality of the indigenous experience.

Rage kicks off side 2 with a chunky riff that speeds up and accelerates and brakes. It would sound at home on an MDC or Off! record. The spoken word number Dreamcatcher ridicules white people mis-appropriating the dreamcatcher of the title without understanding its purpose or meaning. Again, this piece ends on a punchline of sorts.  Next up, World Up My Ass is a fine rendition of a Circle Jerks song. As with The Punchline, you can see why they picked this cover. It fits perfectly with the overall tone especially with a word swap to “You know I’ve got COLONIALISM up my ass.”

This Is Not A Political Song takes a shot at many of the issues that make up what is wrong with Amerikkka. In just under 5 minutes a slow brooding build up, with creeping intensity, sits behind Gregg’s message. It takes that long to set out a summary of The Problem because it affects so many marginalised groups of people. Despite it’s relative length (The other 11 tracks are done in 17 minutes) it doesn’t feel long or laboured. Gregg occasional pauses to say “By the way this is not a political song. It’s possible that everything we believe is wrong”.  You feel like he’s raising his eyebrow as he says it.  The build up reaches a Rage Against The Machine style crescendo to close.

Doom Indian is the final piece of spoken word reflecting the reality that “The apocalypse already took place” for indigenous people. The Doom Indian is unapologetic: “Doom is angry and real and could care less about how it makes you feel”.

No One Owns Anything And Death Is Real uses a combination of Sabbath and Rage Against The Machine style rhythm and riffage to deliver a message about environmental catastrophe. Dead Pioneers remind us that indigenous Americans had warned years before the hippies, punks, anti-capitalists and scientists caught on that the planet can’t sustain the plundering of its resources in the pursuit of money.

“We told you
We told you
We told you this wouldn’t work.
Now we see
Now we see
Now we see you lost your smirk”.

This album is pressed on “coke bottle green” vinyl which I see as another wry ironic move given that Coke are one of the biggest colonisers of the modern era.

Jello Biafra, former front man of the equally provocatively named Dead Kennedys is apparently a fan. Dead Pioneers have a similar approach to sarcasm and twisted humour as Mr Biafra. I’m told a 7″ on Alternative Tentacles is imminent: Bad Indian b/w We Were Punk First and Dreamcatcher – all of which feature on this album.

Punk was always another way for the voiceless to have a voice. Although some punk bands have long sung about indigenous rights and colonisation, this was often from the sidelines, rather than from personal experience. The representation of indigenous people in the American continent’s punk scenes wasn’t easy to spot. There is a growing movement of indigenous punks with people citing bands like Resistant Culture from Seattle and the Native Punks collective in Guatemala. Is punk counter culture an effective way to spread these important messages if it’s reach is constrained? Would seeking wider distribution through major labels soften the message, or worse still be co-opted to shore up the forces of capitalism and colonialism it targets? Punk is not the only outlet for ideas but, importantly, it sounds like Dead Pioneers are having fun while they do it their own way.

Get it from Hassle Records and Bandcamp

~

Words by Nathan Brown. His Louder Than War author archive can be found here.