Dead Pioneers – Po$t American

If your not aware of Dead Pioneers, then lets try and give you a compressed back story by using some already written words. The head of this thought provoking and activist band has to be its artistic poet and creator Gregg Deal, the band “Dead Pioneers, emerged as a dynamic extension of his performance art, seamlessly blending music with critical cultural commentary. Rooted in the same themes of identity and resistance that define his visual work, the band’s sound acts as a powerful platform for addressing the complexities of Indigenous experience, and American political life. Deal harnesses the raw energy of punk and alternative influences to challenge prevailing narratives, using lyrics that provoke thought and evoke emotion”.  

This is a band that deserves to be listened to, and if I had an ounce of dictatorship blood in me, I’d make it a rule that you had to, but thankfully I don’t and the choice is all yours. This is an album of words and music that moves mountains metaphorically, it takes the reality of the world according to politicians and fantasists alike (and they are more alike than you care to imagine), and tries to make sense of it, as well as dealing those well earned hammer blows to the midriff.

If you’re a lover of the work of Rage Against The Machine, Public Enemy, Idles, Johnny Cash or Black Flag, then you’re on the right track and will hear so many unapologetic influences in this album. I believe after listening to this from start to finish more than once that this is a collection of facts that have been collated and given wings, music and words that bring history and possible future to the fore, songs that are so fully formed, that trying to add to that would be futile in so many ways.  So all that leaves for me to do is pick out some of the highlights that will stick with me and hopefully yourself when you go buy it, then spend hours and hours listening to it.  

‘A.I.M.’ is first up, and so it should be, a tribute to the American Indian Movement, which conjured up to myself the thought that America was built on genocide and slavery and lets not forget that. The next highlight would have to be the brilliantly titled ‘Caucasity’, this is a beat driven song that uses its beat to bring a word and truth of thought to the fore, its uses the spoken word and intertwines it with the music in a way that just cannot be pulled apart at any single point, and this sits perfectly in the landscape it depicts. ‘Mythical Cowboys’ is a song that needs mention, it drives a stake to the heart of the fantasy that for some reason has reached the point of fake history at its worst.  

I did say I would pick out some of the highlights that struck a chord with myself, but after naming just a few songs, it has become obvious to myself that this is a futile operation, this is an album full to the gunnels of highlights, every single song has its place, and every word is worth listening to and understanding. To this end, I’ll leave you with only one more line. Go buy this, go listen, be educated, be moved, be ready to get excited by something that tears up the rule book when it comes to indigenous revolution. If there is one album you need to listen to this year, this is it. I’m a pretty basically educated person, but I know when something this brutally honest and this fucking candid comes along, it deserves your ears.  An album of the year that’ll take some beating.

Out via Hassle Records April 11th

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