Dead Pioneers is a band comprising performance artist and vocalist Gregg Deal with guitarists Josh Rivera and Abe Brennan, drummer Shane Zweygardt and bass player Lee Tesche (who is also lead guitarist for Algiers). `PO$T AMERICAN` is their second album written and recorded before the 2024 American election.
The opening track, “A.I.M.”, is a tribute to the American Indian Movement, starting with the American Indian Movement song before being overcome by distortion. “This is on the record as homage” explains Deal, “but also in understanding that the record itself is a protest to the great experiment that is the United States of America, and its many imposed issues.” We have a spoken word rhetoric on how this artist perceives the US as it affects him with title track `PO$T AMERICAN` shared over a pounding rhythmic backbeat.
`My Spirit Animal Ate Your Spirit Animal` has a rolling throbbing under beat and refers to a “spirit animal,” also known as a totem animal, a symbolic animal believed to represent a person’s inner nature, provide guidance, or function as a spiritual guardian. It relates to how this artist`s ancestors have had their lands taken from them by people who have not roots or spirituality. To me `The Pit Song` is more or less what it says on the tin a brief hard core beat created to ensure a mosh pit forms at a gig when played live.
`The Caucasity` according to Gregg alludes to white audacity and entitlement, which balances anger with a kind of resigned weariness. The number reflects on a personal interaction with such a privileged but unenlightened individual across an auditory soundscape that feels as it could explode at any time. The amusing `Mythical Cowboys` is a further slant on the perception driven by Hollywood of American Indians or Indigenous Americans. Here the all-American hero John Wayne is coined as a ‘Fakeass cowboy’ or the ‘Best cowboy that never existed’. The pulsing musical underbelly is a perfect platform for this spoken word oration.
`Dead Pioneers` is a hardcore offering about the slaughter of the original settlers while `White Whine` is a personal view of racism as this artist perceives it.
`Juicy Fruit (Ode to Chief Bromden)’ is a nod to the character from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, which the band believe is “one of the most important films in providing some progression of humanizing Native people in cinema”. As well as being the first contemporary Native person in modern cinema, he is also in a mental health facility: “While the story of the film is about the issues of mental health care in this time and place, Bromden could have been any one of us. The relationship that he has with the audience supersedes race but relies on emotion and experience.” This universality of connection is reflected in the line: “He represents you, he represents me”. It`s played out in a kind of breathy vocal with a pulsing foot tapping beat. A plea for white supremacists to just shut the fuck up is spat out over a brutal heads down no nonsense musical resonance with reasoning all wrapped up in fifty one glorious seconds on `STFU`.
`Bloodletting Carnival` appears to be a bleak reflection on the current state of the United States. Ren Aldridge, the lead vocalist for Petrol Girls, adds vocals to `Love Language` which seems to view on the dangers of toxic masculinity. The number veers from an all out assault to a more thoughtful reflection as the number progresses.
`Fire and Ash` has a recurring pulsating beat with some dreamy guitar chords which I felt was quite overwhelming. The title may suggest a cyclical nature of conflict, with “fire” representing the destructive forces of violence, hatred, and misuse of power, and “ash” representing the aftermath, including grief and the emotional consequences of those actions. The cycle of Birth, School, Work, Death that awaits most of us is hinted at on the bass led `Working Class Warfare`, where most of us are conditioned to work and toe the line.
The album closes out with `Untitled Spoken Word No. 2` which Gregg shares is about: “Pointing out the common, and seemingly strange aspect of being a Native person in a western world and what that navigation looks like. It is maddening and funny and frustrating.”
Hand on heart I was a little worried about tackling `PO$T AMERICAN` as to the subject matter and whether I’d make a hash or it, offend somebody or indeed do it justice. It`s an uncomfortable listen as it`s a truth sayer and you feel a little uneasy as a lot of the subject matter shared is remote to someone like me who is a white sexagenarian in the UK. But racism and injustice is prevalent in all walks of life regardless of your country of origin.
Dead Pioneers share moving explorations of modern-day America and spoken word reflections over minute-long and longer punk explosions along with more reflective auditory sound bases. It`s an album that I know I’ll return to and appreciate my own quirk of birth and the plight of others less fortunate. Gregg Deal and Dead Pioneers have certainly given me some food for thought. An album that will certainly gain more relevance as to what is currently happening through the auspices of the head of government of the United States of America.
Rating 9/10
