Protect your mind or it will be eaten

Analyze in Punk: The Dead Pioneers' first album is a blunt inventory.

The covered wagon is burning. A symbol that the Dead Pioneers have chosen for their future work and which they have included in their self-titled debut album. The fact that this is not a nostalgic throwback to the era of “Westwärts Ho!” becomes clear when the introductory sounds flare up. Feverish drums, fast hissing of the electric guitar, volume and staccato, a male voice that speaks of “hostiles on the homelands of indigenous people”, of “a rigged game thatbreds racism, homophobia, transphobia, classism and ableism”. There is not a second of Western sentimentality here.

The spoken word belongs to band founder Gregg Deal, a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, who is internationally recognized as an artist and activist and always understands his paintings and performance actions in the spirit of resistance and enlightenment.

In the service of hardcore

Born out of the work on “The Punk Pan-Indian Romantic Comedy” developed four years ago, the Toten Pioniere have become a permanent institution in the service of the US hardcore genre: In addition to Joshua Rivera and Abe Brennan on the six strings, the Thunderbolts Lee Tesche on bass and drummer Shane Zweygardt have also joined.

The powerful quintet created their first long-playing record – everything necessary is covered in just 22 minutes – in just two days in the studio.

Among the twelve original compositions are four spoken word pieces in which positions are negotiated. “Yes, I'm hopeful and cynical / I want to move forward in a good way / I'm angry too” – three lines from “Doom Indian”, highlighting Gregg Deal's approach without any sentimentality.

They steer elastically

They consistently avoid noisy gimmicks and egotistical nonsense, the focus is on words, sentences, a narrative-analytical element – ​​the band delivers dynamic punk music that nimbly and elastically steers all formulaic aspects. This is close to what the Black Flag guys Greg Ginn and Charles Dukowski from their SST Records stable once released into the prairie. However, Dead Pioneers make it clear who the first punks were: “Do you know what that means?” / Punk first? / It means we were here all along / and now it's time to get some things back.” Language, culture, ceremony, identity, home, country are to be regained.

When making music, Gregg Deal draws on Henry Rollins and his former band. The song “Disconnect” is “the standard I follow” and “the absolute influence.” It is the same sincerity, the same ruthlessness. And, despite the anger and outcry, a calm, sometimes quiet presentation of the monstrous (genocide, racism, exploitation). The shocking “Bad Indian,” which does not shy away from the bitter humor of everyday life, culminates in “The only good Indian is a dead Indian / I'm a bad Indian.” I am here.”

A lesson in 22 minutes – and actually much more than just a leaflet dipped in punk rock. Although “This Is Not a Political Song”, with its stoic beat, is called what it is called, we must not be misled. Mister Deal and his pioneers did not let the covered wagon go up in flames without reason. No more “Go West!”, no more conquering settlers who want to subjugate the land and its people. – A turning point – not only in the United States of America – to which the response here is by no means irrelevant. “Protect your mind, for you are in the room where minds are eaten.”