Denver-based punk outfit Dead Pioneers — Josh Rivera (guitar), Abe Brennan (guitar), Shane Zweygardt (drums), Algiers’ Lee Tesche (bass) and acclaimed indigenous visual and performance artist and activist Gregg Deal (vocals) — can trace their origins back to when Deal and his family relocated to Colorado after a 17 year period in the Washington, DC area.
Deal, who is a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, is a visual and performance artist and activist, whose work frequently includes exhaustive and detailed critiques of American colonialism, society, politics, popular culture and history. Through paintings, murals and performance art, Deal critically examines issues within Indian Country such as decolonization, stereotypes and appropriation among others. His work has been exhibited at cultural centers nationally and internationally including at the Smithsonian Institution and the Venice Biennale.
During his time as Native Arts Artist-in-Residence at the Denver Art Museum, Deal created the 2020 performance piece, The Punk Pan-Indian Romantic Comedy, a deeply personal one-man show that explored themes of music, personal experiences and meaningful connections. A grant allowed Deal to expand upon the project, incorporating original music written specifically for the performance. That performance piece led to the creation of Dead Pioneers.
The Denver-based punk outfit have long paired a proud DIY ethos with a mission to champion the rights of marginalized communities, including Black, Brown, Asian, LGBQT+ folks and workers. Their work frequently sees them boldly and unapologetically confronting the social, political and cultural issues that are central to modern life in the United States — a focus that’s central to their identity.
The band self-released their 2024 self-titled, full-length debut. Clocking in at 22 minutes, with only one of the album’s 12 songs exceeding three minutes, the album’s material is a breakneck and furious roar that manages to cover a huge amount of ground. The album caught the attention of Hassle Records, who signed the Denver-based punks and then re-released the album.
Their sophomore album, last year’s PO$T AMERICAN was written in February 2024 and recorded that year. The album forecasted the turmoil of the last Presidential election and reflects on the fears, unease and disillusionments of modern life. “The title PO$T AMERICAN reflects a collective disillusionment with the so-called American Dream,” Dead Pioneers’ Gregg Deal explains. “It critiques capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy while imagining a path toward unity beyond those oppressive systems.”
The album’s material saw the band balancing minute-long punk rock rippers, impassioned explorations of modern-day America and spoken word interludes. The shifts in form and tone don’t distract from the material’s central themes while sonically, the album draws from the likes of Rage Against the Machine, Chuck D, Public Enemy, Johnny Cash, IDLES, Black Flag, Rollins Band, Dead Kennedys and others.
Although written and recorded before the results of the 2024 Presidential election, the album’s material eerily presaged the mood and state of life in the United States in the early months of 2025, evoking the fear, uncertainty, the bitter divisiveness, the racist scapegoating, the gaslighting, the gross incompetence, the greed, the oppression, the bullshit and buffoonery we’ve had to face on a daily basis for 15 months now.
Following their first, sold-out European Union and UK headlined tour earlier this month, Dead Pioneers will be releasing their third album Wagon Burner. Slated for a June 26, 2026 release through Hassle Records, the album as the band’s Gregg Deal says is “more collaborative,” while being heavier, harder and much more accessible with a focus on mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses. The album features guest spots from Cheap Perfume on “Nazi Teeth,” The Interrupters on “Never Alone” and Sleaford Mods on “The Worst Among Us.”
The album’s material acknowledges that things are bleak but the band rises up to our miserable occasion, casting an empowering light deep into the gloom.
Wagon Burner‘s second and latest single “No Kings” is a furious, galloping ripper that sees the band delivering a series of much-needed haymakers against America’s techno-fascists, Christo-fascists, White Supremacists, genocide apologists, bootlickers, racists and the Trump-Epstein class, as well as similar movements across the world.
“Last summer there were protests all over the United States called ‘No Kings’, in opposition of the current administration, the policies they’ve been implementing, and the rights they’ve been taking away from citizens,” the band’s Gregg Deal explains. “While the issues are obvious, it’s important that we all say it out loud. It’s important that we show up and make our opinions known, that we won’t allow our inherent rights to be trampled upon for the benefit of the Epstein Class.
“Not unlike ‘Nazi Teeth’, ‘No Kings’ is meant to bring the points home,” he continues. “ICE, rights being taken away, mass shootings, greed over life, demonizing immigrants, black, brown and queer people, widened economic gaps by the Epstein class, and the sincere frustration Americans feel over this. While this is happening, we realize that the right-wing politics coming out of the United States is emboldening conservative right-wing politics all over the world. We are against dictators, authoritarian regimes, Nazis, fascism or any other power structure, political, social or otherwise that seek to take away the rights, freedoms or lives of human beings trying to live their life. To that, we keep it simple: NO KINGS.”
