Lifeless Pioneers sustain the momentum with the third launch from their killer new album which goes to explode this April. Mark my phrases. Legendary Cowboys is a punk as fuck swipe at John Wayne and Kevin Costner, scathing lyrics to a scathing sound you’ll all be speaking about this yr. Learn on…
Denver’s Lifeless Pioneers will launch their new album, PO$T AMERICAN, on eleventh April by way of Trouble Information. Fronted by famend visible and efficiency artist Gregg Deal, a North American Indigenous vocalist, the band unapologetically confronts social, political, and cultural points – a spotlight central to their id. Immediately the band affords one other style of PO$T AMERICAN with their new single “Legendary Cowboys.”
Streaming/pre-order hyperlink HERE.
Gregg Deal shares:
“In 1990, after I was a sophomore in highschool, ‘Dances with Wolves’ got here out. Like many, within the preliminary viewing of what would later win an Oscar for finest movie, I used to be enamoured and confused.
Seeing one thing Indigenously acquainted while you’re younger can typically be complicated and overwhelming, to make certain, however one thing was amiss. With out the language to articulate what it I might later come to a spot of understanding the Hollywood trope of white saviorism.
My mom’s adopted father, a white man, would specific his love for John Wayne, a standard hero for his era. As somebody who has at all times been handled as a Native particular person, good, dangerous or detached, his glare has at all times left me uncomfortable.
The narrative of the cowboy and Indian is a delusion. A storyline used to promote books, movies, pictures, and work, however a storyline with the nefarious objective of supplanting the existence of Native individuals because the enemy of Colonial Settlerism, a construction backed by spiritual perception of divinity and righteous objective. Please notice: in case your righteous objective consists of the dying of others, it’s not righteous. The existence of this narrative undermines Indigenous rights, existence and assertion to the authority of our personal homelands.
Costner embodies the white obsession with westward growth, casting apart the reality for romanticism. If we had been sincere, westerns would look extra like a horror film than the romantic dribble that arrives on the silver display. This must romanticize western exceptionalism by way of a story of romantic nationalism is the obsession of the so-called righteous spiritual nationalism perpetuated by way of individuals like Kevin Costner and John Wayne. These narratives play into the spiritual proper and much proper, inform the fantasy of exceptionalism by way of violence, and the perpetuation of those concepts backed by hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. This continues the cycle of violence in the actual world, being dismissive of human life underneath the flag of benevolent colonialism and civilization, which requires the demonization of black and brown individuals. This isn’t civilization, that is brutalization. Essentially the most brutal buildings imposed on planet earth, and Kevin can’t wait to promote you the film tickets for it.”
The parable of the American cowboy has lengthy been a cinematic fantasy—one constructed on systemic distortions and racist tropes that obscure the actual histories of Indigenous individuals. The video for at present’s single confronts this legacy head-on, dismantling the Western style’s romanticized portrayals of conquest and erasure. TJ Blake, an Atlanta-based Thai/American multimedia artist and musician, brings this imaginative and prescient to life by animating and increasing upon frontman Gregg Deal’s highly effective visible collection, The Others. Initially created in 2019 as work, The Others reimagines mid-century comedian guide imagery by way of an Indigenous lens, changing dialogue with lyrics from punk anthems that mirror the battle of Native resistance. It embodies the message of Gregg’s work, and by extension the voice of Lifeless Pioneers. Blake’s animation weaves the “Legendary Cowboy” lyrics into The Others narrative, additional intensifying its impression—straight referencing MDC’s “John Wayne Was a Nazi” and the 1998 Native-directed movie Smoke Indicators.
PO$T AMERICAN balances minute-long punk explosions, impassioned explorations of modern-day America and spoken-word interludes elegantly, the shifts in kind and tone not distracting from the central themes. The aural palate is broadly the identical as Lifeless Pioneer’s self-titled debut, however feels expanded, stronger someway: drawing on the confrontational writing of Rage In opposition to The Machine, the unapologetic voice of Chuck D and Public Enemy, the storytelling of Johnny Money, the evolution of IDLES, and punk stalwarts together with Black Flag, Rollins Band and Lifeless Kennedys.
Written in February 2024 and recorded in July, the brand new album, PO$T AMERICAN, forecasts the turmoil of the 2024 American election whereas reflecting on the fears and disillusionments of recent life. “The title displays a collective disillusionment with the so-called American Dream,” explains Deal. “It critiques capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy whereas imagining a path towards unity past these oppressive techniques.”
The band beforehand shared PO$T AMERICAN’s title monitor alongside a video directed by the band in addition to the LP’s first single “My Spirit Animal Ate Your Spirit Animal.” Lifeless Pioneers will have fun the discharge of the album with a present in Denver on the Bluebird Theater on April 20 adopted by reveals supporting Pearl Jam. Following that Lifeless Pioneers head to the UK for a run of headline reveals earlier than the European “Reconstruction Tour” with Pennywise, Propagandhi, and Comeback Child.
Lifeless Pioneers are guitarists Josh Rivera and Abe Brennan, drummer Shane Zweygardt and bassist Lee Tesche (who can also be lead guitarist for Algiers), with Gregg Deal on vocals.
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Forewords by Wayne Carey, Opinions Editor for Louder Than Struggle. His writer profile is right here
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