Dead Pioneers – Wagon Burner

Description

Release Date 26th June 2026

Crystal Clear Vinyl LP

Following their packed-out first EU and UK headline tour last month,
Dead Pioneers, the Indigenous fronted punk band from Denver CO, are now preparing to unleash their third album
‘Wagon Burner’, set for release
June 26th via Hassle Records.

Dead Pioneers is rooted in a 2020 piece called The Punk Pan-Indian Romantic Comedy, a deeply personal work that dealt with
vocalist Gregg Deal’s cultural upbringing. Following an embryonic performance of the piece, Deal secured a grant to expand it to include music created especially for the work. “The idea was to mix spoken-word with punk music” explains Deal, who hooked up with
drummer Shane Zweygardt and
guitarist Abe Brennan during lockdown and began kicking the concept around.

But what became
Dead Pioneers didn’t truly take shape until Deal connected with
bassist Lee Tesche, who you may know from righteous Atlantan post-punks
Algiers. Unlikely as it sounds, a conversation between Tesche and Deal about
Sleaford Mods evolved into a creative connection that’s now three albums deep; the arrival of
guitarist Joshua Rivera made the quintet quorate. “Josh is Mexican-American,” says Deal. “He is also inherently indigenous, under a different set of circumstances within colonialism. But I consider him to be my indigenous brother. We spend a lot of time trying to figure out how all of this fits together.”

A miraculous, natural chemistry made this supposed one-off project an actual band almost as soon as they cut what became their
2023 self-titled debut album (“We approached it like I approach my visual art: execute quickly, first thought is best thought,” Deal says), but they didn’t necessarily take it seriously until, unexpectedly, the outside world did. “I was like, we’ve made this record – what should I do with it? Put it online?” Deal remembers. The response was vigorously positive, and soon came demands to commit this noise to vinyl. A first thousand-copy pressing sold out in minutes. “So then we pressed another thousand,” he adds, still marvelling at it all. “And then they were gone, too.”

What followed was “a series of strange accidents” that led to the group signing to Hassle, befriending
Jello Biafra and touring with kindred spirits like
Pennywise,
Propaghandi, even
Pearl Jam. “Punk-rock had made everything seem so accessible when I was a kid,” says Deal. “Like, simply having the balls to get up on stage and stage dive and then be carried off by people that become your best friends once they get your feet back on the ground.” Now, punk-rock was reaching out its hands to
Dead Pioneers and pulling them onto larger and larger stages. The group returned that favour by simply getting better and better: their second album,
2025’s PO$T AMERICAN, was sharper, angrier, funnier than the debut, a riot riveted with punch-a-Nazi thrills.

And now,
Wagon Burner, their fearsome third album. Described by Deal as “more collaborative”, it’s a heavier, harder but also more accessible set, vicious hooks scattered among the punk-rock melee and guest appearances by kindred spirits
Cheap Perfume (on the righteous
‘Nazi Teeth’),
The Interrupters (on the shout-a-long anthem
‘Never Alone’) and, bringing it back to the group’s beginnings,
Sleaford Mods (on the searing slow-burn of
‘The Worst Among Us’). The world might be darkening by the day, but
Dead Pioneers are rising to that miserable occasion, casting their empowering light into the gloom.

Dead Pioneers:

Gregg Deal – vocals

Josh Rivera – guitar

Abe Brennan – guitar

Lee Tesche – bass

Shane Zweygardt – drums

GENRE — Punk, Alternative, Rock

FFO — IDLES, Bad Religion, Amyl and the Sniffers, Lambrini Girls, Bob Vylan, Soft Play, The Interrupters

SIDE A

1. Dead Presidents

2. Nazi Teeth (feat. Stephanie Byrne / Cheap Perfume)

3. A Message From Mr. Bell

4. No Kings

5. Animals That Roam The Earth

6. Never Alone (feat. The Interrupters)

7. The Worst Among Us (feat. Jason Williamson / Sleaford Mods)

SIDE B

8. Seeing Red

9. Circle Jerk The Wagons

10. Zealots

11. Nobody

12. LFG