Dead Pioneers - Wagon Burner

Released 26th June 2026

The Indigenous fronted punk band from Denver CO unleash their third album Wagon Burner. Dead Pioneers is rooted in a 2020 piece called The Punk Pan-Indian Romantic Comedy, a deeply personal work that dealt with vocalist Gregg Deals 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 didnt 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 thats now three albums deep; the arrival of guitarist Joshua Rivera made the qui