1. |
Tired
02:10
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America is a pyramid scheme and you ain’t at the top!
Your demonization of those different than you is not just a cottage industry in American but an honest to goodness American value.
The foundation of this country is rooted in slavery and genocide born in the bosom of colonialism
America places the original inhabitants as foreigners in their own lands
Don’t be scared of learning the whole historical story, it's not going to hurt you
Capitalism can only exist if there is a poor class
There are hostiles on the homelands of Indigenous people
This structure is a rigged game that breed racism homophobia, transphobia, classism and ableism.
It all makes me so so very tired.
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2. |
We Were Punk First
01:07
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As you Posture
Make stupid presence known
Your arrogance sucks
authority blown
get so pumped
You think you’re gunna burst
You can’t take away that we were punk first!
You should stop talking
No one cares about your genes
You don’t amount to a hill of beans
keep talking, need to get a hurst
No matter what you think, we were punk first!
Do you know what this means?
Punk first?
It means we’ve been here all along
And now it’s time right get some things back
Language back
Culture back
Ceremony back
Identity back
Homelands back
Land back
LAND BACK!
Hipsters find music been here all along
humming music, you’re ruining song!
It doesn’t matter how often I curse
end of the day, we were punk first!
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3. |
Moving Day
00:37
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The history books make Indian removal sound like an elaborate moving day
Signing treaties like signing a lease on the crappiest apartment in town
We are the middle child of America
If we were the Brady Bunch, we'd be Jan Brady
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4. |
The Punchline
00:48
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I believe when they found the body of General George A. Custer
Quilled like a porcupine with Indian arrows
He didn't die with any honour, any dignity, nor any valour
I wouldn't doubt when they found George A. Custer
An American General, Patriot Indian fighter
He died with a shit in his pants
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5. |
Bad Indian
02:49
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I’m not a very good Indian.
Maybe even a bad Indian
My cheekbones aren’t high enough
My last name isn’t a sentence
I don’t have enough beadwork or turquoise
I don’t speak good pidgin English
Certainly not as good as Johnny Depp did in that movie that one time
I don’t care if you connect with with Indian spiritualism
I could care less if you did a sweat lodge with your Caucasian spirit guide who knew an Indian once
Sure, millions of Indians died, but tell me about your feelings
And cry your white tears
I’m a bad Indian.
A woman once asked me my Indian name
I said: It’s Gregg
And she was so disappointed!
“NO” she said
“It has to be Red Eagle or Two Rivers!”
“Or ‘Grey Skull’” I said
“YES! Wait, is that for real?!”
“No, no” I said, without her realizing my brief but generationally relevant He-Man joke
The kind of joke that would tell her that while Indian
I’m having an American experience too
I finally said to her “How about ‘Walking Eagle’”
“Yes! Yes!” She said, “but is that true?”
“Yes, it’s totally true”
I never did have the heart to tell her that an eagle only walks when it’s too full of shit to fly
I’m a bad Indian
This one time a man walks into my space
Asks me questions about my things
I tell him
When he suddenly interrupts
As only a white man can
With all the euro-swagger of a man who’s people where so sure of their place in the universe
Their place in the world
Their place in the eyes of God
You speak real good for a
Native American
An indian
A savage
A pagan
A prairie n*****
A godless heathen
And I would be justified in punching him
In cursing him out
In calling him racist
That would make me a bad Indian
Which contradicts that old saying
You know the one:
The only good Indian is a dead Indian
I’m a bad indian.
I’m here.
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6. |
The Art of Savagery
01:38
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I was once walking along
Minding my own Indigenous businesses
Hair flowing like the best Pantene commercial
When I was stopped in my tracks
A young girl
Fair skinned
Bright eyed
Eager to talk
Eager to ask
"Are you a REAL Indian?", she asked
I have heard this question a million times
From a million people
Sometimes with eyes shining in romanticism
Sometimes with eyes shining in skeptical colonialism
But a child's question is innocent
A true reflection of her world
Without malice
Without years of wolf dancing
Cleveland Indianing
Corporate sweat lodges
Lewises named Daniel
Dancing and playing Indian all day
"Are you a real Indian?"
Yes I am
To which her bright eyes got wide
Her pigtails blowing in the wind of her flight
Screaming in fear
She ran
She had not the years of the world we live in
She carried someone else's years upon her adolescent shoulders
And now, an Indian quandary...
Do I chase her to set her straight?
Thus perpetuating the fear she has of my perceived savagery?
Or do I let her go?
Securing her fear of my perceived savagery?
We are required to walk a fine line of savagery
Because we simply walk a fine line of savagery
Because you're Indian if you do
And you're Indian if you don't
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7. |
Rage
01:38
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Howl at the moon
Scream at the ground
Did you hear me?
The weight of your words
Life changing
Floating in the space of our lives
Rage
I may be the worst friend you’ve ever had
Too young to function
Just old enough to be mad
Rage
4 wheels on wood
Music for days
Purpose with purpose
Sweat and blood shared
You went in the pit
To never return
Rage
I may be the worst friend you’ve ever had
Too young to function
Just old enough to be mad
Rage
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8. |
Dreamcatcher
00:40
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We gotta talk about appropriation and how absurd it looks from this side
Dreamcatchers are mis-appropriated
Meant for children
It captures nightmares
Lets the good dreams through
You hang them from your rearview mirrors
Is your commute that much of a nightmare?
Are you sleeping when you should be driving?
Who are all these white people sleeping in their cars?
And I don't understand your sleepy skin
Why is that dreamcatcher tattooed on your body?
Are you a nightmare?
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9. |
World Up My Ass
01:14
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I've got the world up my ass
And I'm gonna move fast
Be the first
Won't be the last
I've got the world up my ass
Society is burning me up
Take a bite,
Spit it out
Take their rules
Rip 'em up,
Tear them down
Twisted mind,
Withered brain
You know I'm going insane
I just tell them to get back
When they tell me how to act
I've got the world up my ass
You know I've got the world up my ass
Society is burning me up
Take a bite,
Spit it out
Take their rules
Rip 'em up,
Tear them down
You know I've got the world up my ass
You know I've got colonialism up my ass
Society is burning me up
Take a bite,
Spit it out
Take their rules
Rip 'em up,
Tear them down
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10. |
||||
This Is Not A Political Song
These are just words
Demoralizing Muslims
Keeping marriage from some because they don’t fit your hetro-normative livestyles
The mutually exclusive statements of Choices and Life
Religious zealots judging you with eyes and ears that are told not to judge on Sunday
Black Lives Matter
Land rights
Equal rights
Marriage rights
Voting rights
Gay rights
Trans rights
Black rights
Latino rights
Indigenous rights
Workers rights
Labor rights
Immigrant rights
No one illegals on stolen land
By the way, this is not a political song
It’s possible that everything we believe is wrong
We politicize black and around bodies
Women
Reproduction
Babies in cages
Self identifying humans that are told they aren’t human because they don’t fit….
Whatever
From where I sit, there is a clear discussion about these lands
The only people here are colonizers, immigrants, stolen people and Indigenous people
And there are hostiles on our homelands
By the way, this is not a political song
It’s possible that everything we believe is wrong
In order to make it, you must be mean and cruel
Compassion doesn’t make it in this world
Dismissiveness
Divisiveness
Red MAGA hats in a sea of red that just want to believe what they want to believe
And they believe they want to punch you in your stupid face
How dare you want anything from a country that you owe everything to!
How dare you have an opinion that counters any one else!
Democracy is only what I think it should be, and not what it is
Fascism îs fun!
Hate crimes are fashionable!
He who has the money is the most pious
The made up christian doctrine of prosperity
If you have a lot of money, then you are favored by God
Especially if you’re in the so-called United States of America
By the way, this is not a political song
It’s possible that everything we believe is wrong
As we all clamor to survive in on our respective streets
It becomes easy to hate others that are in your way
Or who’s disposition you don’t like
That even those that want to burn everything down must have some hope tho, right?
An anarchist love affair
Right wing assault rifle infidelity
Death and taxes
Gadsden Flag used to stand for constitutionalism and limited government
Now it stands for supporting the abuse of constitutional rights and limitations of government under fascist militias
And now it’s just stupid
And exhausting
Tiki torch whites are asking you to pick a side
Because everything is black and white
And grey areas be damed!
Heaven forbid we share space
And resources and ideas
That would be communistic in nature
And I hear that is against nature
Three cheers for the train wreck that is late stage capitalism
It’s ok if everything dies, just as long as it dies under my boot
By the way, this is not a political song
It’s possible that everything we believe is wrong
We are in the land of spirit eaters
Remember when John said that?
Protect your spirit because you’re in the space where spirits get eaten
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11. |
Doom Indian
01:52
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While the whites wait for the apocalypse
The apocalypse already took place
Articulating the past serves recognition of generational trauma
But some folks are bummed out about it
Guilt or whatever
And then I'm just a Doom Indian
I hurt your fragile disposition with the weight of my words
See no evil
Hear no evil
Speak no evil
Even if your grandpa was evil
So I'm the bad guy in this scenario
I'm the Doom Indian
You know, as Doom Indian I speak doom all the time
I can't help it
Doom came to me
Doom sustains me
Recognition of Doom
It's no longer a description so much as a solid Indigenous character
Doom is angry and real and could care less about how it makes you feel
Doom Indian
Listen, it's ok if it bothers you
I'd be more concerned if you were ok with it
It's not awesome on some level either
Some kind of reconciliation
I don't know
There is a lot of work to do
Yeah, I'm hopeful and cynical
I want to move forward in a good way
I'm also angry
No matter how hard I try I can't ignore anything
History
Your slick progressive language
Your performative land acknowledgements
Like public masturbation
Get your shit together
Seriously
With Love, Doom Indian
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12. |
||||
I continue to walk like a ghost in the graveyard of our thousand year home
I look like a stranger out here no matter where I continue to roam
You walk so aloof, you’re ignoring the proof and you’re strangely so innocent
The end seems to be near, you’re so full of fear and destruction is imminent
But we told you
But we told you
We told you this wouldn’t work
I know you knew
I know you knew
I can see your stupid smirk
They took all the things, all the earth brings to us in love and benevolence
In the beginning it was bad, it’s still pretty sad, you’re weilding malevolence
My dagger stuck in the side of your gut doesn’t seems to matter much
But one day you’ll find me standing over your mind with nothing left to clutch
But we told you
But we told you
We told you this wouldn’t work
I know you knew
I know you knew
I can see your stupid smirk
Your desire to destroy everything in an effort to rise above all
Puts you on the edge of the cliff that will provide an excellent fall
Your last thought of me, and soon you will see that none of us really own
Your corpse will feed growing things in this earth and you will die alone
But we told you
But we told you
We told you this wouldn’t work
now we see
now we see
We see you lost your smirk
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Dead Pioneers Denver, Colorado
Rooted in the Punk aesthetic, Dead Pioneers is not afraid to tackle hard political and social issues From original songs to spoken word with punk riffs, Dead Pioneers was created with a love of music, a love of art and the DIY disposition of just figuring it out and seeing what happens. ... more
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