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[Full Album] PROPAGANDHI | "Potemkin City Limits"

Yeah. You knew this bonus episode was coming.

What are the chances that two Propagandhi albums both lose by exactly two votes in the same year? And, what else is there to say about Propagandhi that I haven’t already said a hundred times?

I can’t believe I’ve now heard over half of their discography—and seemingly—many of their most iconic albums are still up next for me. 

Propagandhi albums aren’t fully digestible in one bite. Or even a few bites. I try to be careful with recency bias with full-album reviews (especially with more nuanced and progressive-laden works) but I can say that this was their most enjoyable album to analyze. Prematurely? I'll go ahead and say that I feel it’s my new favorite. Lately, how much fun I have reviewing an album is starting to become top criteria for its staying power.

Considering all that I've heard so far, I'm starting to feel that they do a standard-tuned, "anthemic rock" sound the best. This album has bonafide songs that I really want to show people, and not just “brilliant pieces of technical music” to show my prog-metal loving friends. Those are songs too, but...you know what I mean.

I can’t emphasize enough that this backwards journey through their work has offered a very unique vantage point as a new fan, and it’s increased my excitement tenfold to hear their earlier albums. I'm under the impression that these earlier albums aren’t as “progressive”, but Potemkin City Limits proved that I might actually prefer that.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro
2:46 - "A Speculative Fiction"
10:37 - "Fixed Frequencies"
20:02 - "Fedallah's Hearse"
30:11 - "Cut into the Earth"
39:26 - "Bringer of Greater Things"
44:48 - "Die Jugend Marschiert"
57:30 - "Rock for Sustainable Capitalism"
1:05:57 - "Impending Halfhead"
1:08:57 - "Life at Disconnect"
1:16:23 - "Name and Address Withheld"
1:23:00 - "Superbowl Patriot XXXVI"
1:23:43 - "Iteration"
1:31:53 - Final Thoughts

[Full Album] PROPAGANDHI | "Potemkin City Limits"

Comments

Good grief, Spotify is a shit show. "I fucking love that one rock video where that (listen to the sneering disdain in Chris' delivery of the next two words) fucking FATassed, mohawked millionaire prances around by far the worst sausage party on Earth. Where by mere chance he's caught on film shaking hands with an incredibly diverse selection of patriotic skins. I like the message that sends. Fucking goof." Critiquing Mike appearing at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and his PunkVoter campaign.

Eric Heckard

Thanks for doing this. Awesome video. I had never noticed that blues bass lick before and you picked it up on your first listen. 🤯😃 It is probably my favorite album of theirs. Either that or Supporting Caste depending on the day. Supporting Caste probably has a higher overall quality level but Potemkin has the highest peaks. Speculative Fiction, Die Jugend and Iteration all belong in their top 5. Rest of my list goes: Today's Empires Victory Lab Failed States At Peace (still growing on me but has a few songs I can't get into) Less Talk, More Rock How to Clean Everything (I only put this one on for nostalgia reasons) Crazy run of records. Best band of all time? For me, they are up there.

Niels

We opened for them in Portage la Prairie. Still my greatest accomplishment as a short term band member.

Mitch Moar

My ranking of Propagandhi releases: Potemkin City Limits Today's Empires... Supporting Caste Victory Lap Failed States Less Talk, More Rock. At Peace How To Clean Everything.

prdinpdx

I kinda think you have 3 different versions or "eras" of propagandhi. You haven't heard much of their early more gritty skate punk type stuff I dont think. Then they had a brief era of being a lot more hardcore punk before morphing into what we see now as what you might call more prog-punk kinda thing. To my ear I like the early stuff and the later stuff. Their hardcore era didn't jive for me. This album is an absolute banger though. I remember getting it back when you actually bought albums before you knew what was on them, and I was expecting more early-era skate punk.

Matt

Supporting Caste Empires How To Clean Everything Potemkin City Limits Failed States Victory Lap At Peace Less Talk, More Rock.

Mike C.

Agreed... it's one of the few times that a remaster has made a noticeable change in the sound of an album that I've heard.

Joe

"At Peace" really grew on me and I love it a lot. I would rank it in my top 3, probably behind "Potemkin City Limits" and "Supporting Caste".

BogusReilly

Haven't watched the whole thing yet but I suspect this may have been the era where Todd was recording with a Stingray in standard before switching back to the ibanez's (probably because the stingrays way a bajillion tones). Probably why it sounds so good, other than the fact that it is a stringray.

Scott O

You chose the correct track for your favourite!

Alex Scott

Hey hey! I haven't been here for a bit. Had to shoot you some dough for this album. Loving the new tone zone cam! Love sharing my facourite records with you, man. Potemkin was my first new Propagandhi album after becoming a fan at a youthful 10. They had this promotional website for it back when websites were a thing. Die Jugend Marshart was front and center on the site as a single and i listened to it like 30 times a day until the album came out. I was maybe 16 or 17 and I was a bit of annoying Propagandhi acolyte without a proper identity. I figured it out eventually. They were an amazing guiding hand in my youth that helped me to not grow into a horrid goof. Have you heard the Unscripted Moments podcast? I feel like your newish fan perspective would be rad and welcomed with loving arms over there. Dig your vibes. Keep givener, brotha!

Gingerthedragon

My man! Thank you! 🫶🏻

Søren Herbst

You mentioning that Prop and BR lyrics are prophetical just shows how little has changed. Can’t wait for you to get back to some BR albums like Suffer, No Control, and even The Empire Strikes First to see how relevant (or even more relevant) the lyrics still are today. Prophetic and kinda sad.

Josh

Benito and Vampires are sooooo slick. Where are you consuming breakdowns of the songs??

Tom Bilodeau

This is the Propagandhi album I've listened to the least. It was fun reliving it! Now I can't wait for Todays Empires, Tomorrows Ashes, definately their most hardcore album!

André Karlsen

^This here is the truth

prdinpdx

Just make sure you listen to the 2021 remastered version of Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes. Because it sounds sooo much better than the original!

Mike C.

You really need to take a pilgrimage North to see them in their hometown. Winnipeg shows are wild. I grew up in Regina where Todd is from and I maintain that there are no finer punk rock shows than in the Canadian prairies.

Steve Biggin

At Peace has been growing and growing on me. I think my current rankings are: Victory Lap Today’s Empires At Peace Less Talk More Rock Supporting Caste Potemkin Failed States How to Clean Less Talk will always be their classic album and most important to me, but musically it has slid back over the years. Whereas Potemkin and Supporting cast have been growing on me over the years

Aukai Ligairi

The “shots” were digs at Lars frederiksen and the warped tour specifically, that’s the fat millionaire even tho fat mike fits the profile it’s about Lars

Dan P

To answer your question Mark, yes. Yes you should do an end of a run debrief. To add to that I feel like you’ll understand why the “old prop heads” didn’t latch onto their later albums after you hear the early releases. Having said that, I have a whole new appreciation for those records since seeing your full album reactions.

Fuz Fuzlington

What was the song of the Lars Frederiksen video?

JC Nutz

Mark, to answer your question about At Peace, I haven’t heard anything different than Propagandhi since the singles started coming out early this year and I have to say it’s growing more and more on me. I’m processing it and I’m loving it a lot. I told Chrissy that Benito’s became one of my favorites after listening to his episode about it and really understanding what it’s about and his intentions with the music. Also, Vampires are real is now one of my favorite songs of all bands of all time, both thematically and musically. It makes me chill and I turn up the volume every time it comes on.

Juan Manuel Morales

Don't worry, the lyrics I read beforehand were straight from Propagandhi's website! I DID see that line, and that's what made me think of the Lawrence Arms track dissing Warped Tour. Don't worry, I read the real ones. I don't know where Spotify got theirs, though...😅🤔

Mark Michell

I hate it that the lyrics for Rock for Sustainable Capitalism were so wrong! You missed one of the most tongue-in-cheek and clever lyrics Propagandhi has: “I hear this year’s Vans Warped Tour is ‘going green!’ I guess they heard that money grows on trees. Hope they ship all those shitty bands overseas like they did the factories.” 😂

Juan Manuel Morales

The entire lyrics are incredible. The acting before the jury, but especially after “can’t gauge 10,000 eyes from a single head…” 🤯

Juan Manuel Morales

Mark missed the transition from Mindy to the colonel and his diatribe about controlling their children. That’s such a creative songwriting.

Juan Manuel Morales

The mohawked millionaire line is referring to a music video by Lars from Rancid in his side project that came out with a “patriotic skins” song following 9/11. Chris said he regrets body shaming him and that he’s heard Lars is a nice guy, but he doesn’t regret the sentiment. The “when did punk rock become so safe” is aimed at Fat Mike, who Chris thought he had a friendly beef with, but Mike took it seriously and they parted ways. The rest of the song is about the SoCal skate punk Warped Tour culture vs the actual political activism Propagandhi was engaged in. They had a few songs go back and forth. Mike wrote One Celled Creature as a response to Chris and this song.

Aukai Ligairi

Can’t wait for Today’s Empire, definitely my favourite🤘

McChud

Now you’re REALLY teasing me 😅😩

Mark Michell

If you like the ‘closing’ type of feel that Iteration gives near the end of the song, I can’t wait for you to hear albums like TETA by Prop and Hang by Lagwagon. The closers on those albums are LITERALLY perfect.

Zack

I would agree with everything except I would have Victory Lap as #3 for me. But that is the beauty of Propagandhi.

Josh

Also it’s about fat Mike, among others

Aacc

Those lyrics for rock for sustainable capitalism is so fucking wrong lol

Aacc

Best Prop album.

Peter Del Villano

Thank you for the review, Mark! This and TETA are on my forever listens. I can't ever skip a song if they come on via shuffle. After a full month of listening to At Peace (to prep for their live show) I put At Peace in the top 5 all time best Propagandhi albums. My ranks below 1. Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes 2. Potemkin City Limits (Fedellah's Hearse being my favorite pissed off bass song) 3. Less Talk, More Rock 4. How to Clean Everything 5. At Peace 6. Supporting Caste 7. Victory Lap 8. Failed States Then Last and Definitely Least (and maybe the worst album ever distributed) = Where Quantity is Job #1

Tom Bilodeau

Thanks for the insight! For the lyrics I have on my end (and read beforehand), those were pulled from the Propagandhi site directly. The ones I display are the "official lyrics from the band on Spotify", which I find it crazy how inaccurate they were to the ones I had. Or, why there'd be some songs available and not others from the same album. Frustrating for sure, haha!

Mark Michell

For accurate lyrics, you're better off viewing them on Propagandhi's website. Also, some of those AI summaries are not very good at all. For example, "Cut Into the Earth" is describing the journey of a refugee fleeing their home. It hits differently when you understand that, given our current circumstances re: the criminalization of migration, etc. And the "Rock for Sustainable Capitalism" lyrics are waaaay off.

Matt Feliciano

My favorite album of ALL TIME. Going to put in the popcorn for this one.

Andrew Seraphin

Beave isnt on this though

André Nordin

I had so much fun watching this. I have never stopped listening to this one and Today's Empires on a regular basis. There are not many like this. I never stopped smiling watching this, as if I was sharing my favorite music with my enthusiastic friend!! Thank you so much! One more sleepless night with my baby that went by faster thanks to you!!

Alexandre Morin

There’s a video of Lars hanging out with Nazi skinheads or patriotic skinheads? Cause there is a huge difference between the two.

Matt Gerken

On the military/recruiter topic, you should check out the video for Rise Against - Hero of War. It's not a bass thing though- I don't even think there is a bass in the song.

Bill Jago

And yes, Chris sings through the guitar solo on Die Jugend.

Jon Person

Great review, for reference on ‘rock for sustainable capitalism’ the lyrics about the “fucking jack-ass mohawked millionaire” prancing around the worst sausage party on earth with a diverse collection of patriotic skins is a reference to Rancid’s Lars and his side projects video - www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qeAnOX-UCk&list=RD4qeAnOX-UCk&start_radio=1&pp=ygUVbGFycyBhbmQgdGhlIGJhc3RhcmRzoAcB0gcJCfwJAYcqIYzv The song then goes on to take some shots at fat mike and vans warped tour. Also that little guitar lick after “fuckin goof” after the first verse is 10/10 maybe my fav moment on the album.

Conor Kenneally

Came here to see Greg’s comment.

Fuz Fuzlington

the royal we

Dan P

They lost the polls because we don’t want any more prop for now.

Mitchell Hedden

You’re welcome. And yes he plays a musicman in this era. https://youtu.be/ndw99VIKJDc?si=9RfoJ4GAZX9PLMuc

Jon Person

Knew you had to do it. ❤️☺️

Daniel Eriksson

When I was watching I was thinking "hey this has a big boys of summer feel to it" and glad to see I wasn't alone in that!

Chris J

Alright, I'll try to keep this short and sweet, but the ending of, "Die Jugend Marschiert", (German for "The Youth Marches") the part that Mark likes the most, is what made me fall in love with Propagandhi and made 15 year old me sit down and digest their VERY impressive songwriting. I may or may not have stolen the lyrics for a creative writing essay in an english class, which may or may not have gotten a B+.... and since Boys of Summer was mentioned in the same song, my guitar group in guitar class, in high school, got to learn and play that song for various reasons, and I introduced a typical hardcore breakdown during the bridge section and not only did our guitar teacher let us keep it, he re-wrote the sheet music to include it in all future performances because he said it made the section more "powerful". That guitar teacher is the same one who taught Butch Walker how to play, so it was pretty awesome to impress him. This is my favorite Propagandhi record. It just rips. Mark always has stellar insight and knocks it out the fucking park, as always, Terrific watch. "No it's German. It says.... THE BART THE"

prdinpdx

From what I recall, initially the band was willing to contribute a track to the Rock Against Bush compilation. The track they were going to include was "Free John Hinkley" - an alternate version of "Bullshit Politicians." Propagandhi also wanted to include a statement in the liner notes stating, "This message was not brought to you by George Soros," and that's where the drama unfolded. In a roundabout way, Soros was providing financial support to Punk Voter and Propagandhi wanted to take a swipe at him/distance themselves. But Fat Mike didn't want that statement included. The back and forth resulted in Propagandhi getting booted off the comp. In the liner notes for Potemkin, they do include the "not brought to you by Soros" message, which I think is pretty funny.

Kirbie B

For anyone interest in more details on the murder of Rodney Naistus, Neil Stonechild and Lawrence Wegner by members of the Saskatoon Police (referenced in Bringer of Greater Things), here is a documentary that came out around the time of this album: https://www.nfb.ca/film/two_worlds_colliding/

uncle patsy

He tries to give the people what they want! Gotta respect that!

Quote Unquote Sir

Ceej, if I haven't said it enough (I don't feel like I have), I have seen every comment you've made both here and on YouTube, and I thank you endlessly for your detailed, well-spoken comments on everything happening here. I love reading what you have to say, and I appreciate the support. Cheers!

Mark Michell

As I've stated many times before while discussing this band. I absolutely love their first album and the second album is pretty good also. Today's Empires, PCL, Supoorting Caste, and Failed states I think I heard maybe twice through before this channel started and I had never heard Victory Lap until you reviewed it. It's come to my attention that this might actually be my favorite album by them. I remember that I liked this album more than Today's Empires but I didn't realize just how fucking impressively written it actually is. Learn something new everyday.

Ceej

To the best of my knowledge, The beef between Propagandhi and Fat Mike began around " Rock Against Bush" compilation to be out on Fat Wreck Chords in support of Punk voter, Fat mike's project to encourage punkers to vote against Bush. At the time I heard that Propagandhi pulled themselves out when they learned the project will support Democrat. From Propagandhi views they can't support neither Democrat or Republican. From Fat Mike view better have Democrat than Republican. But I found this article back from 2004. From punknews.org "Remember last month when my fine feathered friend Mr. Todd Kowalski informed you that we had recorded a song for the upcoming "Rock Against Bush" comp coming out on Fat Wreck Chords? Yes, that's the one. You have an excellent memory. Well, guess which band got booted from it because they refused to remove a pot-shot aimed at international billionaire, global financier, war-profiteer and all-around asswipe George Soros from their liner notes? No, it wasn't Good Charlotte. Good guess though. Try again. That's right, it was us! Next time someone comes knocking on our door hawking the virtues of joining a unified front against something, we'll be sure to ask them this: unity on whose terms? At what cost? This message not brought to you by George Soros." George Soros is a big donator to the Democrat party.

Pat

Propagandhi's lyrics are here: https://propagandhi.com/music/potemkin-city-limits

Jon Person

Thanks so much for reviewing this. I'm really happy that my favourite song of 2005 was chosen as Mark's favourite song on the album. The title is a reference to the Hitler Youth ("The Youth Marches"). It's German and what we hear before the song starts is a Hitler Youth choir singing in German. The 'j' sound is like a 'y' in German, so the German word for "youth" should be pronounced like "Yoong-end". You can put "Die Jugend Marschiert" into Google Translate German to English for a pronunciation explanation. I appreciate the praise for the outro as well. Besides that anti-military song, my favourite part of the album is its last three songs.

Quote Unquote Sir

Oh and in case you didn’t pick up on it with this one, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11 are Todd songs. This was a super interesting group of Todd songs, spanned the distance of his crazy thrash songs and his jazzy proggier stuff

Carl Williams

I think it was actually the first Rock Against Bush comp. Propagandhi were slated to have a song and liner notes on it but wanted to include “This message not brought to you by George Soros” and Fat Mike wanted that removed because he considered Soros an ally at that point. Propagandhi got cold feet about the whole idea then and backed out.

Carl Williams

The reference to fat Mike's vocal styling is probably just huge foreshadowing of what's to come...or what's in the past... Confusing when you're listening backwards, but when you hear Chris singing on HTCE, you will understand 😂

Tom Swaine

You are the man! Always going over and above for the Patreon group. Thank you!

Lee Hamilton

Chris is on the record a huge Rush fan

Tom Swaine

Agreed - It's my favorite album of theirs as well

Adrian Parry

I loved the episode and these dissections in general, but was quite appalled by the AI(?) lyrics or the lack of them. I'd appreciate if correct lyrics would be presented especially for these message heavy bands like Propagandhi that really require extra effort for a Finn at least. Anyway, just my 2c - carry on the great journey you're on! :)

Murkku

Hola shit, this is great but im about to see Lagwagon live so ill see this when i get home!

Alejandro Carrillo

Part of rock for sustainable capitalism is about fat mike for sure. Mostly regarding how he organized rock against bush to convince people to vote for John Kerry, who Chris Hannah saw as no better than Bush. The beauty is that fat wreck chords put out this album (Potemkin City Limits). So Mike knew this was about him but made the record anyway. Mike did write a response song that was on Wolves in Wolves Clothing called, “One Celled Creature.”

ChubsForYou

Look how good this man is to us!

Ceej

Mark you are too good to the Patrons 😃

Ray Dweck

The AI summaries did a pretty good job, but missed a lot of the context for 'Die Jugend Marschiet' ("the (Hitler) youth march" that I think makes it even more interesting. The song talks about Col Casey Wardynski, who "developed the idea of America's Army, a first-person shooter video game series designed as an Army recruitment tool". This is a good breakdown of the details: https://www.songtell.com/propagandhi/america-s-army-die-jugend-marschiert

Kriss Watt

Fucking loooove the vocals on this album, Chris belts out the most amazing wails all throughout Possible unpopular opinion, The Beave era is the best era 🤙🏼

Josh

Dude I love Iteration as a closer. The scenario of Donald Rumsfeld on trial for war crimes, then the grieving father coming in and the line "Squelching feedback. Drunken laughter. Broken English. His dead daughter’s picture" always hits so hard.

Jake

As I recall the feud between them came from Chris wanting to put something in the liner notes of the todays empire album and fat mike stopping it because the person Chris was criticizing was someone who was giving money either to Fat Wreck Chords or to the Punk Voter thing that Mike was doing at the time. This is just from memory so I'm sure I'm missing parts of it.

J Reid

My all time favorite album, even though the Beaver is my all time favorite guitarist for what he added to albums after this. If you’re ever able, check out a physical copy of this album. The liner notes and artwork really lend themselves to the overall vibe and compliment the record. There is a really bleak hopeless feel to this whole album when you dig deep. So many layers to dig into over endless listens.

Carl Williams

The beginning of Rock for Sustainable Capitalism is a description of Lars Fredricksen of Rancid, from a video where he's hanging out with, presumably, Nazi skinheads (patriotic skins) at "the worst sausage party on earth", saying that it sends a terrible message to his often young fans and that he's just doing it for some romantic and thoughtless fashion idea of British skinhead culture - "fuckin' goof".

Jon Person

When Iteration ends, I feel like I've just run a marathon. One of their finest closers.

Matt McCann

Can’t wait to watch this one! I’m a long time Propagandhi fan and this is my favorite album of theirs.

Cody Ryan

This makes my day can't wait to watch!

Tom Bilodeau

Holy Shit! Great album, might be their best since it’s the ultimate grower: sure Victory Lap grabbed me quicker, but the “almost Stockholm Syndrome” slowburning appreciation of this album makes it a lifelong treasure! Iteration is such an amazing ending,

Corey Rademaker

Hell yeah!!! Thank you

Taylor K

Bringer of Greater Things (and the story of the starlight tours) still fucking hits like a ton of bricks.

Jeremy Ziebart

Thank you Mark.

David

Yessssss

Jeremy McNally

And yeah, everything pre-Supporting Caste was in Standard with only Chris on guitar. Dude's a beast

Mark Campbell

I also recommended listening to Chris's breakdown of Fixed Frequencies it's....powerful.

Matt McCann

Yeah, I cannot wait to see marks reaction to that. Gonna be a super interesting change of pace.

Steven White

Chris has said on his podcast that he sang this album way too high, hence why they don't do a ton of these songs live. Haven't watched yet, looking forward to it!

Matt McCann

"They have to be rush fans, as canadians."

Steven White

You're on point with the metal influences - Propagandhi are heavily influenced by Voivod, Megadeth and the 80s thrash wave for sure

Mark Campbell

Nice! So it wouldn't block other cool albums

Daniel Baunach

NICE!!! Stoked to watch this tonight!!

prdinpdx

Siiiick. Oh man I cannot wait for the shift when we get to How to Clean Everything lol

Javier

He did it! Well played Mark!

Drew Coryer

Not that I didn't enjoy the other reaction but this is the one I was waiting on! 😂

J Reid

Mark, even their first album was fairly "prog" and technical by skate punk standards. You're gonna love it when you get to it.

Bryan Be Real

On soviet red vinyl!

Todd Strapac

one step closer to Today's Empires :)

Gary Webb

Just in time for this album's 20th anniversary on Oct 18. Well done.

Eric Busker

I feel silly…I didn’t even get you anything.

ryan mcgrath

Haha, couldn’t resist, could you 👍🏻😊

Mat Hammer

I knew it!

Juan Manuel Morales


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