TODAY'S EMPIRES, TOMORROW'S ASHES (REISSUE)
by PROPAGANDHI
Vinyl LP

FAT145LP

Label: FAT WRECK CHORDS

After 1993’s How To Clean Everything and 1996’s Less Talk, More Rock, Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes was Propagandhi’s third and penultimate album on FAT. It marked a transition period for the band. Not only was it their first record after the departure of bassist/vocalist John K. Sampson – who was replaced by Todd Kowalski – but it also saw the start in the shift towards the sound that has now come to define them. The result was an album that, despite singer Chris Hannah’s reservations, truly set the benchmark back then, and does so even more in its new sonic form. Just listen to what opener “Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An” or the caustic title track sound like now, not to mention the still-eye-opening blast of “With Friends Like These Who the Fuck Needs COINTELPRO?” – the lyrical content of which remains as shocking today as it was back then. Intelligent and visceral in equal measure, it’s a record – thanks to songs like “Albright Monument, Baghdad”, “March of the Crabs” and “Bullshit Politicians” – offers up one of the most vicious indictments of American (and, to be fair, Western) imperialism ever committed to tape. But the band was never quite happy with how the album turned out. It was better than it was given credit for. While the pieces were all there, the album lacked sonically in a way the band was never satisfied with. Fast forward almost two decades, when Propagandhi was in the studio with Jason Livermore mixing Victory Lap, and Hannah brought up the issues with Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes. Right there they decided that with a remix the album could be shaped into the masterpiece they intended way back in 2001. Finally, 20 years later, Propagandhi can say they are happy with how Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes (Reissue) turned out. 

1. Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An
2. Fuck the Border
3. Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes
4. Back to the Motor League
5. Natural Disasters
6. With Friends Like These Who the Fuck Needs COINTELPRO?
7. Albright Monument, Baghdad
8. Ordinary People Do Fucked-Up Things When Fucked-up Things Become Ordinary
9. Ladies Nite in Loserville
10. Ego Sum Papa (I Am the Pope)
11. New Homes for Idle Hands
12. Bullshit Politicians
13. March of the Crabs
14. Purina Hall of Fame
15. Back to the Motor League (Original Guitar Mix)
16. Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An (Original Guitar Mix)
17. With Friends Like These Who the Fuck Needs COINTELPRO? (Demo Version)
18. Fuck the Border (Demo Version)