New Propagandhi album and UK tour

Yeah sure I know it’s moving away a bit from my set brief of writing about ‘activism’ but i think it’s only fair to give a heads up to a great political punk band and their new record and tour.

For me, and I’m sure countless others growing up at a similar time and just getting into the punk scene, Propagandhi were massively influential in opening my eyes to this crummy world we inhabit and sparking a fire of political awareness in my young belly.

I was fourteen when I first picked up the second Propagandhi record, Less Talk More Rock, and far more interested in skateboards and smoking dope than smashing the state and all that jazz. There was a vague inkling of an ‘anarchy = punk = cool’ type equation going on for sure, but this album was my first exposure to intelligent and thoughtful yet militant anti-capitalism, and it was infectious.

Propagandhi has always been more about the music as the medium for the message, rather than just your average thrash punk band. Alongside playing benefits and most of the profit for their releases (and those of other bands on their G7 Welcoming Committee record label) going to charitable organisations Propagandhi have always been active in keeping their audience informed, distributing in-depth articles (and even feature length documentaries on some later releases) on a variety of issues for free with their albums.

Supporting Caste, the bands fifth album, was released last month and shows the band on top form, heading deeper into the heavier and more thrashy direction they’ve been moving in since John K Samson was replaced by ex-Swallowing Shit & I-Spy bassist Todd Kowalski for the Today’s Empires Tomorrow’s Ashes album in 2001. As always the lyrics are spot on, combining the personal and political with a smart sense of humor often missing from political punk bands. In these days when a lot of people (myself included) download a lot of music for free illegally I would urge anyone interested in punk and politics to actually go out and BUY this album, as there’s a bunch of multimedia extras you don’t get with a download and you know most of the money will be going to good causes.

The band will also be hitting the UK for the first time in years to promote the new album. The dates are – 04/17/09 in Sheffield at O2 Academy, 04/18/09 in Bristol at Fiddlers, 04/19/09 in London at Islington Academy, 04/20/09 in Brighton at Concorde and 04/21/09 in Norwich at Waterfront.