Propagandhi's Supporting Caste

There are few punk bands that I still follow religiously. I wait with bated breath the 4+ years a new Propagandhi release usually takes. As they don't tend to tour extensively I drove over 6 hours and through 2 states to see them. Unlike a lot of the bands I listened to in high school, Propagandhi have somehow managed to mature along with my musical tastes, while at the same time being the same loud, fast, snotty punks they always were. They appeal to my newer musical tastes with very thoughtful and clever lyrics, and they appeal to the kid in me with face melting rock and middle fingers raised high. It's a rare band that can make old woman look at you with disapproval as you blare them from your car, but also educate you with very insightful lyrics.

The first song on Supporting Caste threw me off. It's the return of an old trick of the band, time changes that you don't see coming. It's one of the reasons I fell in love with them in the first place because it made their song structures so much different then any other band. The next thing that becomes immediately apparent is the second guitarist. These two things make this new record infinitely re listenable. You'll never pick up everything going on in the songs the first time you listen to them because there will always be some sort of wailing guitar line or amazing riff in the background that your ears didn't focus on at first, and just about when you get a hold of where the song is going and your foot starts tapping, it immediately takes a different direction. A lot of bands would think of a great guitar riff and say job well done on a whole song, but Propagandhi instead embed several into a layered song that leaves you always coming back because you can never get enough of each one before its gone and never returned to.

The guitars aren't the only attraction here though, the lyrics also offer a reason to keep returning. There aren't verses or choruses because Chris Hannah doesn't seem to think about writing songs, he just writes and then fits it into the song. You may think this would sound awkward, and while I wouldn't say there weren't some songs in their catalog that this style of writing didn't work out great for, on this cd he has managed to weave the lyrics around the music in amazingly complex ways. I'll give you this example from the song Dear Coach's Corner:

"I guess it comes down to what kind of world you want to live in. And if diversity is disagreement, disagreement is treason. Well, you'll be surprised if we find ourselves reaping a strange and bitter fruit that that sad old man beside you keeps feeding to young minds as virtue. It takes a village to raise a child, but just a flag to raze the children till they're nothing more than ballasts for fulfilling a madman's dream of a paradise. Complexity reduced to black and white."

Combining lyrics like that with music that melts your face is what this band has become known for. Of course there are a couple of what I like to call Kowalski interludes, meaning those short but explosive nuggets of songs in which bassist Todd Kowalski crushes you with his much harder style of singing. Still though, the interludes on this cd are much more fleshed out then Superbowl Patriot XXXVI was on their last cd Potemkin City Limits. Many times throughout this album I was reminded of the Propagandhi of old. On songs like Human(e) Meat (The Flensing of Sandor Katz) or Potemkin City Limits, you get a definite twinge of their first two records, but with plenty of reminders of how they've matured since then. Whatever you may consider punk, they have most certainly not kept to the notion of it being simplistic. Propagandhi frequently show their impressive musicianship, while still keeping to their own style enough to not piss off purists. It's the reason why I still love them even though I don't always listen to such loud and fast music nowadays, and it's the reason that I'll always be willing to drive ridiculous amounts to see them play live. They single handily display the evolution that all aging punk bands should be following and chances are I will still be a fan when I need a cane to get around.