Random Records with Steve O

Propagandhi - Victory Lap

So I’ve had a couple months and like a hundred listens of Propagandhi’s latest, Victory Lap, to digest their new offering of punk/thrash rippers. And my initial reaction pretty much holds. Victory Lap reminds me a lot of Potemkin City Limits. The pace on both records is similar, both are a little less thrashy — at least compared to Supporting Caste or Failed States — though both still have some fantastic guitar work. Both have some sneaky good songs; you know the kind — songs you always underestimate, but every time you hear them you think to yourself how fucking good it is. And both have those blatant political lyrics and brilliant storytelling that Propagandhi is famous for.

Album opener “Victory Lap” is a perfect distillation of Propagandhi’s sound. Clocking under three minutes, it’s packed full of solid riffs, a fun little pace change in the middle, and Chris Hannah’s distinctive voice delivering biting (and brilliant) lines like “When the free-market / Fundamentalist steps on a roadside bomb outside Kandahar / Bleeding to death / I swear to Ayn Rand / I’ll ask if he needs an invisible hand.” “Cop Just Out of Frame” is one of those sneaky good songs, with some impressive guitar work shadowing Hannah as he waxes poetic about sacrifice (despite their influences, he’s not talking about the band), media misrepresentation, and the power of Quang Duc (who you know from the cover of Rage Against the Machine). “Letter to a Young Anus” is a blazer, probably the heaviest and sonically angriest song on the record, as Propagandhi passes on their wisdom accrued over two decades of activity/activism to a younger scene. “Lower Order (A Good Laugh)” returns animals rights to the scene after a bit of an absence with an autobiographical tale. Though it fails to reach the lofty heights set by “Purina Hall of Fame” or “Human(e) Meat (The Flensing of Sandor Katz),” it still pulls all the emotional punches. “Tartuffle” is a feminist anthem, fitting right in with the growing consciousness of a rape culture, calling out male privilege (while brilliantly/hilariously referencing Less Talk), with the call to arms of “single moms to the front!”

Perhaps the most intriguing song on the record is “Call Before You Dig.” While Propagandhi incorporate a lot of historical elements into their sharp political critiques, this one is different. “Call Before You Dig” tells a story from their hometown of Winnipeg, circa 1969. During excavations for a sewer (and therefore playing right into Propagandhi’s sense of humor) workers found some bones from an extinct species of bison (Bison antiquus occidentalis), that was significantly larger than their living relatives. Dating to approximately 7,500 years old the bones in the story illustrate two points. One; that we don’t have to look far to find fascinating wonders of the natural world. And two; that no matter how majestic the creature, we’re all gonna end up with the dirt and the shit. “That's our universe in a nutshell my friend.” (Check out the Manitoba Museum for more if you want to know the story.

One of the differences from Victory Lap and some older Propagandhi releases are Todd Kowalski’s songs. On past records, it was almost guaranteed that he’d have a kick-ass hardcore song or two. Kowalski’s songs here are mellower, darker. Neither “When All Your Fears Collide” and “Nigredo” are hardcore songs, but both still powerful, haunting looks at humanity showing the same passion and intensity we saw on his songs on past records. On an album with some humor (as with all Propagandhi records) and chock-full of harsh political critiques about the reality of the world in 2017, these two are probably the darkest songs on the record.

All of this brings us to the closer, “Adventures in Zoochosis.” I’ll save you from googling it — zoochosis refers to the repetitive behavior of animals in captivity. Think pacing back and forth. “Adventures in Zoochosis” begins with competing sound clips — Hannah’s kids playing and some of Donald Trump’s uh… less eloquent moments? It’s never an overwhelmingly heavy song, instead focusing on the slow build and the emotional heft of the lyrics for its power. As a cultural critique, the song dwells in comparing our behavior in modern culture to that of captive animals. Yeah, it is deep, and a good forced analysis of what our lives are like. But the emotional power comes when Hannah considers what this future holds for his kids, and how he reflects on his position in this world, and bears repeating in full: “Boys, I've bowed to the keepers whip for so damn long / I think the sad truth is this enclosure is where your old man belongs. / But you, your hearts are pure, when operant conditioners come to break you in / I'll sink my squandered teeth. You grab your little brother's hand run like the wind. / And if I'm not there, don't look back. Just go.” Holy fuck. If you thought that was powerful and managed to keep a dry eye while Hannah lamented his place while dreaming for a better world for his kids, he trots out one final line — a battle cry, a call to arms, the hope for a better future, and the most perfect closing line to any Propagandhi record, nay, any record: “Motherfucker gonna get a load of what I got planned.”

Head over here to listen to Victory Lap: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcZMZxR9uxC98izRhq-RDindXuU4WhjBB. Then be sure to tell us how awesome it is. Not much is better than talking about how awesome Propagandhi is.