Featured Essay: The Propagandhi-Recess Records Odds and Ends

by Greg Soden

Introduction

Propagandhi is my favorite band. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Propagandhi for the past 25 years. I even host a “Song Exploder” styled song-by-song podcast about Propagandhi. Making a podcast about one band is certainly a strange hobby but it has been simultaneously quite fulfilling because through Propagandhi, I have learned about the police in Saskatchewan dropping off people in the frozen wilderness to die, land rights standoffs, ayahuasca experiences, the ins and outs of the animal industrial complex, and countless other research-worthy nuggets hidden within the lyrics. 

In order to do the podcast “right,” I realized early on that I needed to acquire a lot of Propagandhi albums I didn’t own. For the podcast, I revisited every song, including from Propagandhi releases over the years that are somewhat lost to time, out of print, obscure, and for the most part unknown to all but the most dedicated of fans. A few of my favorites from this forgotten era are Propagandhi’s run of releases on Recess Records: I’d Rather Be Flag Burning, Where Quality is Job #1, the Play at Your Own Risk Vol. 2 box set, and Letter of Resignation. While Propagandhi was getting well-known off their early Fat Wreck Chords releases “How to Clean Everything” and “Less Talk, More Rock,” they were releasing this slew of fun and strange releases in 1994 and 1995 while deciding where they wanted to go next with their band! 

I’d Rather Be Flag Burning (Recess Records #12)

This 10”/CDEP split with I-SPY came out on vinyl on Recess Records and CD with G7 Welcoming Committee Records. This album is venerated by those that remember it exists. According to Recess Records, it seems about 2,000 copies on black vinyl exist, but the fun part of this release is the myriad of color schemes for the cover! This album is worth looking up on Discogs because of its sheer variety. There are 10 different versions of the cover, all for the same black 10” record! The version I have features red on white artwork on the Propagandhi side and blue on white for the I-Spy side. What I’ve come to understand about Propagandhi fans who have followed the band for the last 30 years is the unique regard they have for this specific release. You can tell the real old schoolers if they own or once owned the handmade cardboard version of the release on CD, too! I find it hilarious that the back of the record says “You can get this ten inch record for six dollars ppd” on the back and now you’d be lucky to find a copy with a damaged cover and worn vinyl for $60 (NOT ppd). 

The two standout Propagandhi tracks are Oka Everywhere, about the land rights stand-off at Kanesatake in Quebec in the summer of 1990, which gripped Canadian attention for months. The other standout is an early version of …And We Thought That Nation States Were a Bad Idea, which went on to grip many new listeners from 1996’s Less Talk More Rock LP and Fat Wreck Chords’s “Survival of the Fattest” compilation. Don’t sleep on Woe Is Me, though! What a nice little insight into the challenges of interpersonal relationships and friendship!

Where Quality is Job #1 (Recess Records #14)

Recess Records #14 seems to have pressed about 2,500 copies. The first pressing is 1000 double 7”’s on brown and yellow transparent vinyl. The second is another 1000 copies on brown and yellow opaque vinyl. The 3rd pressing is 500 copies on grey and black vinyl.

The funny thing about this release is that I hate listening to it. I refuse to play my brown (poop) and clear yellow (pee) records because of how annoying they are to listen to. What is Side A? Why are there no labels on the records? What is the tracklisting? What are these songs listed in the liner notes that don’t seem to appear on this release? Why does this song skip at the end and repeat forever without going to the next song? This release makes me want to scream but therein lies the humor that Propagandhi has woven throughout their songs for the last 40 years! As serious of a band as they are, they also value taking the piss (colored vinyl) out of their listeners and themselves! 

To me, the standout tracks are Government Cartoons and Bent. Government Cartoons, in my view, is a huge missed opportunity that should have gone on How to Clean Everything. There is a fantastic live version of this song recorded at Winnipeg’s legendary Corefest in 1993 that appears on 1998’s Where Quantity is Job #1 compilation from G7 Welcoming Committee Records. I like this song profoundly more than This Might Be Satire, Ska Sucks, and Haille Selasse, Up Your Ass from “How to Clean Everything.” Bent is a cover from the Toronto hardcore thrash band Sudden Impact’s “No Rest From the Wicked” LP. Sudden Impact put out some absolutely killer jams and the artwork of guitarist Reid English is iconic in Toronto!

Play at Your Own Risk Vol. 2 (Recess Records #18)

Another truly bizarre little treasure of the Propagandhi world includes this bizarre three-piece collection including two 7”’s and a  5”. There are two pressings of this collection; the first 1,000 were inside an actual box and the second 1,000 copies were pressed as a trifold. On the 5”, there is an electronica “Propagandhi” song called “Portage La Prairie,” named after Chris and Jord’s hometown, on the A-side and an I-Spy, featuring a pre-Propagandhi Todd Kowalski, performing “When We Grow Up.” But the song isn’t actually performed by Propagandhi. The credits read “Propagandhi are: Paul Sutton and John Gillette” and it says it was “Curated by Chris. For Portage. Respectfully.” You have to hear this one to believe it, and thankfully, you can, on Youtube. 

The inside of this record is hilarious, too. If you can find an intact version of this box set, there will either be a box of matches or a napkin, straight from the home of Todd Congilliere. 

Letter of Resignation (Recess Records #19)

Letter of Resignation is essentially a bedroom recording performed by John K. Samson in roughly his last year as a member of Propagandhi. This song went on to be developed more fully as track 5 on The Weakerthans’ 1997 debut full-length, “Fallow.” This split 7” release with FYP (fronted by Recess Records label head Todd Congilliere) came out in three versions: black, red translucent, and a picture disc. The red translucent or black versions are worth tracking down if you are a collector because they come with a booklet that the picture disc does not. Just as John would depart Propagandhi about a year after this split was released, Propagandhi would not go on to do more records with Recess after the release of Less Talk More Rock.

Conclusion

I’m very excited about Propagandhi’s forthcoming 8th LP, “At Peace.” The future of the band is always intriguing to me, but it seems that 1994 and 1995 were interesting and possibly career-defining years for Propagandhi. They seemed to be actively deciding if being a part of Fat Wreck Chords was even what they really wanted out of music. Chris Hannah has discussed some details of his relationship with Todd and Recess Records on his Patreon-exclusive podcast, A Catastrophic Break With Consensus Reality. 

If these releases intrigue you, you can hear me in conversation with Todd Congilliere from Recess Records at Unscripted Moments: A Podcast About Propagandhi on episode 44. 

Interview with Todd Congilliere of Recess Records: https://unscriptedmoments.libsyn.com/portage-la-prairie-ep-44

Chris Hannah on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/jesushchris/posts?redirect=true

Greg Soden is a Missouri-born-and-raised parent, educator, cyclist, and music fan living in Buffalo, New York. He hosts Unscripted Moments: A Podcast About Propagandhi and is the author of the forthcoming “Unscripted Moments: Conversations with Propagandhi (2020-2025) from Earth Island Books.