Propagandhi: Humor,opinion,a sense of compassion, creativity and a distaste for fashion.

I recently had the chance to witness Propagandhi play a killer set 
to a small crowd at Reno's Fallout Shelter. They had a lot to say 
between songs about lyrics, boycotting corporations and society 
today. This threesome from Manitoba deserved some play in Heckler.                 

Where did you guys play last night?
Eugene, Oregon.

So how was Eugene last night?
It was a good show, a really cool place. It was a collective tea 
house. like a shelter for homeless people that served organic 
coffee and stuff, it was really cool. But Eugene is a weird fuckin' 
place, when you first pull in there you go oh,no!  But it turned out 
to be cool.
 
How long are you guys out?
For 53 days we'll be gone on tour. And that includes long drives in 
between towns and possible recording days.
 
How did your song end up in the Vertical Smile video?
The guy who put that video out, Jamie Jackson, knows Fat Mike 
and Mike gave him the green light to put a bunch of Fat Wreck Chords 
music on there.So they used a song of ours and I think the other bands 
are more suited to that type of thing, I think our song was taken out of 
context. The video showed up with it on there without our direct 
permission.and obviously they were trying to sell the video by the 
cove, which was of a naked woman and a stereotypical, 
acceptable body type. Not that we're...inhuman, I don't know...

It's kinda against what you're into?
Yeah, it's against what we are personally striving for. We told (Fat) 
Mike don't let anyone put anything of ours anywhere without first 
asking us . And that guy (Jamie) apologized and stuff, but he was 
all drunk and I don't know if he cared the next day. It's just seems 
like the typical skateboarder and snowboarder scene is be 
obnoxious and indulge. But without generalizing that's our 
knowledge of it, which is pretty much limited to second hand 
information. Our familiararity with the snowboard-skate scene is 
tiny because none of us can skate or snowboard. Or bother trying.

What do you guys do when you are not touring. Just kind of 
hang out in your own town and go to shows or whatever?
We try to be active in our community politically. Jordan goes to 
school.
We try and be involved in grass roots political action. We try and 
make it just more that words, ya' know, we say a lot of ideas so 
we wanna' try and make it consistent with our actions. Try and be 
active or at least help out. Like showing up to a protest in 
solidarity, and getting involved in things like Food Not Bombs  
which is really cool and it's like huge in California. It's so 
encouraging to see Food Not Bombs  people, everywhere we go on 
the West Coast. Or animal rights groups, social justice 
committees and stuff.

That's cool. On the song "Ska Sucks"  where its all "Fuck 
you Rudy" who's Rudy? Somebody you didn't like?
Ahh. You've heard of the ska band The Specials right?

Yeah.
Well, they're probably one of biggest ska bands I guess, ever, and 
they had a song A Message To You Rudy.  We thought it would be 
funny. It was funny for one second and now it haunts us to this 
day (laughs). We ended up putting the song on the record and it 
wasn't made for people who actually like ska, it was made to piss 
off the nazi skinheads in Winnipeg. We'd play that and they would 
all get mad. Then they all grew out their hair and rode motorbikes 
(pause) now there is no reason to play it anymore. So we probably 
shouldn't have put it on the record.

How old is it?
A few years old...(pause) It was a while ago. A lot of stuff on the 
record How To Clean Everything  is old. It took us a long time to 
write songs, it would come in spurts.

Like you guys told me early, you've got an album coming out 
in a few days or something?
It's actually out already in the States on ten inch vinyl. On 
Recess Records and it's a split with a band from Winnipeg called 
I Spy. We put it out ourselves in Canada on CD, (there are no record 
plants left in Canada) and I Spy fuckin' rule! You can get it through 
Black List Mail Order and small distributors.

Being that you guys live in Winnipeg, Ontario in Manitoba how 
did you get on Fat Wreckchords?
We played a show with Nofx a couple of years ago in Winnipeg, and 
talked to Mike for a while. Then eventually we sent him a demo 
tape after a year or so. At the time Fat Wreckchords was a lot 
smaller than it is now. And economically we seemed to be 
involved in the same kind of thing-the d.i.y. attitude. Fat 
Wreckchords  has progressed and we have progressed, but in two 
different ways. In the sense that there has been a huge explosion 
in the popularity of that type of music and Mike and all those 
bands are taking advantage of it I think. Which is not necessarily 
evil, I don't think, but we don't want a lot of things that they do. 
We want to be really conscientious of where our money goes, and 
be accountable for the money they give us, and how much money 
they give us. Just be careful who we are involved with. We rather 
it be people who have the same goals and ideas as us rather than 
businessmen. Like Fat Wreckchords is distributed through 
Caroline and Caroline was recently bought out by EMI. EMI has 
large connections to Thorn EMI which produces weapons, I mean, 
which is ridiculous, and hypocritical for us to be involved in. The 
whole music industry as a whole isn't really made for people like 
us or Fat Mike to make money. Like every record we put out or any 
punk band puts out basically is making money for people who are 
rich already. Like for example pressing CD's: EMI has the copyright 
on `em, so every CD you buy, be it a Mariah Carey CD or a Crass 
CD, the money is going to EMI. So it's arguable whether a punk 
band should put out CD's then. Unless maybe someone else can get 
the patent on the mini-CD or something.

The final part of this interview skipped to the subject of 
the Cheap Trick cover song I Want You To Want Me,  the 
last tune on How To Clean Everything.
A friend of ours in Regina, which is in Canada, was listening to some 
radio station and the guys from Cheap Trick were on the radio 
and the station asked one of the guys in Cheap Trick what he 
thought of it.. and he liked it! (laughing) .. I don't know which guy 
(the band is trying to figure it out), but it was funny when we did 
it on our demo tape. That was a hilarious version. But the one on 
the record was just a fucking sick rehash!

-Interview By Chris Carnel