Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes
Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes cover
Studio album by Propagandhi
Released February 6, 2001
Genre Punk rock
Length 33:21
Label G7 Welcoming Committee
Fat Wreck Chords
Producer Ryan Greene
Professional reviews
Propagandhi chronology
Where Quantity is Job #1
(1998)		 Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes
(2001)		 Potemkin City Limits
(2005)

Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes is the third album by Canadian punk rock band Propagandhi; released on February 6, 2001.

One of the album's tracks, "Back to the Motor League", indirectly refers to two songs by the Dead Kennedys, "Triumph of the Swill" and "Chickenshit Conformist", as well the year of their release on the 1986 album Bedtime for Democracy. The "Back to the Motor League" lyrics state: "fifteen years later it still reeks of swill and chickenshit conformists". Both the Dead Kennedys songs and the Propagandhi track concern the co-opting of punk ideology by the corporate record industry.

"Purina Hall of Fame" is a reference to the Nestlé owned pet food company, The Ralston Purina Company. The title is cynical take on the Purina Animal Hall of Fame; a site that celebrates animals who have saved human lives.[1] The lyrics of "Purina Hall of Fame" obliquely outline Propagandhi's concerns about animal cruelty.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An" – 3:03
  2. "Fuck the Border" – 1:31
  3. "Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes" – 2:37
  4. "Back to the Motor League" (mp3) – 2:40
  5. "Natural Disasters" – 2:04
  6. "With Friends Like These, Who the Fuck Needs COINTELPRO?" – 3:23
  7. "Albright Monument, Baghdad" – 2:27
  8. "Ordinary People Do Fucked-Up Things when Fucked-Up Things Become Ordinary" – 2:17
  9. "Ladies' Nite in Loserville" – 1:45
  10. "Ego Fum Papa (I am the Pope)" – 1:38
  11. "New Homes for Idle Hands" – 1:44
  12. "Bullshit Politicians" – 1:33
  13. "March of the Crabs" – 1:56
  14. "Purina Hall of Fame" – 4:43

[edit] Cover art

The album art is credited to the painting The Unfinished Flag of the United States by American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Propagandhi continued this motif of using established artists to provide their cover artwork on their next album, Potemkin City Limits, using the anarchist artist Eric Drooker.

[edit] Legacy

[edit] Lyrical mention by NOFX

The song "The Marxist Brothers" from NOFX's EP Never Trust a Hippy and their 2006 album Wolves in Wolves' Clothing, mentions this album; however, the name is a mistake, as Fat Mike sings it as "Today's Empires are Tomorrow's Ashes."[2]

“ Still, I’m waiting to see if my bid on eBay was enough
To get Today’s Empires are Tomorrow’s Ashes on Soviet red vinyl.
It's going on the wall, next to Tubthumper
And The Battle of Los Angeles.		 ”

The song was played on G7 Radio's third podcast (April 4, 2006); Chris Hannah, a G7 co-host and Propagandhi founding member, proceeded to credit the song by purposefully adding an incorrect word to the song title ("The Marxists are Brothers"), mispronouncing NOFX, and replacing a word in the EP title (Never Trust the Hippy).[3]

The theme continued with the fourth podcast (May 5, 2006), when Derek and Chris played another NOFX song: "One-Celled Creature" from Wolves in Wolves' Clothing. The album title wasn't mentioned on the podcast itself, but on the G7 Welcoming Committee Records' website, the album is called "Wolves are in Wolves' Clothing" in the episode's music credits.[4] In the podcast itself, while talking about Chumbawamba's album Tubthumper (which is also mentioned in "The Marxist Brothers"), Hannah pretends that he's looking for it on the studio wall (another reference to the song), saying "The Battle of Los Angeles, Today's Empires are Tomorrow's Ashes... Ah, Tubthumper!"[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Purina Hall of Fame
  2. ^ Never Trust a Hippy, by NOFX, on Fat Wreck Chords. Released March 14, 2006.
  3. ^ 3, April 2006 - "The People's Revolution is gonna be a..." podcast, from G7 Radio.
  4. ^ // G7 Welcoming Committee Records. Taken August 20, 2006.
  5. ^ 4, May 2006 - "You're so vain, you probably think this show is about you", from G7 Radio.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Propagandhi
Jord Samolesky | Chris Hannah | Todd Kowalski | David Guillas
John K. Samson | Mike Braumeister | Scott Hopper
Discography
Studio albums: How to Clean Everything | Less Talk, More Rock | Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes | Potemkin City Limits
Extended plays: How to Clean a Couple o' Things | Where Quality Is Job #1
Compilation and live albums: Where Quantity Is Job #1 | Live from Occupied Territory
Languages