Propagandhi

Steadfastly political and occasionally amusing (as on "Homophobes Are Just Mad They Can't Get Laid" and "Degrassi Junior High Drop Outs"), these Canadian anarchists were one of Fat Wreck Chords' first bands, and have been plotting their musical coup for more than a decade. After two albums, the 1997 departure of singer and main songwriter John Samson to form the Weakerthans could have been Propagandhi's death knell. However, 2000's Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes, with new singer/bassist Todd Kowalski, found the Winnipeg trio every bit as passionate and tight, from the jagged riffage to the hardcore chugga-chugga punk roar. While Ashes and Propagandhi's most recent release, Potemkin City Limits, are sonically the equals of previous releases, emotionally they're a little monochromatic, unable to leaven in-your-face agitprop with the ironic incisiveness of the earlier Samson albums.