![[Full Album] PROPAGANDHI | "Failed States"](https://img5.xaiju.com/storage/6/es/ux/d38796-019e834c-b832-7b1c-bb32-ef1122f6838b.png)
[Full Album] PROPAGANDHI | "Failed States"
Added 2025-02-15 18:00:17 +0000 UTCIt's BONUS EPISODE time! This just had to happen, right? I went into this album expecting the band’s most progressive offering, and based on everyone’s comments beforehand—that’s exactly what I got.
My favorite thing about this album is how flexible its pacing is: the short songs felt longer, and the long songs—somehow—felt shorter. It’s a testament to the band’s ability to craft an effective musical narrative that's independent of time itself.
Failed States is now tied with Victory Lap for my favorite record from the band. However, there is no tie when considering Todd Kowalski’s bass performance: this album easily takes the cake.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro
1:50 - "Note to Self"
12:17 - "Failed States"
16:17 - "Devil's Creek"
22:56 - "Rattan Cane"
29:24 - "Hadron Collision"
34:24 - "Status Update"
37:56 - "Cognitive Suicide"
46:08 - "Things I Like"
50:34 - "Unscripted Moment"
1:00:24 - "Dark Matters"
1:06:26 - "Lotus Gait"
1:17:04 - "Duplicate Keys Icaro (An Interim Report)"
1:26:53 - Final Thoughts
Comments
I was bored after watching your STF reaction, not knowing what to do with my Sunday morning. It's just so endearing to see a professional bass player and me, an okay drummer and a very meh guitar player, just sit there with you listening to it because there's no way to figure a lot of those songs out even on bass for more than a few moments, reminds me of the turbulent (like PCL, this album came during a post-break up, new chapter of my life, new job, new city, new everything, after moving to a new city in August, I see the practice room clip of Prop on youtube, dropping this to tease us, ,they're having a new album, *ONLY* 3 years after their previous album (Supporting Caste), not 4-5 (or due to covid and, for their convenience, Sulynn who appears on half the songs on Victory Lap as she is from Florida, not Canadian and the Beaver recorded his final tracks with them, 4 landing on VL, plus the flexi single "Laughing Stock" which they had been playing since almost the first show Beav joined in 2007, the only song where most of the music, guitar wise is 100% him and Chris just played along as a bonus track) 8 years between VL and At Peace; it was unusual for just 3 years between albums, but that's what the addition of Dave Guillas did, sped up the process of writing new music, and serendipitously came out the September following where my life was nothing but wake up, go to work, come back to my expensive (fully retrofitted classy but small 2 room and a bathroom apartment, by choice, so I would pay my student loans, thankfully we get a bigger percentage in grants up here, but if you stick in school long enough to annoy a parent that always put pressure on you to go to school for a long time and get paid a whole lot so that I didn't have to work sometimes 70 hours a week so that me and my brother (totally discounting the money my mother brought in), so you don't end up working like a "n-word" ....very Canadian saying, I'd never say it, just telling you the difference between me and my old man...by character, very similar, beliefs and convictions? I'm not sure we really know his real beliefs and convictions, but by the time I told him I was taking a Master's degree, he was now not happy, a BSc. is enough, you're gonna make 45 an hour or so, come on now." "Yeah but I'd like to teach (never did, would have meant a PhD, I wanted to teach Chemistry in university, not to undergrads or high schoolers and make a Walter White joke of myself, crammed my head with so much info just to please the old man, took the science field that pays the most that I felt I could do and then he wasn't happy with me, even if getting a Master's is shorter than the BSc. , I had to say "I'd hate to see you in court, dad, if you want to fight that out, you know you'd lose, those grants and loans forms you fill every year, you don't even enter your debts, so you're not helping me either getting a close to 100% grants and no loans monthly stipend to live from before your help... etc. Finally, that was the first year I was finished with school and entered the "amazing" workforce, I don't know how guys who are even smarter than me, with similar politics as me, who did PhD's such as Greg or Milo from the Descendents who did the thing the closest to what I studied, except to post-doctoral studies levels...I wonder how their parents supported them, just mentally, because I also was in 4 hardcore punk bands, 2 which recorded beyond demos (I just saw the other day the singer for my most successful band who got its first real label release first back in 2005, who added our CD EP and a lot of the releases from that small Canadian label that wasn't represented beyond 3 or 4 releases and I chuckled, even then my dad, the guy who got me a Jackson guitar for 2000 dollars and a 100 watts Peavey amp with transtube tech etc. for close to 800 CAD back in the very late 90's, all of my male cousins on my dad's side also played guitar, but what I really wanted was a drum kit, what I could sit on at my friend's and instantly get beats right on a bunch of songs and understand quickly what everything did "oh that'd be too noisy", so he buys me a 100 watts amp, in a residential middle class neighborhood where if I put the amp past 2 when no one was home, a concentric circle of about a mile could hear me play....that's less noisy? To be able to play not to bother anybody I had to find the part between turned off and 1 which allowed for some noise to come out, but that took all the fun away. tl;dr Your reaction by being amazed and endeared by the album is the same, I can't most songs on this album entirely on drums 13 years later (13 years, holy fuck, September 2012 seems like yesterday. It was a trying moment of my life, and 3 albums came out one after the other that helped me out a whole lot then, this one, Failed States, obviously, then NOFX' Self Entitled (their last great back to back album imo, underrated), and Bad Religion's True North, their real final album imo, for the first time after that it took them more than 3-4 years to put out an album, Greg Hetson left the band then Brooks Wackerman left on drums, I'm glad last time I saw them in 2014 was a month or so before Hetson, who was with them since the 1985 Back To The Known EP if I recall correctly, if not, since Suffer, was replaced by some guy on guitar who I think Baker and Gurewitz wouldn't allow to write leads, Hetson did have leads in Bad Religion, on that new review, Hetson's leads are less like the ones Mark describes, less everything Mark said about BR solos, which he was saying when talking about Gurewitz's solos (he'd had amazing ones that carry whole songs like "I Want To Conquer The World", but you know what I mean. So when Hetson and the drummer who revitalized them when Schayer's arm and shoulder issues were obvious on the fast tracks on "The New America" in 2002, Wackerman and Gurewitz came back Process was released to great sigh of relief by a lot of BR fans. So to me True North is the real final BR album, the singles I heard for 2019's (6 years between albums doesn't only signal lineup trouble, Hetson and Brooks didn't write the songs, although part of the skeleton, the 2 guys who replaced them are pretty "meh" and I can't say the 3 singles released for Age of Unreason in advance were very inspiring unfortunately. So, 33rd year True North for me feels like the legit final BR album. Your opinion may vary.
Floyd Hill
2025-10-05 14:27:51 +0000 UTCI can't wait to see your reaction when you hear their first two. It's like two different bands!
Mike C.
2025-07-18 19:20:54 +0000 UTCThis album came out at a very bad time of my life, and it brings me to tears by the time you were to Lotus Gait. I kind of shut out all of my friends, good and bad, through what I didn't realize was self inflicted due the same stupid addiction story anyone has every heard. Probably why I can't listen to that whole album until I just break. I know way too well what Chris is talking about and I wanna thank him here for replying to me back in September 2012 after I emailed them, not knowing who would answer, class act and he felt overwhelmed but was real cool about it. I didn't go telling him I was listening to his band since their first album and all of that, which I have, but I thanked him for making this with Todd, Jord and Beav. They'll never top this one imo, it has everything I like from them, from the serious to the fun ones which are still guitar clinics (Status Update in particular, I'm still unable to land that last 20 second and I play since I'm 14.
Floyd Hill
2025-06-18 15:08:38 +0000 UTCThanks so much Jake, really appreciate you!!
Mark Michell
2025-04-09 11:28:08 +0000 UTCDude you smash it all the time, but those last two songs are some of the best analysis you've ever done imo
Jake
2025-04-09 08:33:39 +0000 UTCThis is my favorite band... I can't tell you how stoked I am that you do this for Propagandhi. Please keep the awesome work up.
Gene Boothe
2025-04-08 23:24:53 +0000 UTCSo fun to see you discover their decades of work from last album going backwards, can’t wait to see how your reactions on older stuff, would have been easier to understand the lyrics by starting from the early 90’s, kind of their journey resisting system’s injustices, always a very political and personal critic of the system and how disappointed that most people just conform without questions, very altruistic and always had good relevant / poignant catchy lines, like nofx but more serious and engaged, most people who discovered them later will tell you the first 2 albums were totally different but its always progressed in the same direction from the same ideas, Chris developped his guitar playing a lot but still was easy to hear his way of playing to keep your attention, lyrics were less sophisticated but full of dark humourous music lines attacking in all directions lol, its the only band i know that consistently progressed on every album since 30+ years. but musically it’s more interesting the way you do it, i renember a show in the 90’s where chris was very angry shouting at the small crowd because people loved the music but didn’t took lyrics seriously enough, (im in Quebec Canada not everyone understands English we were 16-17 years old just loved the music and some lines we managed to understand haha, they seemed to do that more for the message than the music at the time, music being a way to be heard, anyhow, happy to take the time to listen to these albums with your comments and some pauses makes me hear things in a different way
Jean-Sébastien Paquin
2025-04-02 12:00:55 +0000 UTCYou mentioned that Jord is the unsung hero, finally someone says it! This is my favorite band, nobody plays guitar like Chris, never mind the insane vocals he comes up with but Jord is a god damn unicorn. Nobody plays drums like him. The most underrated drummer (at least IMO) ever.
Wayne
2025-03-23 05:24:52 +0000 UTCUmm yes! Which song though? I'm currently listening to Purina Hall of Fame so I'll suggest that.
Gingerthedragon
2025-03-22 04:47:19 +0000 UTCI found them around the same age. My older brother kept trying to show me Today's Empires and I was like "no, it doesn't sound like NOFX". The silliness of youth. I slowly got into Today's Empires and realized it's superiority. I then got to wait with full anticipation for Potemkin City Limits. Their first new album to come out for me as a full fledged fan. Throughout all of these years with Propagandhi being a part of my life, I can say that my absolute favourite song of theirs is Duplicate Keys.
Gingerthedragon
2025-03-22 04:43:35 +0000 UTCHe was only elected premier of MB last year. At the time of this recording he was a CBC presenter (shows like 8th fire were awesome). He was also a hip hop artist before that (fuck john wayne is worth checking out, among other great tracks). So cool he is now a provincial premier though - never would have expected that when I heard this in 2012, just a year after idle no more was kicking off.
uncle patsy
2025-03-16 03:01:47 +0000 UTCI finally had to look up the spoken word part in the bridge of Things I Like. I always thought it was Chris showing off his Anishinabe skills. Apparently it's Wab Kinew speaking. Not sure if he was at the time of this album but he's the Premier of Manitoba now. He seems like the essence of Indigenous/Canadian communication. I'm prairie born, Alberta raised. Given the option, I'd give my vote for Indigenous leaders.
Gingerthedragon
2025-03-14 20:30:05 +0000 UTCA new Propagandhi song has just came out.
JC Nutz
2025-03-10 13:19:12 +0000 UTCI wanna add to the story about the Indonesian punks: The head shavings were the least shocking part of what happened to them. The song's called "Rattan Cane" because that's what was used to beat the kids up with. I think it happened on Sumatra, which is considered the most conservative of the Indonesian ilsands.
Moony
2025-02-28 14:34:59 +0000 UTCI’ve loved Propagandhi since i was 15.. Duplicate Keys is my favourite song.
Dean Cahill
2025-02-28 12:42:35 +0000 UTCI’m so excited for that
Aukai Ligairi
2025-02-27 22:00:59 +0000 UTCwait is duplicate keys icaro just Chris Hannah’s version of going for ALL?
Cassidy
2025-02-27 04:37:23 +0000 UTCBest album is the best album. I've been salivating all down my shirt waiting for this one.
Eric Heckard
2025-02-25 03:46:54 +0000 UTCNo way, let him get to it at the time haha
Steve Duff
2025-02-21 02:50:39 +0000 UTCWait a minute Mark mentioned ska. Do we tell him?
Josh Ott
2025-02-21 02:15:53 +0000 UTCPropaghandi full song cover when?
Josh Ott
2025-02-21 01:47:59 +0000 UTCAnd here I was looking forward to Back to the Motor League. What a pleasant fucking surprise.
Josh Ott
2025-02-21 01:23:17 +0000 UTCVery much looking forward to hearing you on the unscripted moments podcast. Greg is extremely good.
Mike Le Bras
2025-02-19 22:10:46 +0000 UTCIt's just so good.
Mike Le Bras
2025-02-19 21:15:36 +0000 UTCI don't know that I can think of a better one-two punch on an album than Lotus Gait into Duplicate Keys. Musically, they're both absolutely incredible. In terms of subject matter, you have Lotus Gait tackling trauma, and the ways in which we mentally self-defend. It ends with that dry vocal, which as Mark says is almost akin to covering your face in light of the horrors. Duplicate Keys picks up with that calming ritualistic breathing, and then blossoms as it waxes on more positive aspects of what our brains can do, particularly when allowed to expand and be freed. Goosebumps for me every single time.
Kriss Watt
2025-02-19 06:57:48 +0000 UTCI never once requested Duplicate Keys because I knew you’d get to it and your reaction was exactly what I expected. It’s a brilliant song and what a way to close an album!
Josh
2025-02-18 22:02:43 +0000 UTCSaw these guys in ‘13 or ‘14 on tour for this record at Webster Hall in NYC. Amazing show. The drop on “rise” in Note to Self was the single heaviest, most intense moment of live music I’ve ever experienced.
Michael Baglione
2025-02-18 19:40:27 +0000 UTC…and I can’t wait for the first album! That’s what I think of when I hear “Propagandhi!”
Trevor Kelly
2025-02-18 19:26:59 +0000 UTCIn “Hadron Collision,” I’m guessing (from a single speed cyclist), this is very literal lyrics that represent a much bigger issue (as you mentioned, Mark).
Trevor Kelly
2025-02-18 19:11:21 +0000 UTCThere has been discussion in the past about Mark someday doing a reaction video for a new release and I can't think of a better choice for this than a new Propagandhi album.
Quote Unquote Sir
2025-02-18 15:47:52 +0000 UTCHow bout you Mark react to the new Prop album(still upcoming) and release the video right away, would be great if we all"reacted" to it for the first time together🙏
ville ahonen
2025-02-18 04:08:57 +0000 UTChttps://youtu.be/NIDnaXUg7Vg?si=PlzLg7rsp_EiOgq5
Michael Baglione
2025-02-18 03:15:07 +0000 UTCThank you, loved the idea of pre-reading the lyrics. I know that's not the point of the channel but it definitely adds something extra, especially for Propagandhi of course, but would be awesome to see more of going forward too.
Oli
2025-02-17 09:55:50 +0000 UTCI was never that excited by the requests for the first album (I enjoy it don't get me wrong but is by far my least favourite), but if we are eventually going to get reviews for every other Prop album I think chronologically would indeed be a great way to do it 👌
Oli
2025-02-17 09:51:14 +0000 UTCPeople who love Prop and Streetlight be winning with this one
Peter Del Villano
2025-02-17 05:51:15 +0000 UTCI will definitely listen up and let you know... love that stuff.
Ben Romain
2025-02-17 05:25:16 +0000 UTCGreat review! Thanks ❤️ Fun facts: Todd painted the cover art for this album (you can see his paintings on instagram @toddkowalski_art). Rattan cane is about some Indonesian punks who were arrested and got their heads shaved as a “moral rehabilitation” by the police. The language spoken in Things I Like is from one of the First Nation tribes in Canada. Duplicate Keys Icaro is in fact about an ayahuasca experience that Chris had. I highly recommend listening to this episode on his Patreon. It’s truly worth it. An icaro (with the accent on the A) is the ritual song that accompanies your journey when you take the ayahuasca and wait for it to kick in. It’s the whistling you hear at the very beginning and the end of the song.
Juan Manuel Morales
2025-02-17 04:07:45 +0000 UTCHell yes Mark! You’ve had especially epic content the past couple days 😁 To answer your question about the songs Todd sings on…yes, he writes the music and lyrics for those. The band obviously creates the finished product as a unit, but generally if Chris is singing, it’s his music/lyrics, if Todd is singing, it’s his music/lyrics. Thanks as always for putting great stuff out into the world!
lostmotel
2025-02-17 01:01:16 +0000 UTCThabks for the extra content, Teach!
Tom Bilodeau
2025-02-16 22:43:50 +0000 UTCThis was an amazing video in its own right. Thanks so much for it! (One day Chris's lyrics will be studied by high school students, like the do Shakespeare now.)
Daniel Hall
2025-02-16 21:55:58 +0000 UTC"Duplicate Keys Icaro (An Interim Report)" is one of my favorite lyrical representations of the Ayahuasca/DMT experience. Thanks for covering this album!
Kyle Adamski
2025-02-16 21:06:40 +0000 UTCnote to self is a protest song! very currently topical! youre drinking and watching sports what are u doing when these people are taking the world over. RISE means get your ass out there and make a difference
Dan P
2025-02-16 10:34:19 +0000 UTCThe best Prop record hands down. Might be my favourite album ever.
Cam
2025-02-16 06:31:01 +0000 UTC🤘
Michael Baglione
2025-02-16 06:14:54 +0000 UTCLooking forward to Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes. Going back to their first LP, How to Clean Everything, might be amusing lol. If you do it after all of this. Not to spoil too much, but they're a mostly different band stylistically. An influential album though for sure, including on one of the biggest recurring artists you've reacted to on the channel
Ray Dweck
2025-02-16 01:01:10 +0000 UTCI knew this was going to happen! 🤭
Juan Manuel Morales
2025-02-16 00:24:44 +0000 UTCWatching this through for a second time and cracked up at your reaction, Mark, on Rattan Cane where it absolutely slaps you in the face after that brooding Sabbath-esque intro. To build on your earlier description of Chris' "telephone voice", which feels like everything is said with clarity because you need to concentrate and unpick the themes, Todd's singing feels like he's pinning you to the wall and shouting it right in your face until you understand. Love it.
Kriss Watt
2025-02-15 23:30:16 +0000 UTCI knew this was coming, was actually hoping for it when the newest poll came up :) Thanks, the Prop episodes are my favorites! Fun fact also, Todd painted the cover art for this album
André Karlsen
2025-02-15 23:18:59 +0000 UTCI find myself wondering whether or not Prop have been influenced by the atmospheric post-rock scene in Canada, with incredible bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Elements like the negative space created by moments of silence, the swelling guitar builds, and the use of spoken word samples are all very reminiscent, not to mention the strong emphasis on activism and social conscience. Either way, Canada has produced some fucking GREAT bands over the years.
Kriss Watt
2025-02-15 23:07:42 +0000 UTCI am dedicated to reading the lyrics of the new Propagandhi record before I listen to it. I believe they are done tracking it!
Gingerthedragon
2025-02-15 22:54:04 +0000 UTCWhile watching this reaction I was going to finally look up what Lotus Gate meant after all these years of taking this album in. Thank you for your service. That definition adds such a new layer of delicacy and pain to the song.
Gingerthedragon
2025-02-15 22:50:58 +0000 UTCI voted for this and I know your channel is content for us but every once in a while do one for yourself! We’ll still watch! Which album would you choose??
Jeff Harstead
2025-02-15 22:48:08 +0000 UTCHey! THIS is social media… good communities are good communities… technology is rarely negative for humans, what hurts us is the way any new technology is leverage against us for profit.
Cory Burgess
2025-02-15 22:47:20 +0000 UTCFantastic reaction vid as always! Idk if anyone ever mentioned it but there's full tab/note transcription books with bass/guitar and drums available for all their records through Sheet Happens Publishing, they're pretty great!
Mark Campbell
2025-02-15 21:46:05 +0000 UTC"Lotus Gait is a term referring to the type of gait produced by the Chinese custom of foot binding. Women with such deformed feet avoided placing weight on the front of the foot and tended to walk predominantly on their heels. As a result, women who underwent foot binding walked in a careful, cautious and unsteady manner." Such a perfect metaphor to use for a song about the ways in which we often limit ourselves in order to bury trauma that we don't want to face. Anything to dull the pain.
Kriss Watt
2025-02-15 21:23:01 +0000 UTCOn the previous full album episodes, I always felt a tinge of regret that you were missing out on the genius of the lyrics. Seeing you fall through the floor on Lotus Gait and really getting how deep the lyrics go and how dense they are, was worth it though! You have reached the second level of inception on Propagandhi!
Johan B
2025-02-15 21:21:54 +0000 UTCI just paused, so excited for this bc this is often how I first make time to hear these albums, and I haven’t heard all of this one. Also, I think your strategy on the lyrics is a great idea, ice never cared that you weren’t lyric guy, I love your break downs in the music. That said, hearing you talk about lyrics as the more subject element, I’d say it can be a deeper emotional element, made me think that bc you feel its an area you have less confidence in, that make an intention to explore it, would likely lead to en evolution in how you interpret music. Like, sharing that journey with us, would be incredible… and likely an experience we’d be sharing, having never considered the lyrics from your perspective, you as in the person who’s reflection of art we’ve all come to love. Just a thought. I love what you do already, whatever brings you joy.
Cory Burgess
2025-02-15 21:17:28 +0000 UTCI just now noticed that in Duplicate Keys Icaro, for a couple measures it sounds EXACTLY like the bridge riff in Purina Hall of Fame. It’s at around the 1:20:08 point in the video. Anybody else hear it?
Zack
2025-02-15 20:39:54 +0000 UTCBrilliant review Mark, will echo the sentiment of pre reading the lyrics. What a great idea!!! Cheers. Propagandhi are truly goated
Shaun Patterson
2025-02-15 20:37:53 +0000 UTCI didn't think it was possible to find ways to love this album even more, yet here I am. 🙌
Bryan Be Real
2025-02-15 20:20:41 +0000 UTCHappy Birthday!
Matt Gerken
2025-02-15 19:58:56 +0000 UTCThank you Mark!! You rule!
PRDinPDX
2025-02-15 19:43:24 +0000 UTCI just learned that last night. Fuck, what an episode! The atmospheric soundtrack and Chris's dramatic delivery was something else!
Gingerthedragon
2025-02-15 19:39:57 +0000 UTCBest birthday present of all time. This rules. This album rules.
PizzaTrav
2025-02-15 19:38:24 +0000 UTCThe "ShoShoShoSho" at the beginning of Duplicate Keys is an "Ayahuasca Icaro". Chris Hannah dives DEEP into this song on his patreon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icaro
Matt McCann
2025-02-15 19:31:30 +0000 UTCSon of biiiiiii——— full of surprises!
Aacc
2025-02-15 19:02:01 +0000 UTCI must reccomend after this album that you start from the beginning of the Propagandhi discography and go forward. Their progression as a band between album 2 and album 3 (when Todd joined) is a kick to the head. I want to see you experience that in chronological order. It is monumental.
Gingerthedragon
2025-02-15 18:58:14 +0000 UTCI knew it ! Looking forward to this episode. Thanks for the bonus Mark !!
Nicolas R.
2025-02-15 18:40:07 +0000 UTCOh hell yeah! Give the kids what they want!
Joe
2025-02-15 18:39:55 +0000 UTCDevil's Creek is basically just a ditch for rainwater run off. Chris lived on the army base and it was where he would ride his bike to to get away from it as a kid. It's 5 minutes from my house.
Mitch Moar
2025-02-15 18:30:15 +0000 UTCDuplicate Keys might be my favourite Prop song. Such an infinitely spiritual song from a man who got the punk world to chant "Fuck Religion" in unison.
Gingerthedragon
2025-02-15 18:20:51 +0000 UTCOh heavens. I had a wine fueled dive into Chris Hannah's 2 part podcast episode about Duplicate Keys Icaro last night. The Numinous has responded this morning. Have you given his patreon podcast a spin? You have asked very specific questions about lyric meanings and song composition that Chris very eloquently explains over there. I reccomend. He is an extremely gifted story teller.
Gingerthedragon
2025-02-15 18:17:42 +0000 UTCThank you!!!!
Lee Hamilton
2025-02-15 18:11:57 +0000 UTCFUCK YES!!! Christmas in February.
Matt Gerken
2025-02-15 18:11:10 +0000 UTCWow
Stephen Coia
2025-02-15 18:09:17 +0000 UTC1 minute in and I just want to say the idea of reading lyrics ahead of time to better understand the message is genius. Great idea Mark.
Bryan Be Real
2025-02-15 18:04:56 +0000 UTCLFG!!
Kirbie B
2025-02-15 18:04:45 +0000 UTCMy god, i was holding for this!! Thanks Mark, i really appreciate what you do. Now lets see the episodio!
Alejandro Carrillo
2025-02-15 18:04:22 +0000 UTCI knew it! Made my day.
Mitch Moar
2025-02-15 18:02:53 +0000 UTC
