Propagandhi / I Spy - I'd Rather Be Flag Burning / Guide to Excrutiatingly Correct Behaviour

[originally posted January 3rd 2024 on cohost]

3 days in and I already got the luckiest CD find of the year, the 1994 Propagandhi I'd Rather Be Flag-Burning / I Spy Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behaviour split album! As far as I know, this one is slightly more available on vinyl, with a number of different varieties have been made (some more and some less common), but CDs I had never come across and there were only very few, very expensive copies for sale on discogs. So I just took a shot, typed it into ebay, and miraculously I saw a listing, located in Germany, that was just put up today. It was put up for auction, but also had an immediate purchase option since no one bid on it yet. Since this was clearly meant to be and the universe had alligned perfectly for me to make that purchase, I just snagged it right away, not taking the chance of not winning the auction

This release is easy to overlook in the whole of Propagandhi's doing, having come out right in between their extremely influential first two albums How to Clean Everything and Less Talk, More Rock, but it foreshadows the remainder of their career, as it is the first recorded collaboration with I Spy's Todd Kowalski, who would join Propagandhi just two years later after the dissolution of I Spy, and the departure of Propagandhi's bassist John K. Samson, who would go on to form The Weakerthans, making this release an important piece of 90s Canadian punk history.

Taking out this 30 year old piece of folded recycling paper that the lyrics and liner notes are printed on out of the plastic sleeve and opening it felt like holding the Declaration of Independence. It's in very good condition though, so I still should have plenty of time until it inevitably crumbles into dust