Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes by Propagandhi

Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes is the third album by Canadian punk rock band Propagandhi, released February 6, 2001. It was released on the band's own G7 Welcoming Committee Records label in Canada and Fat Wreck Chords elsewhere. It is the first Propagandhi release of new material on their own label. Released five years after its predecessor, the album marks the longest gap between two studio albums of the band. 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 a cynical take on the Purina Animal Hall of Fame, a site that celebrates animals who have saved human lives. The lyrics of "Purina Hall of Fame" obliquely outline Propagandhi's concerns about animal cruelty.