Last Run

Breathe

We’ve heard a billion words about building and beginning, my biggest interest now is dismantle and diminish
The train of construction has had its time, if this is where it goes let’s end this line.
Too many people walking around half dead trapped in the dream of growth, a slow smoky death
We’ve progressed this place into a dying grey mess, before it’s too late draw in a last breath

Breathe! Are you living? My heart beats so hard it may tear itself right outta my chest.
Breathe and listen, if you hear your heart moving, well then you’ll know you’ve just cheated death

Living means retreating to things that work for us, not being dragged along through this mechanized dusk
Layers and layers of rules and constructs compound to make a pile of what?
A great arms race against real interaction and insidious self-loathing for our own imperfections
Accept this substitution for life or slow down, look around, stand up and fill your lungs

Breathe! Are you there? Can we do this? I’m waiting.
Breathe, look alive, pay attention, keep moving
It never gets easy unless you give up and if you do you won’t know because there is nothing after death

Last Run

Run run run run my gorgeous cousins to a beautiful place where the helis don’t fly
Out of the reach of man and industry away from this scourge, the destroyer of all
This doesn’t come from logic or ignorance you’ve been set up and sentenced to die
You’ve been blamed but you won’t be tried just poisoned or shot for someone else’s crimes

Don’t blame the wolf, don’t blame the seal if it will help you can blame me
Blame the tar sands and the fishing fleets, or forestry, blame industry

200,000 cattle trample the land, roads end wilderness for everything it has
The tailing ponds kill the river that runs through and wolves get the blame for missing Caribou
Giant drag nets scrape the ocean dead and somehow seals are the new threat
Double the humans in less than 50 years and it’s someone else’s fault when the herds disappear

Don’t blame the wolf, don’t blame the seal, if it will help you can blame me,
Blame the tar sands and the fishing fleets, or forestry blame industry
Don’t blame the wolf, don’t blame the seal, if it will help you can blame me,
How about the growing cities and the sprawling streets, blame agriculture, blame industry
Blame me Blame me

Every witch hunt the same purpose, be it women, wolves, snakes or albatross
How long will these games go on they do nothing to help and only deepen the loss

Blame the war on nature, blame the fear of green, blame the lazy cowards in huge machines,
Blame us all together as we poison the sea, blame the way we consume and breed and breed
or pesticides and the GMO wheat, the water you waste for the taste of meat
Blame acid rain, yes it’s still a thing, clear-cuts you can see from space
reactor leaks, open pits, massive dams and their floods of death
Blame our anthropocentric mind disease, science dragged out back and forced to its knees
Blame your own inaction while the world bleeds, blame that on the distractions of your silly scene
I know you need a sacrifice to your god of greed if it will help you can take me blame me blame me blame me

Pride and Prejudice

You probably understand the shame of hatred over race so I’d like to point out a couple other things.
You were born in this spot did you deserve what you got? How about any other? Human or not.
And your perspective it must be the best never mind that your mentors built this fuckin’ mess
How about your ability or the way that you talk what makes you so special let’s give it some thought

Why gender? Why species? Why country? Why family? Indoctrination
Why gender? Why species? Why country? Why family? What is it you think you see?

Let’s examine the flag they assigned you at birth, why is it there? How does it work?
If people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones then those in ivory towers probably shouldn’t break bones
How about religion? Artificial division all decked out with dogma and tricks
And finally this thing to round out the list. Does your dick make you better? It sure don’t look like it

Why these arbitrary lines between you them and me?
Why the pride in privilege not what you’ve achieved?
Why do you think you know better how we all should be?
I can’t see how we’ll ever agree?

Do you believe that some should die starving?
Cause millions of soldiers enforce this doctrine
Look for your power not a messiah
Scream for the eagle and scream for the vulture
What you do is all you are and
you could probably do better than the pain you’re causing
Scream and scream like you’re the one dying
And don’t stop screaming until your heartbeat stops

Grass Rat

When you came to us you were a tiny juggernaut with that maniacal laugh that would not be stopped
You taught a band of punks to be a family you taught us what stability can mean
We tried to teach you to dance but you had moves of your own and you’ve continued that theme as you’ve grown
I know that you already understand how crazy life is if there is only one thing we give, let it be this

We’re behind you, we’re your front line, We’ll be here, on and on
If you forget we’ll remind you, Always, always all along.

They called you fertility but I call you war cause you’re everything that I fight for.
You’re the ground that I stand on the trees and the sun you’re the fire behind me when I run
Remember those kids that made you that coat, the art you inspired and your words we still quote
All gifts of allegiance from our nebulous tribe they say that we’re here for all time

We’re behind you, we’re your front line, we’ll be here, on and on
If you forget we’ll remind you always, always all along.
Always, always all along. Always, always on and on...Always, always all along
on and on and on and on and on

There’s been a storm that has followed you and there are dark times ahead despite all we do
If you need to run for cover or a moment of light every one of us would fight, kill or die.

We’re behind you, we’re your front line, We’ll be here, on and on
If you forget we’ll remind you Always, always all along.
Always, always all along. Always, always on and on
Always, always all along on and on and on and on and
We’re behind you, we’re your front line, We’ll be here, on and on
If you forget we’ll remind you Always, always all along.

Ten Thousand Years

I’ve read about brutality through history by agents of every form of state.
I know that nothing’s changed and their roles and means are just the same
Do you really think we can fix this thing? It’s been tried again and again

10,000 years! Just the same! Until they burn, this won’t change!
Move! Move! Move! Push back or be knocked flat
Move! Move! Move! Or you’re just in the way
Move! Move! Move! If you keep loving our captors the future is just more murder and beatings

From ancient Greece to New Orleans armed sadists rule the street
Since the first of these legions walked there has always been a “few bad cops”
You think you see a helpful soul? I just see an enemy soldier

10,000 years! Just the same! Until they burn, this won’t change!
10,000 years! Inflicting pain! If they reform then burn again

Jeffrey Miller, Paul Boyd, Two unnamed dead in Winnipeg
Oscar Grant, Rodney Jackson, Ian Bush and Darren Varley
Sharpeville, Marikana, Kent State, not close enough?
Boom Boom Boom Guess who’s at your door?

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever” George Orwell

Not A Prayer

If I could change so many things I would, you bet
I’d help with my hands, my legs, my brain and hard work
But it’s making me crazy thinking about the tools one shouldn’t use!
The insanity and futility of your approach.

Is there utility in charity? There’s some, I guess.
What about some protest? Might work, a bit
What are your chances of helping anything down on your knees with your eyes closed?

Not a prayer, not a prayer, not a prayer, not a prayer

There is people working hard in the courts and street
You undermine and trivialize their sweat and tears
You are an insult to and distraction from an already beleaguered voice
We need action and new ideas we need many, many things but

Is there anything thing that won’t help just a bit? Is anything without a point? Yes it’s called a prayer
If crosses and crystals and beads would help by now we’d all be alright
This idea was planted to keep you confused. There are things to give but for fuck sakes...

All This Costs

I try so hard not to get bitten by you but you seem to anticipate my every move
You’re all kinds of tricks and traps and when I turn around you’re right on my back
I talk so tough most of the time but you’ve found so many roads into my mind.
You use the demon of fear, or a new lover’s breath, you come in at every angle, I’ve got no defense left

All this costs – is all you have to pay
All against the other, empathy’s decay

I know what you want better than yourself and when you figure out one angle I’ll show you something else
Innovation is my touted theme and I’m above nothing I’ll co-opt a child’s dreams
How do you think you can withstand me? I’ll offer anything, pervert everything, I’ll pit friends against friends, I’ll poison every sense, still look clean
And you know I never sleep

We have one thing you’ll never own
It has been called heart or soul
You can’t reinvent or replace it,
It’s your antithesis and it’s in all of us
It doesn’t need to be guarded cause it’s all around
There’s lots for everyone but it still must be found
The tools to go looking can’t be sold you can’t send miners even though it’s underground

Let's Roll A Storm

We are ready to dive in head first
This world has provided only a deadly thirst
To live could be more than to destroy
But if we must let us reverse the direction in which we deploy

These days of disgusting leisure are on their way out
If you’ve got any sense at all, you should be buried in your doubt
There’s little left of what was used to be
Things you thought would last forever, are now anomaly
Standing on the edge of a cliff, reason starts to drift
One more step and you’ll be smashed to bits
Old instincts draw you into the abyss of junk
The wind is at our back but we still refuse to jump

Progress goes backwards, only time moves ahead
The roads are paved, not with gold but the dead
It’s time to sew these wounds in your head
Get ready to give up a piece of your bread

Settle in for television of the greatest fall
Watch the white collar get smaller and smile happily as the air runs out
It didn’t take a bible to know
What this has and would become now
Progression of nothing, progression of growth
What have we grown? A myth? Is it hope?
A garden of destruction, a crop so select
A one way monoculture, everything to reject

You can continue to smash your face
On the bars in search of grace
A pursuit of perfection without any rage
You have read a lot of books
But have you read what’s on the wall?
With no practice of action we do know that we are nothing

To live could be more than to destroy
But if we must, let us reverse the direction in which we deploy

Let’s roll a storm their way
We have a lot to gain
We’ve practiced on ourselves long enough
Let’s roll a storm their way

I Heard You Singing

I walked out along the river and then up the hill
I moved for several hours with no direction that I knew
I had no destination
There was no one there but me
But I heard a sound that made me feel,
Heard a voice, a call to be free

I heard you singing through the trees
I heard you call just once for me

It was at once empowering and so compelling to hear
Until the implications became clear
It was both so far away but somehow much to near
I stopped in awe then wonder turned to fear

An awful kind terror struck, I could not feel my face
As I spun around I lost my footing
There were no right angles or even straight lines
No structure with which to align myself
I was so confused no one to tell me how to be
I groveled and crawled then finally stood and ran
I’ve been invited but I’m too scared to leave

I’ve been invited but I’m too scared to leave

I heard you singing through the trees
I heard you call just once for me
I heard you singing through the trees
I heard you singing
But I was too scared to leave

The Tsilhqot'in War

In 1863 the road builders came
To the Tsilhqot’in Plateau at the head of a wave
Of Empire spreading like a treacherous disease
To build a road from the ocean to the Cariboo Gold Fields
Hundreds of Tsilhqot’in had already died
Of smallpox brought by the European tide
Now came the road crews pushing through their land
threatened with disease, it was time to take a stand

Annihilation on its way
The Crown will take and take and take
Guerrilla war up in the hills
No choices left, our fight we make

Dealt this hand they had to stand. Would you stand? I would stand. Backs to the mountains their place to be but no space for this new enemy

By the spring of 1864 the pattern was clear:
They bring smallpox and rape and take by murder, theft and fear
So Klatsassin and a band of Tsilhqot’in warriors
Ambushed the invaders on the banks of the Homathco
‘Kill the head and the body will die’
14 whites dead beneath the undulating skies
Klatsassin saw it as the start of a war
The Crown sent a militia in to even the score

Annihilation on its way
The Crown will take and take and take
Guerilla war up in the hills
No choices left, our fight we make

To Klatsassin it was war, to the Crown they were criminals the militia couldn’t catch them, way up there in the hills
So the Crown brought in a tracker named Donald McLean who’d killed elders and babies in the course of his days as a frontier mercenary working the fur trade
the Tsilhqot’in knew him by his bayonet blade he struck out on his own and the warriors shot him down
A last insult to the Crown and the Uprising was over

They were tricked into surrender with the promise of peace talks. A trap: they were arrested and The Hanging Judge Begbie tried them in Quesnel where they were hanged as criminals but it was another 100 years before the road was even built
The Tsilhqot’in never ceded and this fight will never end
It’s a legacy of struggle and what it means to stand

Climb the gallows, take the blame
His name means “We Don’t Know His Name”
Klatsassin’s last words:
“We meant war not murder”

Dealt this hand they had to stand. Would you stand? I would stand
Dealt this hand they had to stand. Would you stand? They did stand

“We meant war not murder”

Fight For the Sun

You might believe this is a real nice place where everyone is free and more or less safe
But did ya know around the world they’ve locked up about 10 million people?
You might not have known but that just changed don’t confuse this for justice just cruel and insane
But to those among us that know and are raising hell to free them

Fight for the sun my bold friends, fight for the sun this night will end. I promise...
Fight for the sun my bold friends, fight for the sun this night will end Fight for the sun fight for the sun fight for the sun it’s coming

We might look different but we’re all the same in that we all need to move and feel love to stay sane
But our cruel species withholds these rights from 25 Billion creatures
How many years cutting day and night would it take to sever that much chain?
You need to help what will it take to get you all to see this!?

I wait they wait when is it coming? Don’t wait, they wait you must bring the sun.

Let’s go bass man walk me home now
It’s only music but I’ve got you listening
Crank the volume bring the rage up
Harder drummer let them hear it
I need some voices a thousand voices
I need you all and one more thing
guitar guitar guitar guitar