Lahiri

Space and time
Are so sublime
It blows my mind
And it makes me do cartwheels

Materialize
Rationalize
Hypnotize
Oh, Lahiri where are you?

Dance and sing
Come as you are
As a devotee
Of the community

Clear your mind
From dogmatic debris
Repeat after me
You’re flying astrally,  thee, free, see!

Of course you won’t mind
When you look through these eyes
And surrender the lies
For the truth you just taught me
Manifestation
Rise and fall
Master it all
And love with an open heart.

Space and time
Are so sublime
It blows my mind
And let’s begin all over again
Yeah, let’s begin all over again.

Lahiri, where are you?
Lahiri, where are you?
Lahiri, where are you?
Lahiri, where are you?

JON KANIS – Vocals, Piano, Electric Bass
CHRISTOPHER HOFFEE – Background Vocals, Mini-Moog, ARP Synthesizer
MATT LYNOTT – Drums, Percussion

Music and lyrics by Jon Kanis.
© 2014.  Eyes of da Vinci Music (BMI).  All rights reserved.
from Fundamentalism Is The Only Way
Produced by Christopher Hoffee and Jon Kanis.

Lahiri

Where Is Joe Strummer When You Need Him?

Well, this clash city rocker seeks financial aid
I’m malcontent starring in this B movie
Well, sometimes it’s hell and sometimes it’s paradise
But when did boot camp lead to feeling groovy?
All for the privilege of pulling double duty.

And now I’m just dying under faded skies
Tattoos and an out-of-state wedding
Confinement – what are your limitations?
Responding to the Cherokee Nation
My relations with another name for you

Where does the boundary lie?
Who sets it and why?
Well, I’m so bored with the USA
When I’m living as a patriot who would rather die
Are you such a patriot that you would rather lie to the country?

Just stand and deliver
Oh, where is Joe Strummer when you need him?
If we talked amongst ourselves would we even know the score
Blindsided by belief, I bought that less was more.

The pumpkin head glows with delight
The NWO shows you might makes right
Would the world bond together from an alien invasion
By laughing at the nightly news?
It’s clash city with the Arabs and Jews (but who’s counting)
Clash city with the Arabs and Jews

Where does the boundary lie?
Who sets it and why?
I made it all and now it’s time to place the call
Beyond this slick charade of this one for all
The taps are blowing day and night – it’s up against the wall motherfucker!

And sometimes it’s hell and sometimes it’s paradise
Sometimes you win and sometimes you pay the price
Well where does the boundary lie?
And who sets it and why?

The lies you wanna sell keep me churning day and night
And I cannot believe the perils pried from such a plight
Where’s the artful dodger when it comes to compromise
It’s the kinda thing that keeps the world turning
It’s the kinda thing that keeps me churning day and night

If you love Jesus why then do you bleed him?
And where is Joe Strummer when you need him?

JON KANIS – Acoustic Guitar, Electric Bass, Wurlitzer, Philharmonic, vibraslap, vocal
CHRISTOPHER HOFFEE - Slide guitar, finger cymbals, maracas, cowbell
GEORGE KORG - Drums

Music and lyrics by Jon Kanis.
© 2014.  Eyes of da Vinci Music (BMI).  All rights reserved.
from Fundamentalism Is The Only Way [10.02.14]
Produced by Christopher Hoffee and Jon Kanis.
Engineered and mixed by Christopher Hoffee.
Recorded March 23, 2014 at CHAOS Recorders, Escondido, CA.

Where Is Joe Strummer When You Need Him?

Welcome Home

Don’t you ever wonder why you’re always wandering
When you know you’re always happy in your heart
You don’t ever have to look out any further
For the love you’ve had right from the very start

Now tell me where do you think you could go
When your heart knows you’re already home
You’ve been searching all the time
For something you don’t need to find
So come home, Welcome Home
So come home, Welcome Home

Do you ever walk up to the edge and falter
At the bridge you haven’t crossed along the way
Would you even try to walk upon the water
If your fear held on for just another day

Chorus

The water is wide and high is the tide
Through death’s door walks the prodigal son
Meditate, now don’t you hesitate
Open your heart and you shall overcome

Repeat First Verse

Now tell me where do you think you could go
When your heart knows you’re already home
You’ve been searching all the time
For something you don’t need to find
I want to wipe away your tears
But you’re so far away from here
So come home, Welcome Home
So come home, 
Welcome Home

JON KANIS - 12-string acoustic guitar, electric bass, Folktek Omnichord, handclaps, vocals
CHRISTOPHER HOFFEE - organ, handclaps, tambourine
BRAD SMITH - Drums

Music and lyrics by Stephen Cooper, Jon Kanis, Jimm McIver
© 2014.  Eyes of da Vinci Music (BMI).  All rights reserved.
from Fundamentalism Is The Only Way
Recorded October-December 2013 at CHAOS Recorders, Escondido, CA.
Produced by Christopher Hoffee and Jon Kanis.
Engineered and mixed by Christopher Hoffee.

Welcome Home

Follow Up

Well, there’s a hunger now you see
That’s gnawing away and also nurturing me
And when you kiss me, that’s how we be
The turnaround – Bohemian Rhapsody.

‘Cuz I stepped inside
Where this Soul no longer chooses to hide
Who would wish to thrice be denied?
Aphrodite is a lass named Noel and she’s my ticket to ride.

La-la-la-la…

And surely life will turn on a dime
Well, that’s the cost of this dance when your love light shines
Preparation and opportunity
And your Love a form of mystical alchemy.

Oh Miss Muse you’re mesmerizing me
What is real?  And what is a fantasy?
The cathedral bells, the Catherine Wheel it sings
Oh peel away and let this freedom ring.

La-la-la-la…

‘Cuz I stepped inside
Where this Soul no longer chooses to hide
Who would wish to thrice be denied?
Aphrodite is a lass named Noel and she’s my ticket to ride.

La-la-la-la…

So take this life dada and surreal
And shake my hand as we become the new deal.

JON KANIS - acoustic guitar, electric bass, vocals),
CHRISTOPHER HOFFEE - ARP Synthesizer, keyboards, tambourine, vocals
BRAD SMITH- Drums

Music and lyrics by Jon Kanis.
© 2014.  Eyes of da Vinci Music (BMI).  All rights reserved.
from Fundamentalism Is The Only Way [10.02.14]
Produced by Christopher Hoffee and Jon Kanis.
Recorded March 2010 & October-December 2013 at CHAOS Recorders, Escondido, CA.

Follow Up

It’s a sanctuary, Om Home
The house on the hill
With many mansions.
It’s a haiku kind of awareness
That leads to love.

Moving beyond the status quo static of rolling thunder:
Tune in.
Turn on.
Do not.
Cop out.
What is the meditation in this moment?

From dusk to dawn.
Beyond right and/or wrong.
Circular breathing through MJK Ultra.

Alpha—Omega & Saints of all religions
We are splitting hairs at Los Alamos
Welcome to the Multi-Verse…

It’s a haiku kind of awareness
That leads to love.
Fundamentally from here.
To there.
To Everywhere.

It’s a haiku kind of awareness
That leads to love.
Viva Vidal
That was Zen and this is Tao
Cast beyond the spell
Of free will
Cast beyond the spell
Of free will
It’s a haiku kind of awareness
That leads to love.
And piercing the veil
There is no thing 
Left
To hold us back…

Christopher Hoffee: Keyboard, Moog, Drums, Percussion, Backing vocals
Jon Kanis: Electric bass, Vocal

Music by Christopher Hoffee & Jon Kanis
Lyrics by Jon Kanis
Smoke Machine Publishing (ASCAP) & Eyes of Da Vinci Publishing (BMI). All rights reserved.

Viva Vidal

Empire

You’re not as clever as you think you are
You tried to hitch your wagon to a star
But now everyone knows
That the emperor wears no clothes

The king’s perfection in the DEA
The irony didn’t rub off, it ran away
So the story goes
The village idiot knows no prose

Heavy is the head that wears the crown
When your empire tumbles to the ground 
You’ll know
Oh how the emperor wears no clothes

Compassion ain’t an itch you love to scratch
The masses braying “Bee-yatch kiss my ass”
With that thorn of a rose
Knowing for certain who wears no clothes.

With power absolute baby, yeah you’re so corrupt
With Nero in your pocket
This ain’t as abrupt as it seems
Your empire’s falling apart at the seams

Aaaah…

You’re not as clever as you think you are
5,000 years since we lived on Mars
99 of us know
Oh, how the emperor wears no clothes
Just how the emperor wears no clothes
Oh how the emperor wears no clothes
Just how the emperor wears no clothes.

JON KANIS – Vocals, Electric Bass, Electric Guitar
CHRISTOPHER HOFFEE - Keyboards, Electric Guitar, Drums, Percussion

Music & lyrics by Jon Kanis.
© 2014.  Eyes of da Vinci Music.  All rights reserved.
from Fundamentalism Is The Only Way
Produced by Christopher Hoffee & Jon Kanis.

Empire

Just Another Movie
written by pat mAcdonald

Presidential elections are planned distractions
To divert attention from the action behind the scenes
Like a game of chess when the house is a mess
Or a petty money squabble when your marriage is in trouble
Or a football game when there’s rioting in the streets

It’s just another movie, another song & dance
Another poor sucker who never had a chance
It’s just another captain goin’ down with the ship
It’s just another jerk takin’ pride in his work.

I was a poor magician I could never understand
You can’t make tears disappear through slight of hand
From the bottom of my heart, off the top of my head
Words were pulled like rabbits from a hat but nothin’ was said

It’s just another movie, another song & dance
Another poor sucker who never had a chance
It’s just another captain goin’ down with the ship
It’s just another jerk takin’ pride in his work.

"Today representatives of the World Bank announced that a phoenix is rising from the ashes of a dead culture as all debt worldwide would be erased and forgiven. It’s a clean slate financially for all individuals and corporations across the board. The World Bank representative concluded by saying 'It was either unshackle the prisoners or parish from an inevitable uprising.'"

Now my freedom’s bought & paid for It lights up my living room
I got nothing more to prove, I got no reason to move
And when I’m tired of the program, when it’s taken it’s toll
I can press a button & change the channel by remote control.

It’s just another movie, another song & dance
Another poor sucker who never had a chance
It’s just another captain goin’ down with the ship
It’s just another jerk takin’ pride in his work
Just another jerk takin’ pride in his work
Just another jerk takin’ pride in his work.

from the album Begging His Graces, Volume Two: the Songs and Sins of pat mAcdonald by the artists of Steel Bridge Songfest.
 
Jon Kanis: acoustic six-string guitars, electric guitars, Fender electric bass, vibraslap, vocals / Liz Abbott: harmony vocals / Christopher Hoffee: Wurlitzer electric piano, harmonium, tambourine, claves, drums. Produced by Christopher Hoffee & Jon Kanis. Engineered, mixed and mastered by Christopher Hoffee @ CHAOS Recorders, Escondido, California, on February 8, 2016.

Just Another Movie

Xmas Fun Tape '88

Recitation by Andy Gratton, poem by Nick Walusko

Cosmic Mirror/Cosmic Mate

Cast upon the wheel at dawn
We’ve sung this song now for oh so long
‘Till the rains came falling down
A double fanfare for our final round

The good things always come in threes
With the wind and the rain now and you+me
Unconditionally guaranteed
Moving beyond, below, or in between

Because: there is no time, there is no space
But we gotta set a deadline if we’re gonna win this race with ourselves
Get set! Let go!
If your life is your example then let’s take this show on the road
Hey! Ho! I feel your breath
Within my ear and you’re making it perfectly clear
My dear – my Cosmic Mirror
My Cosmic Mate now we really know how to relate…

The witch goddess of Grape Street with her Kismet eye
Sees the Qi leap at the fork in the road—a vision to behold
A gala mystery sight unseen—what a dream
And with the siren’s song could never be sold—if the truth be told

Gonna call down the Moon and drop all the drama
Gonna love your sister, baby brother, yo mama
Trying is lying and doing is truing
And energy flows where the mind goes
As the sweetest Gemini twin divine
We’re double steppin’ in double time
There’s a cure for Cancer after all
Take you bowling for a bike ride rolling through the stalls
We’re just two cats tucked away in a cave
Emancipated as each other’s love slave
We’re all the rage, it’s not new wave
As the old skool becomes the golden rule…

Ain’t we a jewel?
No need to try to act cool…

April 13, 2012 2 p.m.

Performed, composed, produced and arranged by Jon Kanis
All rights reserved. Eyes of Da Vinci Publishing (BMI)

Cosmic Mirror/Cosmic Mate (for Teresa RIP)

from the soundtrack to A Box Full of Rocks: the El Cajon Years of Lester Bangs. (Road Ahead Productions) (February 2014) 

written by Lester Bangs, Robert Quine, Jody Harris, David Hofstra.

Recorded January 13–14, 2014 at CHAOS Recorders, Escondido, California. Produced by Christopher Hoffee and Jon Kanis. Engineered and mixed by Christopher Hoffee. Personnel: Christopher Hoffee (elecric guitar, keyboards, percussion), Jon Kanis (acoustic guitar, electric bass, vocals), Matt Lynott (drums).

Let It Blurt (from A Box Full of Rocks: the El Cajon Years of Lester Bangs)

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Jon Kanis is an award-winning, Grammy-nominated producer and musician who has traveled the world over entertaining folks from San Diego to Amsterdam — from Cusco to Tibet...

Jon Kanis

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