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Closer to Home

By Paisleyfrog on January 11, 2026 10:06 pm

I was done with this week's song on Tuesday. But sometimes events means that you have to change direction. Did this fast enough that there's no cover art, but I also don't really want to for this one either.

EDIT: I worked up some cover art. I decided I wanted to after all.

I was thinking of waiting until next week for this song, but felt like it needed to get out now. The song I had can wait. Dammit, it was fun, too.

It’ll keep.

This one started out after I grabbed my new favorite project guitar on Saturday. It was in my parts bin for years with a busted sound board - finally FrankenFixed it last summer. This song and melody jumped out pretty much fully formed as an improvisation. I had started la-la-la-ing the first verse and then stopped...grabbed my phone and recorded the full song structure as you hear it here. I initially worked out cleaning it up a bit...was thinking it was a 90s rock ballad sort of thing. Zero words. Overall, it was...ok, but wasn't anything I was wildly excited about. Working title was "closer to home".

I gave my wife the raw mix, and she furiously started writing. After she finished, she said, "this might not be the direction you were expecting for it.." and started singing along with my raw mix. There was the moment I realized what it was about. Crying.

Decided that this song needed a raw protest vibe, forget about lots of instrumentation. I reworked her lyrics just a bit to fit the rhythm and flow. Recorded it this afternoon. The track I'm posting is one track and one microphone. Done.

I may have let out some anger on the guitar.

An important side note: institutionalized violence like this is not new in the United States, particularly for marginalized communities and people of color. It's always been close to home for decades, if not centuries. We stand in solidarity with people who have lived the struggle for so long.

Figured there's going to be some new angry protest music next week that is going to be the B-side of A Self-Made Lucifer. The working title is Couchfucker. Draw your own conclusions.

Gaslighting motherfucker.

› Lyrics

Audio works licensed by author under:
Copyright All rights reserved

One take one take gets that rawness and realness of live performance and it works so well. It makes it so real and I adore it.

This is so good, so familiar and full of such rage. I find it entirely hard to process everything that's happening. I can't even fathom being in or traveling to the US now. It's absolutely heartbreaking to witness.

Ooooof wow. Yeah the fast production and single take captured some overwhelming emotion. Overproducing would only buff down the sharp edges, and we need those to cut some people

</3

This is super powerful. Fuck these murderous bastards. Can't wait to hear couchfucker. Stay safe. Resist, always.

i am getting such mountain goats energy from this it's a lovely song and everyone deserves a home somewhere safe fuck ICE and the US president. hope i can visit again one day heart

really nice song

Thank you both so much for writing this one. heart

There's something about anger expressed through an acoustic guitar that always hits and it was coming through strongly in parts against a quieter sadness.  This is a really strong protest/tribute song.

Watching from the outside my heart breaks for all the good people over there.  Take care of you and yours and may those fuckers burn in hell. 

Words to power
music to my ears
- Ebrit

excellent vocals and such a powerful guitar sound.  beautiful song heart

OMGOSH! this is so good! adding this to favorites for sure

Strong statement to keep it as a protest song.
Stay strong, stay safe, make sure their day of reckoning comes.

The song is well executed of course. It certainly captures the moment. The decent to the fascistic state we've landed in is awe inspiringly dumb and deadly. Ice was deployed in my town at a local base. It makes me sick knowing these goons are around walking among us. It's all an embarrassingly avoidable tragedy. Needless to say, FUCK ICE.

Crash Overture wrote:

One take one take gets that rawness and realness of live performance and it works so well. It makes it so real and I adore it.

Thank you so much.

BarristerPlong wrote:

This is so good, so familiar and full of such rage. I find it entirely hard to process everything that's happening. I can't even fathom being in or traveling to the US now. It's absolutely heartbreaking to witness.

Thank you. It's incomprehensible to me....particularly how so many people are OK with it. Looking at history, one often finds themselves asking, "How?!". I think I understand a little better now...I hope we can learn from those lessons in time.

MRDRCAT wrote:

Ooooof wow. Yeah the fast production and single take captured some overwhelming emotion. Overproducing would only buff down the sharp edges, and we need those to cut some people

"This machine kills fascists." Thank you heart

jwh wrote:

Yeah....

jegasus wrote:

This is super powerful. Fuck these murderous bastards. Can't wait to hear couchfucker. Stay safe. Resist, always.

Thank you. heart

Re: Couchfucker, lyrics are done. An excerpt:

Gaslight the entire world
Story spinning head of state
Polish shit until it gleams
Distract distort and obfuscate

Getting some shout-alongs for the chorus may be in order. I might request assistance in the Discord.

MaisieMarra wrote:

i am getting such mountain goats energy from this it's a lovely song and everyone deserves a home somewhere safe fuck ICE and the US president. hope i can visit again one day heart

really nice song

Wow, thank you...I've heard of Mountain Goats, never listened before. I have been rectifying that.

I hope you can visit again someday as well heart

levelcapybara wrote:

Thank you both so much for writing this one. heart

Thank you. My wife was a way of improving things I've written. heart

lament.config wrote:

There's something about anger expressed through an acoustic guitar that always hits and it was coming through strongly in parts against a quieter sadness.  This is a really strong protest/tribute song.

Watching from the outside my heart breaks for all the good people over there.  Take care of you and yours and may those fuckers burn in hell.

Thank you. You're right - there's anger here, but it's mostly an overwhelming sadness. It's a lament.

I'm still hoping for justice. Following orders is not a defense.

DESLRV wrote:

Words to power
music to my ears
- Ebrit

heart heart

Tone Matrix wrote:

excellent vocals and such a powerful guitar sound.  beautiful song heart

Thanks. I like how the song turned out. I hate that there's a reason for it to exist.

b bro wrote:

OMGOSH! this is so good! adding this to favorites for sure

Thank you heart

Dustsucker wrote:

Strong statement to keep it as a protest song.
Stay strong, stay safe, make sure their day of reckoning comes.

Thank you. It felt wrong to do anything else to it...or to sit on it for a week. Needed to get it out now.

Working for justice give hope for the future.

ENC_ wrote:

The song is well executed of course. It certainly captures the moment. The decent to the fascistic state we've landed in is awe inspiringly dumb and deadly. Ice was deployed in my town at a local base. It makes me sick knowing these goons are around walking among us. It's all an embarrassingly avoidable tragedy. Needless to say, FUCK ICE.

Stay safe, resist as you can. The fight is going to be long. heart

Really like the vibe of this, feels like a folk classic

>this song needed a raw protest vibe
100% agree. This song works really well and feels genuine. That could have been lost with extra layers

Beautiful and powerful. Raw and emotional. This is very well done.

I don't really have anything to add over what was already said above, but I need to word my support. Not only is the subject matter important, but also this track in particular is a truly successful protest song.

The song's driven by lyrics, so great job there, Mrs Paisleyfrog. But it wouldn't be a song without vocals and instrumentations and kudos to you here, Mr Paisleyfrog for the composition and delivery.

Fantastic job.

Beautiful and powerful. No real words, but I am forever in admiration of your talent and your passion. Both of you.

Stay safe friends.

gonpulvo wrote:

Really like the vibe of this, feels like a folk classic

Thank you heart I've been. thinking a lot about Woody Guthrie...saying a lot in a calm voice.

dreat wrote:

>this song needed a raw protest vibe
100% agree. This song works really well and feels genuine. That could have been lost with extra layers

Thanks...yeah, I think that was why I didn't care for it after I had started doing some cleanup work on it...it lost something vital. Even before it had words.

walternormand wrote:

Beautiful and powerful. Raw and emotional. This is very well done.

Thanks...I'm glad I was able to do this in one take. Its needed the moment.

RPLKTR wrote:

I don't really have anything to add over what was already said above, but I need to word my support. Not only is the subject matter important, but also this track in particular is a truly successful protest song.

The song's driven by lyrics, so great job there, Mrs Paisleyfrog. But it wouldn't be a song without vocals and instrumentations and kudos to you here, Mr Paisleyfrog for the composition and delivery.

Fantastic job.

Thank you so much...I love making music with her. (My wife thanks you as well...she also laughed and said, "that's Dr. Paisleyfrog!")

neon liminal wrote:

Beautiful and powerful. No real words, but I am forever in admiration of your talent and your passion. Both of you.

Stay safe friends.

heart heart heart

yeah, all that.  waving from europe, where we have similar things coming, but not yet this bad so far.  (but obviously plenty of history to look towards and try to fight better this time.)

Lighters up my friends, nice work!

😔

I liked that your voice is itself. More than listenable. In a lot of ways. Thanks for sharing it with us.

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