1. |
Patriot
01:04
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We had one job, elect some candidates into he offices
Well, I guess it's true we didn't get a whole lot in the way of choices
But don't pretend you flipped a coin, you did decide that it was you or me
And the people that I love, scrape their bodies off into the sea
This burning house is still my home, I guess there's hotter places to be "free"
But if you're at war with your neighbors, then you're not a patriot
Well I repeat, you fight for your rights to kill but you do not care what happens to me
You only care about the embryonic or illiterate locally
And talk a good game on Sunday, and they pat you on the back for a fee
Star spangled banner in the backyard, but a different flag above the t.v.
Some brittle links in the chain, you got dissenters in the family
'Cause if you're a bad neighbor then you're not a patriot
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2. |
Down
02:06
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Well give me the drugs...
To cure my age
Give me your love…
To fill this page
Tell me what you want from me
I’ll erase it
What toxic numbing elixir do you bleed?
I’ll drink it down
Well, give me some sugar…
I’ll take my medicine
Give me your claws…
I’ll bear my teeth again
Tell me the laws…
The definition of sin
Knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden
The juiciest pomegranate
Branded “Heaven”, won’t you promise me heaven?
I’ll taste it
But don’t you water it down, your snake is content to drown
In debasement
Rewards silver, gold, and bronze in the Olympian dawns
Pressure crushing hours to diamonds
Age giving birth to new age, witchcraft, thyme, parsley, and sage
A passion burning our forest down
And I feel fine
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3. |
Eviction Notice
03:11
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You’re a monstrous man
I know my teacher like I know my left hand
Up right and down, we traveled all over town
But couldn’t find no place to land
And I’m still hungry ‘cause I’m new
Starving for anything, but what’s it to you?
You’re a dragon sittin’ on what would be my things
Maybe I sound a little drunk
That’s just the song of some depressed couch punk
Rentin’ space nobody else takes up
Sorry to use up all your air
In your America that went somewhere
Just longing for the days we were not visible and
It looked like you bet on the bigger dog
And there’s a lot of us
More than you thought there was
And now you’re eyeing us like we just might jump you
Well more or less honorous, we
Spit, curse, and fuck and cuss
Fighting for a new day without you much on our minds at all
You know that’s more or less a lie
Wishful thinking, maybe
Just to sleep at night
Wherever one may chance to lie my little head
And no, I know I’m not dead
Like I said I’d be
Well, the space some take up in my head
Evicts better parts of me
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4. |
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One day the fuckers took the flag
And then it meant something else
We had some skills and some plans
They had some different plans
Now All we have is anger
All we have is anger now
All we have is anger
All we have is anger now
We were proud, did we have pride?
We didn’t dig this pit of shame, we didn’t
Not proud enough to keep it up
Or through with us, we simply through with it
Now All we have is anger
All we have is anger now
All that’s left is anger
All that’s left is anger now
The fuckers took away the living wage
Blew up what would inflate too
Well, look who’s got the marbles now
That no one wants to play with you
Now All we have is anger
All we have is anger now
Now All we have is anger
Yeah, all we have is anger now
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5. |
Look Who Lost the Faith
01:30
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A generation down a well
Which well’s a little hard to say
The mayor says he’s giving up
And truth be told, we never gave a fuck
We’d really like to find you now
We’d really love to find but look who lost the faith
We’d really like to help you now
We’d really like to find but look who lost the faith
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6. |
Nobody's Plan
02:10
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Well yeah I had a bad day, I don’t wanna talk about it
If you convince me that I’ve been wronged, then I’m complicit in the violence
And I am juggling enough realities without the weight of this one
Right and wrong fuck off, because I gotta feed the baby
And I take comfort in the chaos, knowing none of this was anybody’s plan
My friend Tommen fought a war and most things, he don’t remember
But some things you don’t forget, he thinks about some more than others
Like a sixteen year old kid holding his guts in while the mortars
Sure do make an awful din, an anthem celebrating borders
Tommen curses God in jest, bemoaning that this was all “somebody’s plan”
Tommen says it must be comforting to blame God or the devil
But he’s seen evil up close and he says, “Make no bones about it
It’s pride, cruelty, and greed that keeps exclusion profits growing
Populating dehumanization camps with villains of the week
Serialized twenty-four hours on all our favorite scary horror shows”
He holds the cross his wife once wore and tells her that he’s sorry
That he didn’t kiss her more and wasn’t better than his father
And I take solace in the notion that all this means something to him
Even thinking that there’s nothing for him not the other side
Tommen falls asleep and looks at peace, watching those horror shows
And I can’t help but thinking it’s alright if none of this was anybody’s plan
And I sleep well ‘bout every other night ‘cause I’m alright and I have made some plans
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7. |
A Baptism
03:26
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Sundays I never felt like singing “hallelujah”
It means so little when the blood of Christ don’t seem to run red through ya
But if the winkin’ angel down the pew doubts too, well honey, how would you know?
But how sweet it is to be baptized in a light of your own
OG country and western songs nourished me from the start
Old Jim said the rest was just noise, but I figured some of it was art
Looted the ruins of gospel too when I was lost there in the dark
Now how holy it is to be baptized in a light of my own
Father Jude frowned hard when I suggested God was bitter in the days of old
How do you read the character of the creator in the testament as anything but cold?
And then I realized he’d dedicated his life to a god that lived in just his eye
And how warm it is to be baptized in a light of one’s own
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8. |
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Never thought I'd live so well
Cowering in a tiny shell
With a front row seat in hell
Writhing from the pain
Every piece of me, inert
Making me an introvert
Why must waiting have to hurt?
Spiral down the drain
Sun up, sun down
Open eyes, see no hope
Breathe in, breathe out
Same old air, not a change
When will something start?
Used to have a stratagem
Now I have no plans to hem
Zombies have more life in them
I just need a save
Feel the light in blinding haze
When your head has spun for days
And your courage dumbly strays
How can I be brave?
Lights on, lights off
Days go by without pause
Sit up, lie down
Nothing thrills, seconds freeze
When will the pain leave?
I touch, senseless
I think, empty
I scream, silence
I cry
And cry
And cry and cry and cry
Not a stirring from within
Like a living mannequin
How can you say that I win
Like I'm better men?
I guess I'll just have to wait
Stewing in my poison hate
Close my eyes and lock the gate
Asking myself, 'when?'
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9. |
The Hellfire
02:34
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Tell me the truth, what's keeping you honest if your only motivator is the other shoe
What's the point of making up a bunch of rules if you need a divine guard to stop you
Some sins are sins to some but not all and who are you to make the call
Then there's just hurtin' people hurting people
When they wanna, do you wanna, what's to stop you? Do I wanna? Well, no
If the only reason to be good's the hellfire
How do you learn to love another
Don't fear make you a liar
What kind of father loves with threats and asks you to be a martyr
Cult thought's religion these days, how's any of this a self starter
Well can I get an amen
Amen, hallelujah, amen
If your man tells you it's simple when it's complicated
That's a lie so obvious it'd drive the honest insane
If y'all really need your own reality to wash the harsh of life down, I suppose I do have pity
But if you let the pulpit demonize your children, tell you get your voice and name into the ring on just one thing
Then anybody claims to be the messiah of your party cooks every meal
For the next few hundred weeks
If the only reason to be good's the hellfire
How do you learn to love another
Don't fear make you a liar
What kind of father loves with threats and asks you to be a martyr
Cult thought's religion these days, how's any of this a self starter
Yeah, well can I get an amen
Amen, hallelujah well, amen…
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10. |
Post Credits Scene
03:08
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A connoisseur of silence, I lived in the city and the country and the noise is about the same
Gunshots, barking dogs, and industrial machines building or reaping just about anywhere you go
Sirens blur to white noise if you stay stationary long enough o lose all sound in the pouring rain
Given the right night, hooting wildlife paired with sound of crickets in mass can be deafening
I kinda like it when it’s all messed up and the thought of control is just not a thing
The processes of adaptation when you’re forced out into the world can be a painful therapy
Like when the shy get on stage and sing from the heart of agoraphobic tendencies
Or when someone with a fear of drowning gets up the nerve to sign up for scuba diving
It is with this in mind I live in a country full of bullies like those in my infancy
Inocculating myself to the sheer ass-holery of narcissists who pretend that they can’t see
An invented divide between the born in languish culture and the silver spooned born into such luxury
Denying every advantage of the fortunate ones who dare to claim money can’t solve anything
While spending more than some small countries on a propaganda war with the suffering
Brainwashing those inclined to brainwashing control from the sociable reinforcement of a philosophy
Built on the comfort of a dream evolved from an acute awareness of the end of things
While I can get my head around it, I still have to live with others who insist it’s a post credits scene
I don’t mean to judge harsh the understanding of a species in transition to bigger things
Than an extinction level event some seem content to egg on like it’s a game of chicken
If there’s a way to capitalize on the ignorance of the easily swayed, they’ll do it
So unavoidable, the fading of the generations supporting it will one day undo it
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Phil Forsyth St. Petersburg, Florida
Phil Forsyth is a seasoned punk rocker and songsmith living in Saint Petersburg, Florida with his wife, a tortoise, three very odd cats, and a few who hang around.
Phil Forsyth recommends:
My friend and sometimes collaborator, an important man who carries a lot of weight in some parts ;) And one of the finest performers I know. The band's not bad either.
go to album
Joke on the Sky Ep
by Matthew Shelton
Another friend and collaborator who cannot be matched. Matthew recently acted and contributed score with Nora Barton on a film I wrote and directed called The House of Stevens. houseofstevens.com
go to album
What's His Face [single version and radio version]
by Bad Teeth
The first single from my new band Bad Teeth [I play guitar and yell some] Post-punk hip-hop if you can picture that. Played tonight 2.22.23 on The Hour of Power on Radio St.Pete 96.7fm
go to albumIf you like Phil Forsyth, you may also like:
Six Million Miles From Nowhere
by Spaceman
As Spaceman, Stephen Munson of UK cult band Living In Texas makes lo-fi pop that shuffles and stomps.
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Better Lives
by Feral Conservatives
Feral Conservatives specialize in elegantly ornamented guitar pop, centered around Rashie Rosenfarb’s emotive vocals.
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Roaring guitar pop big on blistering riffs and candy-coated vocal melodies.
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