We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Cigarette Girl

from St. Annie by Nick Nihil

/

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    I'm pressing a limited run of discs and full color booklets with complete lyrics and additional photography.

    Includes unlimited streaming of St. Annie via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

lyrics

All the talent
All the brains
A back full of aches
And pains

Your eyes will blaze
And your head will twirl
Still, he’ll be nothing more
Than a cigarette girl

Toe the division
Dance on a fencepost
The song fades
With the evening breeze

Call like a crow
And hide behind the trees
And lure the mind
Of the cigarette girl

Out at first
A dream deferred
Fractures crash
And scatter like rain

It’s all the same
In gutters and in fame
The princess
Or the cigarette girl

Sweeping Central Park
Asleep in a bookshelf
Til she rang
The cigarette girl

A Spanish balcony
A blackened summer pool
Two notes are the space
Between everything

Scam the last bit of
Lucky we can find
Tuxedo tails, smoking jackets
Loaded dice

She followed me
The cigarette girl
Prayed above my shoulder
And never knew the price

We had the life of a matchstick
In a burning bush
Inhaling our breakfast
Saying grace with a cough

Play from the rafters
Rattle the floorboards
Toss the nickel
Into the empty trough

The blood drained from our heads
The band had gone
My axe in a coffin
A forgotten song

Stumbling late
Onto cold and empty beds
Look right through
My pale and naked cigarette girl

Stand me up with scissors
And stain me by the sink
Don’t ask me if I care
Or think of what I think

The lantern’s dying
And the flies are in a panic
Sing to me, whispered
The cigarette girl

Tango down on Pike
And disappear into the lights
Smelling my fingers
And flashing my knife

The dress was perfect
Now buried in a bin
it hangs like age
And your arms are too thin

Plexiglass at the Kent
A Bowler checks us in
Hang low from the bars
Of a rusted iron vent

Years inside of minutes
Talk an endless drone
Lips bloom like flowers
But smell of fish and of bone

And from the boxcar
My bags were thrown
I jumped and the gravel
Stayed around to catch me

I know your moan
From every corner of this world
And my shadow, my shame
My cigarette girl

Back at the game
Washed up, bleached,
and shamed
All I want is just
One more cigarette

credits

from St. Annie, released August 21, 2012
Nick Nihil-Guitar, Vocals
Chris Icasiano-Drums
Tim Mendonsa-Bass
Neil Welch-Saxophone

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Nick Nihil image

Nick Nihil Seattle, Washington

Guitarist, composer, improviser

contact / help

Contact Nick Nihil

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

Nick Nihil recommends:

If you like Nick Nihil, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier chats about his new LP and the influence of Pharoah Sanders.
listen now