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There is Not a Snake

by Nick Teehan

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1.
Racoon 04:56
If I were a racoon I would dance beside the moon on the fence by the shed in your yard all the things you discard line my stomach clog my heart but for you darling darling I would starve so many of us here tonight you left us all behind since davey crockett’s genocide we racoons only come out late at night furry hands and rotting teeth I can’t spit but I can weep from the hedge I can see you while you sleep and maybe one moonless night open window turned out light we could dance I would never tell a soul strong-armed men took my friends skinned their backs and left their ends I don’t see beauty in their stale disguise I’m the last to survive but if I’m to stay alive darling you must let me come inside this is my last time here tonight I won’t leave you behind goddamn if you’re davey crockett’s wife but he sleeps through most the night this is my last time here tonight I won’t leave you behind and davey crockett’s hats are nice but If I come home and old davey’s there and he must kill me I don’t care but if you must skin me please don’t wear my hide
2.
Say Hello 03:38
you’re feeling lonely but its no real big deal cause happiness is more than just about how you feel you stay in bed shut the blinds and lock the door you threw your bed out now you’re sleeping on the floor these feelings come and these feelings go cause life’ll never be just so sometimes it looks like the roof is caving in you stand up and the whole world starts to spin counter-clockwise you’re going back in time remember all the love you left behind these feelings come and these feelings go cause life’ll never be just so so just say hello say hello strangers love you more than your or me could ever know say hello say hello strangers love you more than you or me could ever know say hello say hello oh yeah I love you more than you could ever ever know say hello say hello you and me are apple trees in wintertime we freeze in the snow I think I know what it’s like to be you and baby if I’m right I know just what to do just get out on the street and do anything and in a while it’ll be ok you’re always bracing against the next attack you freak out and you just come running back to all the things you said were never good I know you can but do you really think you should? these feelings come and these feelings go cause life’ll never be just so
3.
On sunday first three months after june sunflower hinted frost upon its bloom and as I walked home that sharpened night I saw four seasons cut in two the snow comes fast the birds come much to slow cause each time they fly there’s further south to go and we all dig holes deep enough to hide when we’ll come out no one knows no one prepared for when the sun went lame computers froze with no one left to blame and as we burned their bodies in a warming flame the snow and ashes looked the same
4.
Mom Song 03:39
Sitting cross-legged with our birthstones in our fingers we both knew from the start that we had met before as we listened to the gods murmur loudly form within they hinted once you were my daughter we were maiden of the shield and we marched through beltaine fires noble horses of the field but this time you’re my mother and this time I’m your son so how much has changed everything’s changed I guess and our old bones are deep underground but once and a while we remember it all when we hear that familiar sound and your back doesn’t hurt and I can see your smile with my roguish eye and the wind on the leaves sounds like waves on the shore of the ocean we were born there we lived there were died there and we remember it all by that cardinals call come dance with me mother I know you remember how promise me always that we’ll be together somehow come dance with me mother I know you remember how through all of these centuries always I’ll find you somehow walking in trilliums freshly bloomed the lilac breeze entices golden maple keys to drop and spin through your flowing hair you told me there are spirits in the trees and they’ll tell you every story from the moment of your birth with their roots they’re scratching history on the center of the earth and it reads this time I’m your mother and this time I’m your son so how much has changed everything’s changed I guess and our old bones are deep underground but once and a while we remember it all when we hear that familiar sound and your back doesn’t hurt and I can see your smile with my roguish eye and the wind on the leaves sounds like waves on the shore of the ocean we were born there we lived there were died there and we remember it all by that scarlet bird's call come dance with me mother I know you remember how promise me always that we’ll be together somehow come dance with me mother I know you remember how through all of these centuries always I’ll find you somehow
5.
There is Not a Snake there’s a lonely cabin on a lonely hill where my problems wait patiently until until I can deal until I’m off these pills no one waits for me on the hill I’ve been waiting so long so long for the devil’s worship song there is not a cloven hoof there is not a snake that makes any of my mistakes take my tired hands take me tired feet just don’t take my money while I sleep I’ve been thinking hard at what to old man said listen to the voices in your head I’ve been waiting so long so long for the devil’s worship song there is not a cloven hoof there is not a snake that makes any of my mistakes
6.
well there’s a name on my arm etched in ink for all to see she is Isobella Morris and she once was sworn to me but that was so long ago that for now I can’t be sure if I come home will she be there like those hundred times before and how can I get there from this the ocean floor? she was the fairest lady that I had ever seen when I first drowned I swore we’d meet again on pastures rolling green but when I go to the hilltop all the salt beneath my feet burned the grass crushed the mountains there was no one there but me before I knew the ground sank back into the sea Isobella Morris dear don’t you ever go off-shore if I ever find you here I will drag you to the floor oh how I hope that you still walk along the beach on brighter days I send you gifts each time the tide rolls in some pitiful some great but Isobella all your weepin is what keeps your love from me all your tears sank the ocean send me farther out to sea I’ve lost all hope of pastures rolling green
7.
False Love 04:02
False Love Well I met my false love in an old department store she wore a portuguese gown a statue on the sales floor I bought her from the shopkeep took her home to my apartment put my grandmothers ring on her plastic finger and whispered in the darkness say you love me just once darling you know it’s true I’ll change your clothes every season the things I’ll do for you I’ll buy all fluorescent lights cause I know you like them best say it once it’s alright say you love me just once say you love me just once and I’ve never been so scared as when that army of old mannequins with pale skin and body parts and dead eyes made from middle eastern oil they stood you in a window case an armless plastic venus perfect porcelain removed from love and all of my diseases now I’m digging a hole to hell or china I need a new grandmothers ring where else could I find such a thing? and I dug down so deep no sun will shine here only way out is down till then I’ll disappear digging a hole digging a hole one day I’ll be free free from the hole by the boneyard tree
8.
Disneyland 04:55
Disneyland when walt disney froze his brain to save the future was it just to leave his awful past behind? so in his grave an empty shell he’d feel much purer no need to work so hard with so much less to hide I love jesus but I’ve only seen his movies I love satan every time I close my eyes all these years he’s been at sea out peddling rubies for the kings who use the stones to sell their lies at the mansion there’s a shadow from the future falling faster than the pundits ever thought and while yeah we could have change with blood thats newer there’s a virus fed from centuries of rot so take your ipods from your assholes and your bluetoothes from your ear come down from your ivory castles where the foods all disappeared watch the starving crumbling lepers covet the water from your spit cause we’ve pumped this world so hard its gushing oil from every slit we’re all doomed the worlds a tomb where the doves choke on the new popes icy plume we’re all doomed the worlds a tomb mummifying children fresh out of the womb and while music videos are annexing your bedroom walls the only place to get some quiet are disabled bathroom stalls move your couch in move your dresser keep your feet warm by the dryer we can all hole up in here until the empires final spire tumbles down in a sparkling mound so falls the crown spewing jewellery all around tumbles down in such a mound and watch the fools collecting treasure from the ground and while thunder dome may happen soon old tina turner will be dead and in place of smoke and leather there’ll be skeletons instead and while the chimps collect our bones to build the second comings shrine all the sky will open up with rain that burns your eyes like brine
9.
there was a glow in the sky when I looked up on that broken church on old westmoreland avenue all the windows were cracked and I caught a whiff of incense and did something I thought I’d never do now this is where I go for questions and answers though I never once knocked on that padlocked door but that broken window tempts me in ways that stained glass and guilt and shame had never tempted me before I run a route past all the empty buildings that I love wondering dreaming what it was and what if anything it’ll be for a town they call so dense there’s a thousand empty spaces that I’d gladly move into if I could only stay for free the city stripped away all their symbols now it’s just stone and brick to the sky I never cared to much about angels but they haunt me every time that I pass by they haunt me every time that I pass by there’s a mural out my window showing chubby children of all colours with instruments they’re trying to learn my song but right behind it there’s an icon emblazoned in orange floodlights the stars are black they’re playing it all wrong I’ve never been so scared of a graveyard but it’s this whole town we’re living in I’m in the palm of dying churches their boney fingers scratching at my window-frame of tin their boney fingers scratching at my window-frame of tin and the subway station bustles with figures darkened by their high lapels like soldiers with no shelter from the rain and their eyes are on the floor when once man jumps they all shrug change direction mutter suicide I’m late again another funeral procession marches above the subway line a boy asks his mother what happened she says dress in black I promise you’ll be fine just always dress in black and you’ll be fine there’s plague that spreads like shopping malls the minstrels lost their instruments they beg put never look you in the face and when they do you feel unlucky cause no matter how you empathize you know that they can never take your place and the garbage overflows you can smell it every summer in the winter you’re inhaling sewer gas and at the bar each time you go there’s a different ancient crackhead shaking hands and coughing shards of broken glass he’s shaking hands and coughing shards of broken glass so thank god we’re all so bohemian with our dwellings cracked and cold and spare I only use the finest of shampoos but that stockyard smell won’t wash out of my hair thank go we’re all so bohemian with out dwellings cracked and cold and spare I only use the finest of shampoos but that stockyard smell won’t wash out of my hair I can’t wash this godless town from my brown hair
10.
In the Morning... so softly my love my love awakes she mumbles sweetly could you fix me some eggs step lightly the floor is old it creaks trip to the kitchen sit down fall back asleep my love wakes me up with a cup of tea look in the fridge and there’s nothing left to eat I won’t be held accountable for things that I said I would do I just woke up I’m still dreamin of you in the morning... get dressed in the clothes from yesterday trip to the store and buy half a dozen eggs walking back a dachshund growls at me i startle easy the eggs falls in the street go back to the store to buy more but my bank card is empty go home to explain but my love’s gone back asleep I won’t be held accountable for things that I said I would do I just woke up I’m still dreamin of you in the morning...

credits

released April 20, 2012

Nick Teehan - lead vocals, keyboards (2,3,5,7)
Rob Teehan - sousaphone, arrangements (4,9)
Philip Miles - guitar (except 4,9,10)
Neil MacIntosh - drums (except 4,9,10)
Kelsey McNulty - accordian (1,2,6,8,10), piano (6,9)
background vocals (2)
Nicolas Buligan - trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, stankophone (1,2,5,6,7)
Patric McGroarty - cornet, flugelhorn, stankophone (1,2,3,5,7)
John Williams - clarinet (1,2,8)

Tanya Charles - 1st violin
Jessica Deutsch - 2nd violin
Aleksa Toskov - viola
Alex McMaster - cello

Greg Samek - marimba (4)

The Say Hello Singers
Megan Thomas, Edward Haberer, Joe Ernewein, Laura Bates, Chloe Spears, Anna Diemert

All songs written by Nick Teehan
Produced by Joe Ernewein
Engineered by Greg Dawson at BWC Studios
Mixed by John JK Kanakis
Mastered at the ‘E’ Room by Peter J Moore

all music and lyrics Nicholas Teehan
copyright 2012 (SOCAN)

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Nick Teehan Toronto, Ontario

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