The band was was formed in Seattle and named after The Smiths song of the same name (which itself was named after a quote from Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums). Andrea Zollo and Derek Fudesco had played together previously in The Hookers, as well as The Death Wish Kids and Area 51 along with Dann Gallucci, with whom Derek had formed The Murder City Devils. Not long before the The Murder City Devils disbanded, Derek and Andrea formed Pretty Girls Make Graves along with Jay Clark, Nick Dewitt and Nathan Thelen. They played the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2004.
Pitchfork Media announced that the band was breaking up on 29 January 2007. Their final two shows were 9 June 2007, in Seattle.
The band released their first EP on Dim Mak before releasing their debut album Good Health on Lookout Records in April 2002. The band would later sign to Matador records where they released The New Romance. Guitarist Nathan Thelen left Pretty Girls Make Graves in March of 2004 and Leona Marrs (formerly of Hint Hint) joined as a multi-instrumentalist. On January 29, 2007 the band announced that Nick had left the band and their May 2007 tour would be their last.
A Certain Cemetery
Pretty Girls Make Graves Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Have all flown away?
There's an ache through my body
That just won't go away
Here's a picture that we took last fall
See there you haven't aged at all
But you, have a smile I haven't seen around
And I know it seems like nothing changes
Days go by and we just age
Well, killing time can feel so right
In your bedroom without the lights
Let's get old together
Make promises and lie but never
Let this city get the best of us
Grow apart from the things we love
Make a wish with a coin in a fountain
They pound the floor when they say we're
Making too much noise in the apartment below
We've got no morning jobs to go to
Late night dreams and a whole lot of wishing
All the secrets that we're not telling
Cities sometimes just blend together and it feels we've
Been away forever
We should really only have one care
To get back to the room that we both share
So whisper and tell me where I went wrong
Tell me why everything around you lost its shine
Why nothing glows
Tell me why you're waiting, or what you're waiting for
Never seen when opportunity is at your door
Let's get out of this mess
No one will even know we left
No use on dwelling on the thing you'll soon forget
When this is over, it's alright
The lyrics to Pretty Girls Make Graves’ “A Certain Cemetery” touch upon a few themes that are common in the human condition: loneliness, time and the passage of it, and growing older. The song starts with a feeling of loss, as if something valuable has been taken away with the absence of angels. The next few verses paint a picture of nostalgia, with the singer reminiscing about the past, and wanting to stay young and together. However, as time ticks on, the world and people change, and nothing stays the same. There is a sense of hopelessness embedded in the lyrics, as if the singer knows that no matter how bright the future looked at one point, things inevitably change and move on.
The listener can relate easily to the overall loneliness and disconnection the singer experiences, perhaps as a result of their own experiences. The lyrics are sometimes hopeful, sometimes bleak, but they always feel honest and raw. They’re written in a way that feels like someone opening up to you, sharing their thoughts, fears and doubts.
Line by Line Meaning
What do you do when your angels
Have all flown away?
What do you do when you feel like everything good in your life has disappeared?
There's an ache through my body
That just won't go away
I feel a constant pain and sadness in my body.
Here's a picture that we took last fall
See there you haven't aged at all
But you, have a smile I haven't seen around
Lately you're as dark as this town
Looking at this old photo, I see that you haven't changed much, but you don't look happy anymore. You seem to have taken on the darkness of this town.
And I know it seems like nothing changes
Days go by and we just age
It feels like nothing ever improves or gets better. We just keep getting older and time keeps passing by.
Well, killing time can feel so right
In your bedroom without the lights
Sometimes it feels good to just waste time and be alone in your dark bedroom.
Let's get old together
Make promises and lie but never
Let this city get the best of us
Grow apart from the things we love
We should stick together and grow old, even if that means making empty promises and lying to each other. We can't let this city and its negative influence make us forget about the things we truly love.
Make a wish with a coin in a fountain
They pound the floor when they say we're
Making too much noise in the apartment below
We've got no morning jobs to go to
We can be carefree and youthful by making wishes in a fountain and not worrying about being too loud in our apartments, since we don't have any jobs to rush off to in the morning.
Late night dreams and a whole lot of wishing
All the secrets that we're not telling
Cities sometimes just blend together and it feels we've
Been away forever
We spend our nights dreaming and wishing for things, holding onto secrets that we don't share with each other. Sometimes cities can feel indistinguishable from one another and it feels like we've been away from home for a long time.
We should really only have one care
To get back to the room that we both share
Our only priority should be to get back to our shared room.
So whisper and tell me where I went wrong
Tell me why everything around you lost its shine
Why nothing glows
Tell me why you're waiting, or what you're waiting for
Never seen when opportunity is at your door
Please confide in me and tell me what I did to make everything lose its sparkle. Why aren't you taking advantage of the opportunities that present themselves?
Let's get out of this mess
No one will even know we left
No use on dwelling on the thing you'll soon forget
Let's leave this behind and start fresh. Nobody will even notice that we're gone. There's no point in dwelling on things that we'll soon forget.
When this is over, it's alright
Everything will be okay once this is all over.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: JASON CLARK, NICHOLAS DEWITT, DEREK FUDESCO, NATHAN JOHNSON, ANDREA ZOLLO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind