Attack of the killer pam-pams:
You can have it all / Yo la tengo

sorry about the title. don't get me wrong; i'm not trivializing yo la tengo. they're one of my all-time favorite bands, but as with red house painters and radiohead, i can't seem to speak about them without feeling that my words are too inadequate.

so i'll just take the simple route and say here's a peculiar song from a peculiar band. what makes you can have it all peculiar is the neurotically melodic backing vocals that could very well make the song stand on its own without any other musical instrument -- and i think yo la tengo have done it this way in some of their concerts.

this is a love song, but it's anxious, foreboding, almost threatening. the interaction between the background and the lead, coupled with the song's unequivocal lyrics, creates an image not of unbridled passion, but submissive obsession. call me a pervert, but i listen to this, and i hear a very sensual song -- not of the honeymoon-in-satin-sheets kind. think cuffs. think whips. think candle drips. abuse me, biatch! okay, you probably won't think the same way on first listen, but give it a while and you'll see what i mean...

*mom, if you're reading this, well, i hope you're not!

(words: flatfoot, HongKong; picture: Steve Wing, Florida)