Smog Lyrics Part I

I'm not sure how much of a market there is for this, but I'm going to do a series attempting to interpret Smog lyrics. He writes some weird but evocative phrases.
Here's the first installment:

'Cold Discovery' from the album Dongs of Sevotion.

And though your teeth have gnashed through death
Still you come to me so gently
And find a soft place on your body
And rub me with it

Of this I won't soon forget
You're the one that will remain
You're the one that will remain

Bust a lock with a rock
Don't need a key to have me
This was your cold discovery

We needed a fever then we needed a cure
The bait no longer lured
Say goodbye quick as you can
A car waits for me just across the border

Wish me luck no good luck no bad luck
Just wish me luck in my cold discovery
That you are gone
My cold discovery
That you're the one
That will remain

Oh I can hold a woman
Down on a hardwood floor
Oh I can hold a woman
Down on a hardwood floor
And her teeth can gnash right through me
Looking for a soft place
And of this you won't soon forget
I had no soft place for you to rest
And this was your cold discovery

I can hold a woman
Down on a hardwood floor
I can hold a woman
Down on a hardwood floor
And this was my cold discovery

Few saw it for what it really was

I think this song is about someone coming to terms with the fact that they are emotionally hardened and incapable of a loving relationship. It hints that the relationship may have been an abusive one. There is a contrast between soft and hard; the woman is associated with both softness and hardness ("And though your teeth have gnashed through death/Still you come to me so gently/And find a soft place on your body/And rub me with it") while the man is characterised as hardness alone ("bust a lock with a rock", "hardwood floor", "I had no soft place for you to rest"). The song's view of a functional relationship seems to be that both members need to compliment each other's hardness with the softness that they also possess. If a member of this relationship has only hardness then they cannot compliment the other person.

The woman's "cold discovery" is realising that her lover is emotionally incompatible with her, and does not have the compassion to soften the hardened parts of her personality. The man's "cold discovery" is the realisation that he is like this. He discovers that he is to blame for the failure of the relationship, that although the woman's "teeth can gnash right through him", she still has a softer side. His cold discovery is that cannot say this about himself, which is why the woman is the one that will remain, while he must leave ("a car waits for me just across the border").

The line "I can hold a woman down on a hardwood floor" implies that the man has abused the strength he has over the woman. I don't think it's referring to rape; I get the impression it's about an argument gone too far, that the man is realising how violent he is capable of being. This is the point where they both make a "cold discovery", and the relationship collapses. The man is now in a situation where he must confront the truth about himself. He wants some sort of closure to the relationship but knows he cannot ask for much, after what he has done ("Wish me luck no good luck no bad luck/Just wish me luck in my cold discovery").

The last line is the man's confession of why the relationship ended. That few saw it for what it really was but he admits the blame must rest solely on his hardened shoulders. It's a confronting song.