We recently featured Chris Kinkade when he crafted a celestial harp meditation with his sublime and conscious single, She’s in League with Angels, and we previously featured Parked Outside for taking us on a cerebral trip to open neural pathways on Whispers of 1000 Dreams Ago, so when we found out that Chris was back, this time with another Parked Outside release, we couldn’t wait to listen and share our experience.
Sex Cliche’ opens with a bold and industrial guitar soundscape with padded drums, psychedelic textures and an ad-lib of “here we go…”. The track expands with the assertive lyrics, “Hey, I’m no ordinary guy baby…” and evolves into a conversation with a Virgo(!), unfurling as a satirical rock commentary about awkward, overused pickup lines and exaggerated confidence.
Naturally, instead of glorifying this behaviour, the song pokes fun at it. It takes on the perspective of a clueless protagonist whose small talk and pseudo-arrogant posturing become the source of the comedic value. We could imagine this being featured in an Austin Powers movie, in fact, the music video already manifests these vibes. It would also be a great fit for 90s movies like Jawbreaker and Heathers. What is amazing is that we get to witness Chris Kinkade‘s versatility as an artist, from conscious harp performances to this level of unserious subversion.
Chris says, “This song is a satirical look at the timeless and never-ending foibles of trying to pick up girls. The protagonist in this case is the singer who is showing the unaware and unevolved excesses of “cliche’s” of trying to “hit on” a young lady at a bar. The attempts at “small talk” and the pseudo-arrogant posturings of the clueless protagonist make for fun musical fodder with the underlying message of not trying to take any of this too seriously.”
For some background, Parked Outside is a four-piece recording project formed by musicians who met through Houston’s music scene. The band consists of Slayden Clarkson, who developed the song’s concept, Chris Kinkade, who contributed lyrics and lead vocals, Brett Busch, whose epic and trippy guitar style and next-level solos give the track hella character, and Mike Brown, whose epic drumming completes the sound. Together they fuse influences including The Tubes, The New York Dolls, and The Cars, which also explains the Studio 54 style visuals.
We learn that the band produced the video, drawing on Kinkade’s background as a former head VJ at the 1980s music video network Hit Video USA, which helped shape the retro visual style that accompanies the single. Needless to say, we continue to be in awe of what Parked Outside create, and have added Sex Cliche’ to our New Music Spotlight playlist, and our TIMELESS and TRIPPY playlists, whilst we continue to stream Whispers of 1000 Dreams Ago.