Boys will be boys may have been last week’s theme, but a lot of this episode nevertheless consists of two guys taking football really seriously. When not trying to get inside of Wayne Rooney’s freckledy head, myself and Jack ask how clichés happen, why we’re so scared of them, and whether there’s a tipping point MDMAwise, whereafter you just end up finding gauche and hackneyed stuff meaningful forever.
Jack mounts a sort of defence of cliché, arguing – via a raft of ‘dance’ music more likely to inspire chin stroking than rug cutting – that clichéphobia begets overcomplication, elitism and self-consciousness. Not for him friday nights spent sulkily skanking to belatedly trendy London bass musics rather than – y’know – having fun. Maybe sport – an arena where self-consciousness can be fatally counterintuitive, where communality is central and where cliché is king – can offer an alternative, teaching us (pace Luomo) to feel our bodies speaking?
Our list of tracks which either embrace cliché or go to great lengths to avoid it is on the right. Sleater Kinney tie themselves in knots arguing their 70s-y rock transcends pastiche, Zomby’s Tears in Rain incorporates every rave trope from air horns to portentous sci-fi samples and Francoise Hardy appeals – in becomingly faltering English – to be taught what clichés really mean.
Spotify Playlist [link to spotify]
- Ivor Cutler – I Love You, Solo on Mbira (Bikembe) in 5:3 Time
- Francoise Hardy – Find Me a Boy
- Luomo – Body Speaking
- Sleater Kinney – Entertain
- Girl Talk – Don’t Stop
- Squarepusher – Do You Know Squarepusher?
- Lil’ Wayne -Kobe Bryant
