TISM

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Template:Infobox band TISM (an acronym of This Is Serious Mum) are an anonymous seven piece alternative rock band from Melbourne, Australia. They formed in 1982 and first became noticed with the release of their single "Defecate On My Face" but due to lyrical content the song could not be played on several radio stations at the time. Wider recognition came with their more radio-friendly hit "Forty Years - Then Death". The two singles would indicate the humour and irreverance which has stayed with the band throughout their career: "Defecate" was released in an album sized cover, sealed on all four sides and "Forty Years" released with no label, no artwork and no identification, in a clear plastic cover.

TISM have always attracted critisism throughout their career, mainly because they refuse to take the music industry seriously. Their songs often focus on trivial or mundane observations of suburban life, such as trying to listen to a football game on the radio, going to bed when it's bedtime or trying to do a right hand turn. Though a closer observation of their lyrics often reveals witty, dry humour and a high level of intellectual research. Often a remark at the end of a line in a song will be a clever dissection of a poem or play and it can be said that the age bracket TISM's music targets is deliberately chosen to educate the listener, perhaps inspire the listener to learn more.

Their music is always described by the band as rock, but with their heavy influence on electronic sampling (including the use of an Optigan) has lead to more dance style tracks in recent years, though the rock element is still highly present.

After their first show, the 'Get Fucked' concert at the Duncan McKinnon Athletics Reserve in Murrumbeena, December 6, 1983 TISM split up. Every gig since has been a reunion concert.

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Members, Past and Present

The band has been known to create alter-egos, often with the same sense of humour used in their songs. Member lists have included Ron Hitler-Barassi (a reference to Australian Rules great Ron Barassi), Humphrey B. Flaubert (a play on popular Australian children's TV host Humphrey B Bear), Jon St. Peenis, Jock Cheese, Tokin' Blackman, Les Miserables, Leek Vlan Vlalen and John Coitus. The mysterious eighth member of TISM, known only as Genre B. Goode (described as Syd Barrett in reverse) was dropped from the band after "increasing bouts of sanity" early in the bands career, and was later honoured by TISM naming their record label after him (Genre makes a brief appearance in TISM: A Docunentary). The band is also famous for asking Paul Keating, Philip Roth and Eddie Van Halen to join the band as lead tambourine player, as well as Peter Reith to take up the triangle. Image:TISMrage.jpg

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Current Line-up

  • Ron Hitler-Barassi: Vocals
  • Humphrey B. Flaubert: Vocals
  • Tokin' Blackman: Guitar
  • Jock Cheese: Bass
  • Eugene de la Hot-Croix Bun: Keyboards, samples and occasional vocals
  • Jon St. Peenis: Saxaphone, occasional vocals and dancing
  • Les Miserables: Dancing
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Style

One of the things which seperates TISM from other 'joke bands' or 'parody bands' is their musical style. When compared to other comedy bands, TISM's music is actually rather 'mature' in that, while the lyrics are often silly, trivial or absurd, the music is always serious and doesn't attempt to be immediately funny. This may be a factor in the band's longevity, the fact that the songs are possible to listen to as individual tracks, the band can be taken seriously as musicians and therefore not cast off completely as a one-joke band.

While TISM have tried to stick to their own style as much as they could, they have strayed close to other genre's in the past. One of the main reasons the band is dissatisfied with Hot Dogma (1990) is the music is largely typical of 80's style music and not, what the band consider, "true" to their own form. The only time the band has ever done a strict genre song is the Country and Western recording of Defecate On My Face.

TISM have rarely stated in any seriousness actual influences on the type of music they play except that The Residents were a band which TISM did notice and possibly took some influence from. Though a clear link can be drawn from The Resident's "Third Reich And Roll" video, in which the band wore Ku Klux Klan uniforms made of newspaper. TISM did exactly this at their first gig. Another link may be drawn to early TISM tracks "The Ballad Of The Semitic Nazi" or "I'm Gonna Treat Ya To A Neitschze Double Feature" which use a similar naming style. Though other bands which may have influenced TISM actual musical style are difficult to pinpoint.

Sometimes the band attracts critsism because of their music which is said to be bland and unoriginal due to its simplicity and its standard pop song structure. One reason for this is clarified in their book "The TISM Guide To Little Aesthetics" in the following paragraphs, when asked why their ideas are post-modern but their music is not:

"Give me a pop-song, mate. Give me a fucking pop-song. Not only is it more fun, it's pretty fuckin' hard to write as well. You can bung in as many out-of-tune oboes as you want, but putting chords together so they sound pleasant isn't as simple as it might appear. It mightn't be the Sistine Chapel, but what is? Ollie fucking Olsen with his stupid feedback and cough mixture? The Jesus and Mary Chain, with their stupid feedback, and their stupid stage show with 800 powerful stupid lights and enough stupid dry ice to enhance their stupid stupidity up its own bullshit crappy teenage pretentious one dimensional dick witted puissant artistic enigma?
So you tell me, Jon, what have you listened to for a good time that isn't, after all, a 'traditional' song? Still playing the Mike Oldfield records, huh? Still whipping Yessongs on for a good time? Wanna count on one hand how many people have fun at a Sonic Youth gig? I'm not supporting The Choirboys, old man, I'm just saying that the day some jumped up over-paid self-important post-modernist cocksucker puts his foot upon his Fairlight computer in the middle of his 47 minute opus The Silent Forgiveness Of The Pig-God and belts out the chords to Johnny B. Goode is the day I'll join you at the footlights of post-modernism.
Besides which, pop songs sell more."

So the reason TISM's music is simple is clear, the music they make is not challenging to listen to but, they claim, is challenging to write, and that's what makes them better musicians. Though the irony is that the reasons they give for being better are the same reasons used by critics to deride the band. This has been the source of friction between the band and critics for quite a while and will most likely continue to be so for as long as TISM continue.

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The Masks

Ever since TISM formed, they have used a variety of methods to keep themselves hidden. Their names have never been revealed, choosing to use pseudonym's on their records and in interviews and always keeping their faces hidden. Usually this involves the wearing of a balaclava but ridiculous costumes have been created in order to hide their faces. Some of them have been: Ku Klux Klan uniforms made of newspaper, silver suits with puffy arms and legs, giant foam paintings on their heads, large foam signs with the name of a Beatle on them, fat buisness men suits or eight foot high inflatable headpieces.

Who TISM are under the masks has been the cause of much speculation on behalf of fans, with theories ranging from TISM being members of other bands who don't want their fans to find out (popular targets of this theory are Painters and Dockers, Machine Gun Fellatio or, rather outlandishly, The Wiggles). Another popular theory based on their tour schedule seemingly coinciding with school holidays, is that TISM are school teachers and don't want their students to find out, with one of the members possibly teaching at the elite Melbourne Grammar School. Another common theory based on the high level of football references in their lyrics is that they are famous AFL players, though Humphrey B. Flaubert famously stated "We're not AFL, we're actually more violent and crappy...so you're looking at the VFL there."

The true identities of TISM will perhaps never be known. When asked why they wear masks, Humphrey said:

"The answer that makes me sound good is that we desired to circumvent the cult of personality that is inherent in rock music by choosing to remain anonymous. Unlike every other band in rock we chose to be anonymous. The answer that makes me sound good would probably also incorporate some lengthy discussion about Brechtian alienation techniques, about our post modernist grasp of ever cooling universe, and a dehumanizing society encapsulated in the somewhat paramilitary aspect of our clothing. All of those things would make me sound good, but actually we’re really boring guys." [1]

TISM have always stated in interviews that they have normal jobs and normal lives outside of the band and that fans of the music will be really disappointed to find out that members of TISM are, infact, just ordinary people in reality and there is nothing special about them. Nevertheless, fans will always wonder and speculate about the true identity of the people under the masks.

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Success and Current Status

The height of TISM's popularity and success came in the mid 1990s with the release of Machiavelli and the Four Seasons, three songs from which performed very well in the Triple J Hottest 100. In 1996, they had three songs make the countdown - (He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River came in at #9, Greg! The Stop Sign!! #10 and All Homeboys Are Dickheads came in at #93. Their next few albums flopped, however, being labelled by the critics "The usual shit."

Although TISM seemed to disappear after the release of their best of compilation in 2002, they continued to perform a small number of gigs, and in early 2004 announced that they were releasing The White Albun which included a DVD where TISM needed $1,000,000 or they would split up for good. Since the DVD they have played only a few shows but seem to have disappeared again. Such rumours of breakups are perhaps only to be expected from the band, as mentioned above each performance has technically been a reunion concert. Their current status is perhaps best described now as retirement; in an interview with Jay and the Doctor on Triple J Ron Hitler described TISM as 'too tired' to continue their wild pranks, and as most estimates put their ages in the 40s it is understandable that they have given up the go.

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Famous TISM incidents and non sequiturs

  • Initial pressings of www.tism.wanker.com were shipped with a bonus disc. The CD in question looks like a blank CDR, with texta writing 'Att: SHOCK RECORDS FAULTY PRESSING DO NOT MANUFACTURE'. Thinking it was serious, some retail chains actually returned boxes of the "fake" CD's unopened. In reality, it featured some songs, poems and TISM talking amongst themselves.
  • Appeared on Australian TV show John Safran's Music Jamboree regarding censorship of album covers in Australia. TISM were forced by the Ken Done Society to change their album cover, which depicted a Done-like koala with a syringe in its mouth. It was edited to look torn and re-released with only the word "TISM" visible in the corner. Thinking this referenced his work still, and being offended, the society once again forced TISM to change the cover. The final cover featured a doctored image of Sinead O'Connor's infamous stunt on Saturday Night Live where she tore up a photograph of the Pope on air. The TISM cover replaced the photo of the Pope with the word TISM. This apparently cost TISM "more than Radiohead spend buying friends".
  • Appeared on the iconic Hey Hey It's Saturday variety show (circa 1988) performing live with 28 members, all dressed in costume. The song performed was Saturday Night Palsy
  • Most probably the only band to ever play lawn movers on a live television appearance on ABC show The Big Gig, circa 1988.
  • Appeared on the Australian sketch comedy show Full Frontal (circa 1995), in which they answered questions during an interview with character David McGahan (Shaun Micallef) with a dictaphone.
  • The video for Thunderbirds are Coming Out actually contained at least 20 Australian bands performing live including Klinger, Mach Pelican and Blood Duster. Each band was on their own stage as a camera panned left-to-right across every band performing until the very end of the song when TISM appear masked. According to Ben Birchall of Klinger, one of the members of TISM appears unmasked in the video.
  • The Hon. Bruce Ruxton, head of the Australian RSL, wrote an official letter of complaint to the band regarding the song, I Might Be A Cunt, But I'm Not A Fucking Cunt. It may very well the be only time the word 'cunt' has appeared on RSL letterhead. A scan of the letter was published on TISM's web site at the time.
  • Most live gigs will feature Ron Hitler Barassi's ranted out poems. Three of which appear on the first album Great Truckin' songs of the Renaissance.
  • Once had whitegoods in place of amps.
  • Once had washing lines strung across the audience with wet clothes out to dry, while old women ironed clothes nearby.
  • Once appeared at a club which had two stages, the crowd gathered in front of the main stage only to see TISM appear on the minor stage. The crowd rushed over to see them and after a few songs, switched stages again. This happened numerous times during the night, with the crowd rushing from one stage to the other in order to be in the front. The last song of the night was played by two bands, one on each stage, everyone masked and playing two completely different songs at the same time.
  • Usually Ron Hitler-Barassi will jump into the crowd, his suit and mask torn to pieces and will end up naked. A mask and pants are kept on stand-by but subsequent stage dives destroy these and he's usually left with a pair of shorts and a standard black balaclava.
  • They once gave an interview with Mara Smarelli and Adrian Ryan which was conducted on a football field, the members and interviewers were separated by 50 meter lengths of string. Communication was made possible with the use of megaphones and TISM refused to answer anything unless the string was held taut between member and interviewer.
  • In 1988, TISM played at The Club in Melbourne with a pig on a spit and an effigy of Louis Armstrong.
  • In 1990, 3RRR FM in Melbourne held a benefit gig in which TISM agreed to play for "costs" - this amounted to the benefit losing money when TISM had a wedding take place behind them which included a fully attired bridal party, reception band and best man's speech. The groom vomited all over the bridal table and the ensemble had to sit in spew and bile for the rest of the show.
  • The popular official film clip for one of their songs, "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me," was decided by means of a competition.
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TISM Quotes

(From when TISM hosted ABC's Review.)
Ron Hitler-Barassi: They've talked about the death of the novel and they've talked about the fact that art in Australia is spiralling downward and I think TISM on Review is confirming that fact. You know, like, for 10 years, Review viewers, we've been slagging you lot off. I know you're expecting some pencil-neck geek with short cropped blonde hair and a black polo necked sweater and drinking his latté talking about some crappy artist that's getting my taxes for years and years and here you have TISM the sort of artists for people who aren't creative, you know. We're from the solidly middle class. We're the artists for people who went to government schools, you know. So I'd like all you Review listeners to put down your latté's and turn up your home stereos and your 48 inch colour TV and get a taste of real life instead of sitting back on your black spotty behind, taking my taxes and thinking you're so creative. Don't you agree, Humphrey?
Humphrey B. Flaubert: Oh, I agree with everything you said, except for every third word.

(On Channel [V])
Humphrey B. Flaubert: I would like to say, to all the people of Australia: "Kick me - I'm different."

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Some of TISM's Famous Songs

Image:TISM-Everyone.PNG

  • (He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River
  • All Homeboys Are Dickheads
  • Defecate On My Face
  • Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me
  • Greg! The Stop Sign!!
  • I'll 'Ave Ya
  • I'm Interested In Apathy
  • I Might Be A Cunt, But I'm Not A Fucking Cunt
  • Martin Scorsese Is Really Quite A Jovial Fellow
  • Saturday Night Palsy
  • Shutup! Footy's On The Radio!
  • Thunderbirds Are Coming Out
  • TISM Are Shit
  • Whatareya?
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Discography

† This album had an exterior and CD art claiming to be by Machiavelli and the Four Seasons, with every song title a variation on the words "I Love You, Baby," and making no reference at all to TISM themselves; the lyric booklet inside indicated that the album was in fact called New York, London, Paris, Springvale.

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External links

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