Tag: TISM

Read TISM’s Machiavelli and the Four Seasons

An in-depth look at the rise of enigmatic Australian rock band TISM, the unexpected success of their 1995 album, Machiavelli and the Four Seasons, and the continued trajectory of their storied career.

Focusing on one of Australia’s most enigmatic bands, This Is Serious Mum (better known as TISM), Tyler Jenke forms an in-depth analysis of the anonymous, pseudonymous Melbourne collective’s rise to prominence and unlikely success on the popular music charts with their third album, Machiavelli and the Four Seasons (1995). Jenke details TISM’s origins as they slowly went from a bedroom concept to an underground success to a staple of concert stages and commercial radio in Australia, growing a rabid fanbase in the process.

Despite the anti-commercial tendencies of TISM, whose album artwork didn’t feature the band, whose band members performed under pseudonyms and who rarely gave interviews, never mind sincere answers, TISM became a commercially successful group. In this book, Jenke identifies the steps the band took to shift their sound from their tried-and-true experimental Australian pub-rock roots to the burgeoning, youthful electronic music genre, employing synthesizers and samplers. With their new sound, TISM incorporated Dadaism – the use of unusual or everyday sounds – and both avant-garde and classic pop musicianship. The band’s new sound resulted in both top ten success and an ARIA Award. This is the first book to dissect TISM’s rise to fame within the Australian music industry and analyze TISM’s status as one of the most memorable, mysterious and paradoxically successful groups in the country’s vibrant alternative music scene.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/tisms-machiavelli-and-the-four-seasons-9798765114117/ by TISM’s Machiavelli and the Four Seasons: : 33 1/3 Oceania Tyler Jenke Bloomsbury Academic

With Tyler Jenke’s addition to the 33 1/3 series, he unpacks TISM’s 1995 album Machiavelli And The Four Seasons. Not only does Jenke unpack each of the tracks on the album, but he also succinctly pulls together all the threads of information to provide an overview of the band. In some ways, Jenke’s book feels like it builds upon Damian Cowell’s own effort to address life beyond TISM as a part of the Only the Shit You Love Podcast.

Listened Death To Art, by TISM from TISM

29 track album

Death to Art is the seventh studio album by Australian alternative rock band TISM, released on 4 October 2024 through their own label genre.b.goode and DRW Entertainment. It is the band’s first full-length album in 20 years, since The White Albun in 2004. It is also their first studio album to feature Vladimir Lenin-McCartney as lead guitarist, as their previous lead guitarist Tokin’ Blackman passed away from lung cancer back in 2008 (who was with the band from 1991 to the band’s split in 2004). At 80 minutes and 20 seconds, it is the band’s longest studio album.

Source: Death to Art (Wikipedia)

I was intrigued as to what expect on a new TISM album in 2024, especially after Damian Cowell suggested in an interview a few years ago that “it’d be shithouse.” I liked ‘I’m Going Hillsong’ when it came out last year, but the rest left me wondering. Well, all of the initial songs released last year, including the The “C” Word EP, are all here on the album and more.

In some respects there is the same silliness as before, with tracks such as Cnut the Dyslexic King, but then there are the more cutting tracks such as I Can’t Wait for My Generation to Die. Interestingly, no new Ron diatribes, although there were a couple released last year.

One thing that needs to be said, I feel they are as innovative as ever, tying all the tracks together with a number of muzak style songs listened on the drive to Springvale Cemetery. This also brings a sense of theatre to the album.

In the end, I was left thinking about what Andrew Stafford wrote in response to Custard’s comeback album and the challenge of recapturing the past:

A comeback record was always going to be a more difficult proposition for Custard than most. That’s because a key part of the band’s appeal was an innocence that often tripped over into a playful sense of anarchy. Their early recordings, especially, are full of the exuberance and abandon that marks one’s late teens and early 20s. And anyone who’s ever grown up knows how difficult that feeling is to recapture.

Source: CUSTARD: COME BACK, ALL IS FORGIVEN -Notes from Pig City by Andrew Stafford

I am not sure TISM have the same challenge, but I am left wondering how much is stuck in nostalgia? As Stafford touches on in his review of Death to Art.

Part of the visceral thrill of TISM was their ability to make the listener uncomfortable. Theirs was a comedy of manners aimed at the most hypersensitive of targets: earnest, university-educated and snobbish indie-rock fans. We should not miss TISM’s -isms. Now we’ve grown up a bit, we might look back on our secretly tasteless, vulgar and puerile youth with a certain nostalgia.

Source: TISM: Death to Art review – rock’s satirical provocateurs have lost their darker edge by Andrew Stafford (The Guardian)

I was left thinking about Damian Cowell’s recent work and the focus of TISM to recapture the past. I have not seen TISM live, but have seen my share of videos. They clearly attract an audience, but there is something about the daggy disco music that really did it for me, especially live. Or maybe I am just overthinking this all and should stick to Hemmingway?

Continue reading “🎵 Death to Art (TISM)”

Listened TISM release ‘I’ve Gone Hillsong’, first new song in almost 20 years, tease more gigs by Al Newstead from Double J

Driven by caffeinated guitars and four-to-the-floor drive, the track contains the cult-rock agitators’ enduring power to confound yet feel profound, parcelling up political commentary in a ridiculous, entertaining package.

“I masturbate over bushfires I create.” Wonder if this is going to make it to DJ Albo’s setlist? Funniest thing was actually how YouTube’s algorithm tried to suggest various Hillsong clips for me to watch after the video.
Bookmarked TISM are back: The long-awaited return of Melbourne’s cult heroes (Beat Magazine)

It was 18 years ago next week that Melbourne’s TISM released ‘The White Albun’, their sixth and final full-length record.

In light of TISM’s return, Tyler Jenke unpacks how we got to now. He provides a walk-through of TISM’s history.
Replied to The Rebel Wilson affair reveals how inadequate the humble columnist is in the new empire of the celebrity god by Virginia Trioli (ABC News)

The celebrities own the presses now, we in the media just get the notifications.

Although not ‘celebrities’ in the traditional sense, it has been interesting to read and listen to TISM announce themselves once again. Same same, but different? Yes, they were seemingly communicating via a video call, an affordance not as prevalent 20 years ago, but overall things were still as they were. Focus on anything but themselves. Maybe there might be some further campaigns to come, but seemingly always on their terms.
Listened An unmissable chaotic interview with TISM from Double J

TISM are reuniting and we invited them to speak on Double J Arvos. What could go wrong!?

I thought it was another prank from, like the silence of the Omni Album. However, it would seem that TISM are getting back together. I could not help but be reminded of Damian Cowell’s interview with Matt Stewart in which he stated that if TISM came back it would be shithouse. I guess we are going to find it, although I fear that my rock festival days may be past me.

At the very least they are hear to bring a bit more artifice to the world through things such as their interview with Tim Shiel talking about Roy Kid La, Frydenberg’s minimalist guitar style and Hockey Dad (transcript here) or their interviews with The Guardian, talking about Angus Taylor on triangle:

think you will have noticed, being from the Guardian, that it was right after the demise of the last Liberal cabinet that we re-emerged, and that’s because we noticed there was a gap in the market for grotesque clowns. They’re out; we’re in.

We actually tried to get Angus Taylor – we offered him the job of playing triangle – but it was a little bit intellectual for him.

And their absence as an art piece:

Ron H-B: Look Andrew, we’re not talking to Bongo and the Monkey on FM radio here, we’re talking to someone from the Guardian. We’re not talking top-notch – we’re not talking Katharine and we’re not talking Lenore here – but we are talking to a man of your acuity, and I think you’ll have picked up that the last 19 years of silence has actually been an art piece. It’s like an installation. It’s a reassessment of our aesthetic, and I think after 19 years, we’ve made our point loud and clear.

Or The Age discussing their new genre of ‘Knock-Down Re-Build’:

“We’re introducing a new genre, KDRB,” he said. “The young people aren’t into it as much as we are, but it’s Knock Down Re-Build, and our shows will mainly be financial advice.

“If you’re on your third investment property, like we are, then music and costumes, it’s trivial compared to interest rates, mortgages. We’re exploring new art forms and with Knock Down Re-Build, our new genre … there’ll be no new music.”

I wonder if this might mean a return to guest hosting Rage?

To be honest, as much as I am excited, I hope that this is not the end of the Disco Machine.

Replied to

When I saw ‘Liam Neeson’ and ‘Noble Park’ trending, I thought that maybe he was filming a TISM biopic?
Bookmarked TISM announce two new releases and reissue campaign (Double J)

TISM have today announced the reissue of their catalogue on CD and vinyl, in news that will delight the many thousands of people who still so sorely miss this incredible Australian band.

TISM back, a breath of fresh air with ‘The Right Wing Guide to Pleasuring‘

Tim Smith, Victorian Liberal member for the sexually adventurous suburb of Kew, has certainly seen it all. From his birthplace of Camberwell, in the inner east of Melbourne, he has now, years later, successfully travelled the long and risky four kilometres to his High Street electoral office. Educated at Scotch College, Rugby School, and Melbourne University, Tim has experienced the whole range of social experience, right through from lawyer to orthodontist.

After a strangely garbled start to our discussion, in which he insisted his bill to change the spelling of his electorate to “Q” had no relation to conspiracy theories, he explained the basis of all good love-making: “Probably the most harmful effect of the disastrous coronavirus pandemic – besides the interruption to my golf days – has been the growth of weird fringe theories like ‘sacrificing for the common good’. Frankly, I’d never heard the phrase. When Tim Wilson showed me some filthy websites explaining the idea I was aghast.

Listened Archival Revival from Damian Cowell’s Podcast Machine

New host Kate Kingsmill pulls out one of the more weird and wonderful live performances from the RRR vaults…TISM at The Laundry in Nov 2001!

The Melbourne legends had just released their 5th album De RigueurMortis at the time. Kate also catches up with Damian Cowell aka Humphrey B. Flaubert as he shares some reflections on the performance and the band’s long history with Triple R.

Kate Kingsmill speaks with Damian Cowell about TISM’s 2001 RRR performance at The Laundry. The conversation leads to many tangents, although is always mindful of getting too ‘Glenn A Baker’ about the past. Cowell describes TISM as, “a bunch of adolescent boys thinking what does this switch do.” He also mentions his current multi-media project about his feet and the prospect of ever performing again.

I was wondering where Damian Cowell was at. Was kind of hoping for some sort of concocted online offering he might have created to fill in the time or some sort of Song Exploder style expose of the mystery behind the masks. But this will do.

I have been listening to a lot of TISM lately. One thing that has occurred to me is the strength of the music. With so much attention to the message, it can be easy to overlook the medium that provides space for such lyricism and performance. This is something Cowell addressed in a reflection. In some ways this is captured in their performance of He’ll Never Be an Old Man River on John Safran’s Music Jamboree

For Cowell, it is about giving the kids an anchovy. Although this often focuses on the lyrics, this can be said to apply just as much to the music. As Michael Dwyer captures in regards to Damien Cowell’s Disco Machine:

“If Damian wanted to be,” says Martin, “he could be a comedian. A few years ago he did a show at the comedy festival and it was as funny as any other show. But he takes the music very seriously.

Listened TISM reveal surprise live album, their first release since 2010 from Beat Magazine

The 1988 show in question came just before TISM released their debut album, Great Truckin’ Songs of the Renaissance, the first of six studio albums from the band. It features some of their most-loved hits, such as ‘Saturday Night Palsy’, ‘The Mystery of the Artist Explained’ and ‘Defecate on my Face’, while also featuring a host of B-sides and the unreleased song, ‘Opium is the Religion of the Masses’.

I am not sure if the rumours are true that TISM released this live album after having to cancel a reunion tour due to the coronavirus?
Listened TISM from Double J

John Safran looks beyond the masks for the TISM J Files, Thursday 27 August from 8pm on Double J.

John Safran investigates the world of TISM as a part of the J Files podcast. Safran documents a number of myths about their past and snippets from interviews. He also spoke with their ex-manager, Michael Lynch who suggests:

They may have been popular, but they were never hip.

Watched TISM, Saturday Night Palsy on Hey Hey 1989 from YouTube

** CHECK OUT ALL MY OTHER VIDEOS FOR GOOD STUFF YOU MAY NOT WANT TO SEE** Their infamous performance on Hey Hey It’s Saturday. As the song began, the seven m…

I definitely do not remember seeing this on Hey Hey It’s Saturday. Gold.

Not sure how much truth there is to many of the stories that seem to be told, but Sean Kelly claims that they recorded the performance in the afternoon and were meant to lip sync. However, they decided instead to get together a group of people, last minute, to make a spectacle of the performance.

Watched
Damian Cowell reflects upon the TISM and the birth of the uncool out of the alternate music scenes in Melbourne in the 1980’s between Cold Chisel and The Birthday Party. TISM were not a concept, but just another band wanting to write songs and play concerts sharing some funny ideas. It would seem that the mantra was, wouldn’t it be fun if.

In the Q&A, Cowell says that ‘interesting ideas’ is not enough, that they only got there start as someone knew someone else who then linked them with somebody else. He also discusses the surreal aspects of it all, including the final gig at Earthcore.

Listened TISM’s Damian Cowell’s songs from the 90s zeitgeist from ABC Radio

TISM were one of the biggest Australian bands of the 90’s. They were the godfathers of musical comedy, captains of satire and frankly, a band that when I listen to today, I’m still gobsmacked by. They hailed from Melbourne but played all over; masked men who would put on insane shows full of bizarre concepts and songs like “Defecate On My Face” and “Saturday Night Palsy”. TISM were the ultimate shit stirrers, and we loved it. Humphrey B Flaubert AKA Damian Cowell reminded us of why the 90’s helped a band like that flourish, and share five songs from the zeitgeist himself. From pop princesses to Brissie bands that have never played by the rules, it’s not only one of the funniest Take 5’s you’ll hear but a capture of a unique and wonderful time in Australian music. This is seriously, one for the ages.


Caligula – ‘The Bluff’


Kylie Minogue – ‘Did It Again’


Regurgitator – ‘Black Bugs’


Custard – ‘Nice Bird’


Fauves – ‘Easy (Easy)’

This is a fascinating reflection on the 90’s between Zane Rowe and Damian Cowell (aka Humphrey B. Flaubert) and how it allowed a band like TISM to thrive. Whether it be Custard, The Fauves and Regurgitator, Cowell spoke about the power and potential of the strangeness and disruption. Rather than sticking to the script, he argues that music should sometimes challenge us:

Use your power wisely … Treat them to an anchovy.

It is funny thinking back to the nineties in Croydon. Although not one of those students asking Mr Cowell if he was on the drug that killed River Phoenix, I will not forget his last lesson before leaving teaching when he brought in a video recording of TISM on Rage. By the time he had wheeled in the TV, we managed to catch a lengthy rambling between he and Ron ‘Hitler’ Barassi about nothing much, before announcing three tracks from the Ted Mulry Gang. The mask was definitely off.