Melbourne, Saturday November 26, 2022
Just before Christmas I was faced with a conundrum. Nothing earth shattering or life threatening: How do you explain Melbourne band TISM to two strangers on a train who most likely have never seen or heard of them?
There’s no easy answer. They are REALLY alternative, have seven members, wear balaclavas to hide their identity, perform bizarre shows with props, and choreography, and sing songs with the themes such as death, sex, popular culture, footy, literature, social class differences – all tongue in cheek, but peppered with certain four letter words.
And, oh, TISM stands for This Is Serious Mum.
I’ve been a covert TISM fan since the late 1990s, all thanks to my neighbour Gary. I was taken by the humorous TISM album titles in his collection and had to find out more.
I even put some of their music onto my iPod, however, I set it so their songs wouldn’t come up on shuffle play – some are a little rude in lyric and content. For me TISM was not a musical interest I’d talk about, except with Gary, as they were rather odd and their humour was very dark.
I’d never seen TISM live but I had seen YouTube clips, so I was aware of their edgy energy. Still, there’s nothing like the real thing.
After twenty years’ absence TISM were about to play in the Good Things Festival in December. As a warm up they played three ‘secret’ shows.
My muso son Dan texted me. He said that a friend of a friend of a friend is a daughter of a TISM band member. Dan had the good intel that they wouldn’t be advertised as TISM for the warm up gigs but were to be ‘Rex Oedipus and Jack Elephant Titus’ in one show, ‘Open Mic Tryouts’ and ‘Banjo Patterson-Lakes’ in the other two.
Trusting Dan’s advice I bought a ticket to see the third show, Rex Oedipus and Jack Elephant Titus, at the un-gig like time of 2.30pm.
I got there early and ended up front row. The room was packed. Everything I knew about a TISM show came true. They were boo-ed when they came on and when they left, along with the chants ‘TISM are shit’ and ‘TISM are wankers’. There was stage diving from the lead singer even before the first song started and there were rants about ‘Art is for the wealthy’ and ‘Tradies get the ladies’.
As TISM hadn’t put out any new material the hour-long show was a fabulous full on sing along.
Eight songs into the set* they launched into I’m Interested In Apathy.
I know how to cheat at Tattslotto, I got a great idea for a song
I know the truth about Marilyn Monroe, I can prove Einstein’s theory wrong
I can predict mankind’s fate, I know where there’s oil in Bass Strait
All the deserts I could irrigate, All the poor I could emancipate
But that’s not what motivates me
I’m interested in apathy – Apathy, Apathy
It was in the third verse that I was caught up in the emotion of the event. It was at this point that I think I moved from being a covert fan to one that could talk about it. A therapeutic experience? A TISM intervention? It’s a moment I’ll certainly remember for a long time. All this crossed my mind as singer Humphrey B Flaubert stood right in front of me and sang:
I got the cure for all known disease, I can make money grow on trees
I know how to stop terrorism, I know one of the guys from TISM
And later in the song is the TISM juxtaposition and TISM twist where the song suddenly ends –
And here we are in the last verse – I’ve lost interest
I was still on a high as I walked back to Flinders Street Station to catch a train home. My mind was buzzing. The pre-Christmas train was pretty packed too. I ended up sitting next to a couple of ladies who had just finished their busy shift at Myers. They were telling me about their day. They asked about mine.
How do you explain TISM to two sixty somethings … to anyone?
Photo by David Oke
StereoStory#698
*TISM is well known for throwing things into the audience. During their song Everybody Else Has Had More Sex Than Me four band members got out dishmops and tea towels and proceeded to ‘wash’ a huge number of paper plates before frisbee-ing them all into the audience. I scored a plate and tea towel as well as a printed setlist, possibly belonging to new guitarist Vladimir Lenin-McCartney.
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David Oke
David is a Melbourne musician, retired music teacher and primary school teacher and member of the Sleepy Hollow Blues club. His debut Stereo Story was about playing Great Balls of Fire at Sun Studio in Memphis. He has assisted in the organisation, and leading of gospel music workshops and Sunday gospel celebrations at the Anglesea Music Festivals, and is a member of The Seddon Jammers. His son Dan is the creative force of the band Jarrow.
I had never heard of TISM! But I am glad you revealed them to me in your great yarn Dave.
Cheers Luke
Thanks Luke.
Even though they hadn’t surfaced for about twenty years they have a strong following. There are lots of film clips and footage on line. A couple of their better known songs are ‘Whatareya?’ and ‘Greg! The Stop Sign’ Triple M have used ‘Shut up – The footy’s on the radio’ for many years. A couple of my personal favorites are ‘Five Yards’ and ‘All Homeboys Are D*ckheads’ but be warned as they have some swear words in them. Probably their most commercially successful album was Machiavelli And The Four Seasons. Once again, there are some language and content issues but there is some interesting TISM humour built in.
David
I recall TISM performing at Deakin’s Waurn Ponds Campus “O” Week celebrations in 1991.
It was an eye opener for sure!
I was at Deakin ten years prior to you Kate. I wrote a story about my first encounter with Midnight Oil at that time. Since attending the TISM show, and now talking with others about that band, a number of people have said that they recall TISM from their university days.
Well written David KO
Thanks for that Ken
I had just moved into a friends share house in 1988, and the woman there was asking me to ‘ listen to this, you’ll like it!’ It was Defecate… Form and Meaning Reach Ultimate Communion version. And like it I did, I bought the vinyl immediately. The intro to Mistah Eliot sounded angry enough to think I was onto something that harked back to my angry days.
I’m a Led Zeppelin fan too and that song justified my feelings of wallowing in their absence eight years after John Bonham’s passing. Nothing had come close and were passe’. But I’d found a novel band to be excited over. TISM visited the local Barwon Club only a week later and by then I was familiar with the album.
If my memory serves me correctly, (we’d consumed copious booze along with the illicits) and thinking I was primed for the event I found myself absolutely blown out of the water with the pulsating and venomously angry antics on stage. It was sublime, it was frantic and I was totally hooked. I’d never seen anything that even came close to the theatrics and sense of drama that unfolded, and I’d witnessed Ramones and numerous English post punk bands. These guys were homegrown, and angrier. Yeah, they were crass and crude, but they tempered it with humour. They’d won me over. And I love revisiting them.
Boris, I hear what you’re saying. I think that the ‘angriness’ element was still in what I saw at the show but, as you say, it was very carefully tempered with their humour and theatrics. Walking up Russell Street on my way home were a couple about my age. He was wearing a TISM T shirt. I asked if he’d been a fan for a while and said no, but he knew Jock Cheese the bass player who may have given him the shirt to wear for his first TISM show. He too was stunned by what you just described and wished that his daughter had have been with him to see such a unique spectacle.
I was privileged to see them many times in the 80’s. All shows were over the top with abstract stuff happening on stage that had nothing to do with the music. Too much to explain. Very entertaining and unforgettable for those with memories
Craig, you were lucky to see them all those years ago. Back then I wouldn’t have gone to see them as I was into mainstream stuff like Oils and Chisel. I’ve ‘more recently’ become a fan so was pretty chuffed to see my first live TISM show and all that goes with that.
“How do you explain TISM to two sixty somethings…?” Hey, most of the people there were 60 somethings!! I’m a 58 year old female, have seen them heaps of times and wasn’t there until GTSOR album. TISMism is not an era, it is a state of mind…..
You’ve made a really good point here Liz. At the show the majority of people were in that 50-60 bracket. However there was also a huge number of the next generation too. I’ve found it really interesting that, over the last month, many of my acquaintances have never heard of TISM. I really like your ‘state of mind’ comment.
The ‘sixty somethings’ in your story were pretty much the two women on the train who’d spent the day working at Myer. A fair assumption that they didn’t seem the TISM type, I reckon! They might have been more like Prude and Jude, the Gina Riley/Jane Turner characters from all those years ago on the telly. Cheers.
I was at this gig as well David – they didn’t miss a beat after 18 years performing their ‘greatest artistic statement – silence’.
My fandom began when they released their wanker.tism.com.au album in the mid ’90’s but for some stupid reason I missed my chance seeing them live.
They’re actually criminally underrated as musicians and song producers – underneath the poo jokes, profanity, searing social commentary and clever lyrics are extremely catchy tunes spanning several genres that get stuck in your head. Nevermind their stagecraft is bonkers and downright hilarious. Their turn on Hey Hey (Saturday Night Palsy) was a classic example of their mad genius.
I’ve tried explaining TISM to others and failed. There’s a Youtube vid where Ron & Humphrey try to explain TISM and mostly fail. I think you either get them or you don’t. But I hope there’s more of them in one form or another because there’s a huge cult following still.
J.D. You’re absolutely right about TISM being underrated as a musical talent. Even if you pop on Best Off or the new Collected Versus the styles move between Rock, Techno and various other genres with equal punch on each track. I too didn’t get to the early live performances but learnt lots about their edginess and mayhem through the White Albun DVD. I too hope that there’s more. The TISM Forever Facebook page is nationally alive and active. A big following. There sure was a great vibe in the room J.D! A real day to remember.
Yeah, the earlier live performances were literally a riot going by YouTube clips. There’s one where Ron Hitler-Barassi jumps on a punter’s back (no, they weren’t performing The Back on Which Jezza Jumped, though they were at The Club in Collingwood), then gets pulled in all directions before finally scrambling back on the stage stripped to his jocks and momentarily unmasked.
Also worth mentioning are Ron’s fabulous diatribes (there’s plenty on wanker.com’s bonus
disc). But my favourite from GTSOTR is Morrison Hostel. Whether you like old Jimbo or not, this is a scream.
Cheers.
Thanks for the tip off J.D.
I’ll go back and have a listen and look out for the Collingwood gig too.