TISM (This Is Serious Mum)
Masters of disguise for over 15 years, the seven individuals who
make up TISM never revealed their faces nor their identities -
save to a very select few who remained ridiculously loyal.
With such costumes as four foot high face-covering Louis XIV
wigs, six foot helium inflated, condom-like sheaths and of course
their trademark balaclavas, TISM have shocked and humoured
audiences with foot-tapping melodies, catch-cry lyrics and more
than 20 ways to hide their faces . . . and sometimes just their
faces.
Formed in 1982, TISM - or This Is Serious Mum - proceeded to
write over 100 songs (or so their press release boasted),
instantly discarding them due to lack of interest . Later in 1983,
in a single show, they performed both their debut and farewell
gig.
18 months later, their recording output began with the single
Defecate On My Face (1986) - A song inspired by the
alleged sexual inclinations of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.
Their first EP, Form And Meaning Reach Ultimate Communion,
came out a couple of months later. Their first album (a double
LP), Great Trucking Songs Of The Renaissance, was
released in 1988 and featured such singles as The Ballad Of
John Bonham's Coke Roadie and I'm Interested In Apathy.
Their second double album, Hot Dogma, came out in 1990
on Phonogram - their first release on a major label.
Interestingly, the song titles were printed in Chinese and equally
interestingly, the following year TISM were sacked by Phonogram.
Undaunted, the band continued to build their live audiences, with
their stage show approaching legendary status.
Their antics ranged from roasting a pig on a spit to covering a
venue's scaffolding with a wild array of drying laundry (replacing
the on-stage amps with stacks of washing machines and clothes
dryers while a group of elderly women ironed clothes).
TISM set out to satirize the rock industry, succeeding both
artistically and, ultimately, financially, when in 1995 they
finally struck gold with Machiavelli And The Four Seasons.
Both loved and hated within the music industry, many attempts
by music journalists to garner some sanity from TISM all
invariably failed. Such was the time when TISM gave a live radio
interview responding to questions via writing answers on slips of
paper.
Or when they gave an interview in the middle of a football
field via a megaphone, answering questions only when the 50 metres
of string between the band and the journalists was stretched
tightly.
Perhaps TISM's greatest piece of journalistic sabotage was when
an unsuspecting and ill-clad writer was taken blindfolded into a
huge meat freezer. Three well-clad members of the band duly
answered his questions in all seriousness as the desperate writer
ran frantically around the room, shouting his questions at the
band in the minus 20 degrees mist.
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