Bitter? Dickheads? Geniuses? New rock haters? We work it out.
I could crap on about TISM being icons of Australian music. Yes, TISM were drug fucked before Frenzal. They engaged in lewd sexual acts with stuffed animals before Machine Gun. They inspired whole crowds to lick each other's arseholes before Regurgitator. But at the end of the day are they musical geniuses or just pricks who play word games and dance like hooded dickheads?
Ron Hitler-Barassi, a seminal part of TISM (who insists on being described using a penis pun), discussed these factors with The Brag while also demonstrating a deep-seated sense of resentment for whatever took his fancy. Today it's the young people in rock and roll, especially Daniel Johns' childish disregard for critical approval. "When he has to get a real job one day, when he first clocks on and it's nine in the morning and it's still blur and he's got bloody wet hair and stuff, that's when I want to hear Daniel say he don't care about selling records," Hitler-Barassi spews with charismatic venom.
No, TISM are not bitter. Their latest offering, The White Albun, is a multimedia extravaganza including a full-length album (featuring the tracks 'TISM are Shit', 'Message From A Big Day Out Port-A-Loo', 'I Rooted A Girl Who Rooted A Guy Who Rooted A Girl Who Rooted A Guy Who Rooted A Girl Who Rooted Shane Crawford' and 'DJ Trevor') as well as two DVDs of gigs and filmclips. While such a trip down memory lane often indicates a band now in need of a musical colostomy bag, for TISM it's just pure masturbation.
"Like our very first album all those years ago, this is ridiculously long, a bit like bloated excess," sums up Ron. While there may have been a few allusions to old school rock with the title (albeit 'albun' with an "n", which was "just as a bit of stupidness"), be warned that TISM are not about to jump on the new rock bandwagon.
"Whatever are our strengths or weaknesses, whatever we had in 1982 to like or dislike, we've got that same sort of thing in 2004," he says. "And the fact that we've been going that long, some people say, 'Oh, it's a museum piece', and our response is 'Get fucked'. We have a message to the younger readers of The Brag, who may want to come along to the TISM gigs at the Metro because of the success of new rock revival, Jet and The Vines and people like that, and the message is 'Get fucked'".
Yes, much like herpes, it appears TISM are a blotch on the Australian music scene that cannot be easily removed. Although sometimes angry and irritated, they remain a reminder of an innocence lost, of a nation once able to stand on its own two feet rather than sink to its knees for America. In the midst of such passion, I suggest to Ron a political path like that now in place for Peter Garrett. "Actually, we think it should go the other way, politicians into rock," he muses. "Phil Ruddock's our bass player. He's been the bass player for TISM for the last 10 years. He's persuaded us he should be our bass player because it's unecessary, it's expensive, it panders to the worst elements of Australian society, why else wouldn't he be our bass player? It's what he does with the rest of his time. Have you had a close look into Phil Ruddock's eyes?".
TISM play the Metro July 9 and 10 with High Society. The White Albun and DVD is out now.
