The White Albun
TISM
Madman
**** 1/2
IT may be tempting to yell "sell-out" because TISM's latest CD is exclusively available in a two-DVD box set, but for little more than the cost of a full price CD ($39.95) this has everything a TISM fan could want, except the band's true identity. Short for This Is Serious Mum, the Melbourne band have been around since the 1980s. Think of a punk-techno combination, with a hearty dose of Busby Berkeley and a dark sense of humour and you are getting close. Then add striking costumes and balaclavas. The White Albun continues down the path they've been following since 1995's Machiavelli and the Four Seasons but they've tweaked the format, adding orchestral flourishes which show that they're funny, but they also know a catchy tune. It's hard to listen to Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me and not get it stuck in your head. The themes of the album will also be familiar to any owner of previous work: teen culture, macho culture, the in-crowd, not being part of the in-crowd and the futility of human existence. The first DVD offers a live performance that hilariously takes the form of a telethon to Save Our Tism. With great costumes (silver suits with inflated arms and legs), they frantically pump out a repertoire that includes All Homeboys are Dickheads and Defecate on My Face. On disc two there's a (sort of) history of the band, concert footage and all the video clips, many of which rarely get much TV airtime. They're not for the faint-hearted, even Delta Goodrem is not safe, but if I had to live in a world without TISM or ``serious'' artists such as Radiohead, I know which one I'd take.
