TISM - Great Truckin'Songs Of The Renaissance

Sun 5th Dec, 2004 in Music Reviews

Before Triple J went national, pre-Big Day Out, back in the days of Scott’n’Charlene, Melbourne balaclava-clad seven-piece This Is Serious Mum (TISM) released their double-vinyl, epic debut album Great Truckin’ Songs Of The Renaissance. Preceded by the band’s debut 7” Defecate On My Face and vinyl-only EP Form And Meaning Reach Ultimate Communion, Great Truckin’ Songs spawned five singles and even scored the band a spot on the pinnacle of Australian live television – Hey Hey, It’s Saturday.

TISM has always written simple, direct pop songs. Whilst 1995’s Machiavelli And The Four Seasons – the band’s commercial breakthrough – employed dance beats which have been used in all of the band’s subsequent work, including 2004’s The White Albun, the songs’ basic structure has remained the same – danceable guitar and keyboard lines coupled with catchy choruses. The band’s ability to write a ridiculously good pop song is second-to-none and this is no better exemplified than in Great Truckin’ Songs’ opening tracks I’m Interested In Apathy and Saturday Night Palsy. Both still played live on a regular basis, Apathy is a showcase of Jock Cheese’s bass work over which Humphrey B. Flaubert croons “I know how to stop terrorism, I know one of the guys in TISM”, while Palsy is keyboard heavy – and was accompanied by a slightly off-putting suicide-driven filmclip. The Mystery Of The Artist Explained – with its’ “I’m fucked in the head” chorus, also contains a typical Ron Hitler Barassi diatribe-style list of “people who TISM think are fucked in the head” – mainly consisting of Derryn Hinch, who also pops up as the subject of another diatribe on the vinyl’s flipside.

40 Years – Then Death is one of the band’s most poignant songs. A world away from the ‘novelty’ tag the band is largely stuck with, 40 Years is a slow-burning track with the bleak reminder that “40 years of living then death, that’s all that’s left.” Singles The Ballad Of John Bonham’s Coke Roadie and Martin Scorsese Is Really Quite A Jovial Fellow typify the vocal styles of Hitler Barassi and Flaubert, respectively. Hitler Barassi’s aggressive, confrontational delivery style drove later singles He’ll Never Be An Ol’ Man River and Greg! The Stop Sign!! while Flaubert’s crooning can be heard on later tracks such as Whatareya? and I Rooted A Girl Who Rooted A Guy Who Rooted A Girl Who Rooted A Guy Who Rooted A Girl Who Rooted Shane Crawford.

Elsewhere on Truckin’ Songs, personal favourites If You’re Creative, Get Stuffed and Anarchy Means Crossing When It Says ‘Don’t Walk’ display classic TISM lyricism in their blatant attacks on anyone who is a “student, tutor, writer, chiropractor” while in Anarchy, Flaubert promises “I got my copy of Das Kapital.. I’m gonna go down to the library and read it.” I Drive A Truck is another live favourite which can also be found on the band’s current live DVD, whilst Defecate On My Face remains one of the band’s most well-known tracks – so much so that Form And Meaning contained a country and western version of the track, and Machine Gun Fellatio remixed the original for TISM’s 2002 best.off album.

The second record of the double-vinyl set (it’s not as much fun on CD, is it?) contains various odds and ends, including snippets of a Triple R interview in which the band rode into the studio on lawnmowers, several Hitler Barassi diatribes including the classic Morisson Hostel, and bedroom demo recordings.

Over fifteen years after its release, Great Truckin’ Songs Of The Renaissance stands up incredibly well. Responsible for the band’s short lived deal with Phonogram Records (under whom they released the superb Hot Dogma in 1990), Great Truckin’ Songs utilizes TISM’s straightforward pop sensibilities which have ensured that their early work has far outlived that of their then-contemporaries. Serving as just a good introduction to the band as the Triple J/Channel [V] adored albums Machiavelli And The Four Seasons and www.tism.wanker.com, Great Truckin’ Songs remains one of the finest albums by one of Australia’s most important bands.