The White Albun

Infobox Album
Name = The White Albun
Type = Studio Album
Artist = TISM


Released = November 10, 2004
Recorded = 2004
Genre = Alternative rock
Length = 61:53
Label = genre b.goode/Madman Entertainment
Producer = TISM
Reviews =
Last album = "tism.bestoff." (2002)
This album = "The White Albun" (2004)
Next album = -- Extra chronology 2
Artist = TISM video
Type = Studio Album
Last album = "Gold! Gold!! Gold!!!" (1998)
This album = "The White Albun" (2004)
Next album = --
Misc = Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Alternate cover
Type = Studio album


Lower caption = Non-digipak cover

"The White Albun" is an album by Australian alternative rock band TISM. The title is a reference to and deliberate misspelling of "The White Album" (officially known by the title "The Beatles").

Appropriate to TISM's humour and mockery of the music industry, the album is only available as part of a larger package containing two DVDs. The first DVD is titled "A Film By Antonionioni" which is, in fact, not a film but a live concert called "Save Our TISM" featuring, in true TISM style, a fake telethon running behind the band. The second DVD is "TISM: A Docunentary" (keeping with the 'n' theme) which features lengthy interviews of the band and a history of TISM. Also on the disc is rare or previously-unreleased footage from TISM concerts ranging from their first-ever show through to the present day. The disc also features every TISM video clip including the banned video for "I Might Be A Cunt, But I'm Not A Fucking Cunt". The digipak (cardboard) editions did not contain Bernard Derriman's animated music video for "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me", but it is available on the standard (plastic) editions.

The White Albun

Disc 1: TISM. A Film by Antonionioni.

Background info

The first disc of this release is a live concert, titled "Save Our TISM" it was recorded at the Hi Fi Bar on September 26, 2003. The title of the disc itself refers to Madman Entertainment, who released the Albun. Ron Hitler-Barassi stated:

:"I’ve never seen such a pencil necked bunch of jerky movie aficionados in my fuckin’ life. All the chicks are anorexic and nervy and all the blokes have got their little French moustaches, and I’m not kiddin about this, but the bloody poster on the wall is "‘ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0297101/ Elégie de la traverse] un film de Aleksandr Sokurov’" [http://www.tabula-rasa.ssu.swin.edu.au/articles/04_4_26.pdf]

The title of the disc can be seen as an expansion on this statement, claiming that their live concert was filmed by acclaimed director Michelangelo Antonioni.

The concert

The concert features a telethon hosted by "Marcel Proust" (Mark O'Toole) in which TISM need to raise a million dollars before the end of the concert or they will split up for good. This comes about after it is revealed that Powderfinger wish to merge with TISM, but TISM deny the merger because Powderfinger refuse to "get a sense of humour".

This concert, as with all TISM concerts, contains many events which occur on stage. Along with the telethon running constantly in the background, the concert includes: audio snippets of some of the callers and a re-ocurring host to update us on the telethon, TISM members Jon St. Peenis and Les Miserables push wheelie bins around the stage, Humphrey B. Flaubert peeling a piece of fruit, several members hitting inflated rubber balls into the crowd with cricket bats and a fan is picked from the crowd to sing on "(He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River", along with other incidents.

Extras

The "extras" on this DVD disc are interviews with the crowd before and after the concert, an option called "Ron-Cam" which is an edit of the footage where Ron Hitler-Barassi is always in shot and an optional "Audience Edit" of "Forty Years - Then Death". The "Audience Edit" came from talks with TISM and Madman Entertainment, the creator/distributors of the disc.

:"The thing about DVDs is that it allows for something called the directors cut, which is basically [where] all the boring crap that was taken out for good reason, is put back in to satisfy the grand ego of the director. What we said here at Madman was, ‘we want a whole radical new departure on this on [sic] . Now hold onto your chairs there, we want to give it what’s called the Audience cut. What we do is we edit the thing down so that it is entertaining to the audience.’ It took them a long, long time to come around to that." [http://www.tabula-rasa.ssu.swin.edu.au/articles/04_4_26.pdf]

This extra allows the viewer to select from any four of the camera's footage at any time and view their results on-the-fly with near-instant results for their own edit of the song. A bonus of this feature is that this extra does not need DVD-Rom support and very few stand alone DVD players would have trouble with the feature. Allowing wide access to the extra.

Disc 2: The White Albun

"The White Albun" is a full-length studio album featuring sixteen tracks. The title of the albun, as stated earlier in the article, is a deliberate misspelling of the Beatles album, "The White Album". The title was chosen because, as Ron Hitler-Barassi put it:

:"What we're doing here is basically what Jet are doing, which is taking The Beatles ideas and changing them a little bit at the end. If it's worked for Jet, it's going to work for us, that's what we're hoping." [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/01/1088488079697.html] (see video)

The only single released off the album was "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me", the video of which was chosen in a competition. The winner was Bernard Derriman and his "bunny" clip. Made in flash, the video enjoyed popular internet success through the ease of flash file distribution online.

Disc 3: TISM. A Docunentary.

The third disc in the set, the second DVD, contains the most content. It is filled with interviews with Ron and Humphrey and a tour of Melbourne highlighting places which have been important throughout TISM's career. Also on the disc is rare and some unseen footage of TISM concerts ranging from their first ever gig through to 2002, their full video collection (some versions of The White Albun exclude "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me") and other rare footage.

Track lists

The White Albun

#"Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me"
#"Bone Idol"
#"Message From The Big Day Out Port-A-loo"
#"DJ Trevor"
#"I Rooted A Girl Who Rooted A Guy Who Rooted A Girl Who Rooted A Guy Who Rooted A Girl Who Rooted Shane Crawford"
#"The Birth Of Uncool"
#"As Seen On Reality"
#"The Song Of The Quarter Time Siren (Car Battery)"
#"Diffident Strokes"
#"Ken Bruce Has Gone Mad"
#"Sorted For D'n'M"
#"Cerebral Knievel"
#"Tonight Harry's Practice Visits The Home Of Charlie "Bird" Parker"
#"Somebody Start A Fight Or Something"
#"Neck It"
#"TISM Are Shit"

ave Our TISM concert

The "Save Our TISM" parts are spoken word pieces of the telethon running behind the band during the concert. They are not actual songs, nor are the first and last tracks listed.

#"Intro"
#"Untitled" ("I Don't Give A Fuck")
#"Death, Death, Death, Amway, Amway, Amway"
#"I'm Interested In Apathy"
#"40 Years - Then Death/Taking Care Of Business"
#"Save Our TISM 1" ("Requests For Donations")
#"Sid Viscous"
#"Saturday Night Palsy"
#"Save Our TISM 2" ("List Of Donators")
#"Five Yards"
#"Whatareya?"
#"Diatribe" ("Don't Tell Me You Didn't Know")
#"All Homeboys Are Dickheads"
#"Root"
#"Save Our TISM 3" ("Angry Donator")
#"Greg! The Stop Sign!!"
#"I'll 'Ave Ya"
#"Save Our TISM 4" ("Powderfinger")
#"(He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River"
#"TISM Are Shit"
#"Save Our TISM 5" ("One More Dollar")
#"I Drive A Truck"
#"BFW"
#"Defecate On My Face"
#"End Of Show"

External links

* [http://www.madman.com.au/tism/ Madman Entertainment's Official White Albun page]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20060829213042/http://www.sbs.com.au/noisetv/videos/tism.mov Noise TV's "interview" with TISM] (pastiche of clips from The White Albun) (hosted by the Internet Archive.

References

* [http://www.tabula-rasa.ssu.swin.edu.au/articles/04_4_26.pdf Return of the Great White Hype] (.pdf)
* [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/01/1088488079697.html The Phantom Menace] and related video