Hot Dogma

Hot Dogma
Studio album by TISM
Released	September 1990
Recorded	SingSing Studios, PowerPlant, Carlton, Platinum Studios April - July 1989
Genre	Hard rock
Length	50:38 70:41 (CD/MC versions)
Label	Phonogram/PolyGram
TISM chronology
Great Truckin' Songs of the Renaissance (1988) Hot Dogma (1990) Gentlemen, Start Your Egos (1991)

Hot Dogma, released in 1990, is the second full-length album by anonymous Australian band TISM. It was their major record debut on Phonogram Records. The title comes from a joining of the two phrases Hot Dog, a snack, and Dogma, a specific religious belief. An additional disc, Hot Dogma - The Interview Disc was added to initial sales copies and contains live responses by TISM to an unheard DJs questions.

Acceptance

Due to its large amounts of tracks, recurring themes between tracks, and the culmination of TISM's rock period occurring on the album, it is said by some to be the best TISM album although many argue that their breakthrough 1995 release Machiavelli and the Four Seasons is their best.

Originally released on vinyl in 1990, the later released CD and cassette versions had more tracks than the original LP version. The version released in Collected Recordings 1986-1993 (1995) had fewer tracks than any previous.

The varying track listings is due to TISM not liking the album. Humphrey B. Flaubert stated "No, no, I didn’t like Hot Dogma. I wince when I hear it", continuing that "it did have some good lyrics on it. I just hated the quintessentially 1980s music on it. I’ve always thought that TISM has always been unfashionably – to our own detriment at times – sort of not sounding like anyone else. And sometimes that sort of sheer dagginess... that album... because...."

Not finishing the thought, the conclusion was later drawn that guitarist at the time, Leek Van Vlalen, was to blame for the sound of the album as, according to Ron Hitler-Barassi, "he was making us look bad".

Even though the album was released in 1990, the songs themselves are older; "ExistentialTISM" and "Get Thee in My Behind, Satan" were performed at concerts in 1988, while "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down (And Whittle Away My Furniture)" dates back to 1985 and "Pus of the Dead" dates back to 1982 (a version was recorded in 1985 for This Is Serious Mum). Most of the other songs' titles can be seen in the releases appendix of the TISM Guide to Little Aesthetics, which contains tracklists of all their releases up to 1989 (including bedroom tapes).

Cover and liner notes

The cover of the album features what appear to be Chinese Red Guards carrying a large banner with TISM written across it and carrying what, on first look, appears to be Mao Zedong's Little Red Book, but is on closer inspection The TISM Guide To Little Aesthetics, a book by TISM which at the time of the album's release did not exist. The artwork closely resembled posters of the time of Mao's reign.

The Chinese on the cover translates into "The unification of the proletariat under the banner of TISM".

An alternative cover was intended to be used when Phonogram re-released the album on 13 December 1993 however, the original cover was used and the alternate artwork was not used for another two years when the album would be re-released again in the Collected Recordings box set.

The back cover of the album has the track lists in Chinese. Supposedly a batch of the CDs with English track lists were printed by mistake and then shipped to Polygram's Asian markets.

In one of TISM's many references to Australian Football League football, the liner notes, which chronicle the rise, fall and disbanding of TISM, and the band members individual exploits around the world, were credited to E.J. Whitten, argued by some to be the greatest AFL player of all time; a picture of Whitten appeared on the cover of the EP Gentlemen, Start Your Egos (1991).

Hot Dogma - The Interview Disc

Hot Dogma - The Interview Disc is a related 7" record by TISM, it was given away to customers who bought initial copies of Hot Dogma. This record contains an interview with TISM and blank spaces for a DJ to insert the questions, only the answers to the questions are heard. Both sides contain the same interview.

Questions

• Your new album is on PolyGram, will you change now that you're signed to a major label?
• How did you guys come to be in a band?
• Why don't you ever show your face?
• Your live shows have a reputation for being pretty wild affairs. Do you deliberately set out to work up your audience?
• What kind of people come to your shows?
• Your new album "Hot Dogma" is pretty amazing - over an hour of music, all kinds of different styles; what can you tell us about it?
• OK, so you obviously prefer not to give much away in interviews. Why is that?
• I am a self-respecting DJ...
• I do think I have a feel for what's going down...
• I do have a certain duty towards my audience...
• YES!

After Hot Dogma

Six months later, due to TISM's extravagant nature for live show demands and other incidental requests, PolyGram fired TISM due to the band amounting thousands of dollars in debt.

TISM signed to Shock Records soon after, who bought and re-released TISM's back catalogue. Hot Dogma was not re-released, although it was re-released by Polygram in 1993. It was also left out of the re-release by Festival Mushroom Records in 2001. A cut-down 14 track version was released by Shock as part of the Collected Recordings 1986-1993 box set, with 8 bonus tracks.

In 2012, Sydney band Vanguard Party covered "It's Novel! It's Unique! It's Shithouse!".

Track listing

LP version

CD and cassette versions

Please note that on the iTunes release, "Life Kills" and the unlisted segue are one track.

References

External links

• TISM.com.au, Hot Dogma Lyrics