Hot Dogma

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...." [1]

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".

"ExistentialTISM" and "Get Thee in My Behind, Satan" were played live as early as 1988 - a live version of the former appears on the band's live VHS Shoddy and Poor the year earlier, while a version of the latter was released as an iTunes bonus track for the band's previous album, Great Truckin' Songs of the Renaissance, in 2009. "The TISM Boat Hire Offer" was played live in Queensland in 1989 and appears on a bootleg of the performance. Pus of the Dead was first recorded in December 1982 for the band's unreleased tape Great Truckin' Songs of the Renaissance, however a different version appears on the band's self-titled demo tape in 1985. "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Whittle Away My Furniture" was recorded in 1985 for the tape Muggy Climates in My Jockettes - that version appears on the bonus demo disc included with the group's greatest hits album Best Off in 2002. Most of the other songs appear on two tapes, Free Nelson Mandela - With Every Record and Three Blake and a Dollar's Worth of Chips - A Song of Innocence and Experience, recorded throughout 1988.

The title of "It's Novel, It's Unique, It's Shithouse" had been used as a slogan by the band, first appearing as the name of an unreleased demo tape recorded in September 1983, followed by appearing in the runout groove of the group's debut album Form and Meaning Reach Ultimate Communion and (translated into French and Italian) the liner notes of Great Truckin' Songs of the Renaissance. The song itself was written in 1988.

In a review of The White Album, Anton S Trees of FasterLouder compared it to Hot Dogma, where the latter is "filled with moments of introspection and reflection on the nature of self, existence and mortality – TISM examine the value of life. Most prominent amongst the examinations of mortality and the cyclical nature of existence is 'Life Kills'." Steve Bell of theMusic.com.au website noticed it "quickly became a fan favourite but didn’t set the world on fire commercially nor bother the charts, so TISM were soon unceremoniously dumped by Phonogram during 1991 and found themselves homeless."

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

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!".

CD and cassette versions

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

Demo tapes

Between March and December 1988, TISM recorded two tapes from which the bulk of Hot Dogma would be drawn, Free Nelson Mandela - With Every Record and Three Blake and a Dollar's Worth of Chips - A Song of Innocence and Experience.

Free Nelson Mandela - With Every Record

1. Mark E. Smith at the Discothèque
2. I'll 'Ave Ya
3. I Don't Want TISM, I Want a Girlfriend
4. Koori Punks Fuck Off
5. Throw Your Drugs Away And Find A Fiancé
6. You Think I'm a Shining Wit, But Really I'm a Whining Shit*
7. My Generation
8. Brian Wilson
9. While My Catarrh Gently Weeps
10. They Shoot Heroin, Don't They?
11. The Law of Repulsion after Orgasm
12. Robert Dipierdomenico Parts 1, 2 & 3
13. It's Novel! It's Unique! It's Shithouse!
14. Nunga Rock
15. It's Alright
16. Dishonourable Discharge
17. Whinge Rock
18. Life Kills
19. Stop the World, I Wanna Get On
20. Minimalism 7
21. Minimalism 8

Three Blake and a Dollar's Worth of Chips - A Song of Innocence and Experience

1. Rabid
2. The Law of Repulsion after Orgasm
3. I Feel Guilty Because I'm Famous
4. Supercalafragilisticexpihalitosis
5. Let's Form a Company
6. Minimalism 9
7. I'd Trust the Boys from Harem Scarem
8. The TISM Nightsoil Cart and Horse Blues
9. Each Man Kills the Thing He Roots Via Rear Entry
10. Rosebud (Or Some Other Enigmatic Shit)
11. The TISM Boat Hire Offer
12. The House of the Jiggling Bag
13. If They're Different, Punch*
14. I Hope I Get Old Before I Die
15. Minimalism 10
16. Money Doesn't Matter
17. Rehearsal/Neighbours
18. Let's Club It to Death
19. That Was Is, This is Then
20. Minimalism 10 Part 2 & 17
21. Stop the World, I Wanna Get On
22. The TISM Finance Plan Offer