Best Off[1] (stylised as tism.bestoff.) is a compilation album by the Australian alternative rock band TISM, released on 29 July 2002.[2] The album peaked at No. 44 on the ARIA Charts.[3]

Best Off
Compilation album by
Released29 July 2002 (2002-07-29)
Recorded1985–2000
GenreAlternative rock
Length61:00
Labelgenre b.goode /FMR
ProducerTISM
TISM chronology
De RigueurMortis
(2001)
Best Off
(2002)
The White Albun
(2004)

Reception

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Bronius Zumeris from Beat magazine opined that "Offbeat wit and profanity litter their work" while "Cynics argue that they are a puerile, one joke band trying to flog a dying horse" and the collection "is not a flawless appraisal of their 15 odd years of cultural/musical terror. But it does collate much of the essential TISM for the consumer society."[4]

Track listing

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Best Off
No.TitleAlbumLength
1."Defecate on My Face"Defecate on My Face 7"4:50
2."Death, Death, Death"Machines Against the Rage3:16
3."Saturday Night Palsy"Great Truckin' Songs of the Renaissance2:54
4."I'm Interested in Apathy"Great Truckin' Songs of the Renaissance2:50
5."I Drive a Truck"Great Truckin' Songs of the Renaissance3:02
6."40 Years - Then Death"Great Truckin' Songs of the Renaissance3:41
7."The History of Western Civilisation"Hot Dogma3:00
8."I'll 'Ave Ya"Hot Dogma2:14
9."Get Thee to a Nunnery"The Beasts of Suburban2:41
10."Lillee Caught Dilley Bowled Milli Vanilli"Machines Against the Rage2:54
11."(He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River"Machiavelli and the Four Seasons2:24
12."Greg! The Stop Sign!!"Machiavelli and the Four Seasons3:28
13."All Homeboys Are Dickheads"Machiavelli and the Four Seasons3:07
14."Whatareya?"www.tism.wanker.com3:38
15."Five Yards"De Rigueurmortis3:14
16."Sid Viscous"Previously unreleased3:33
17."The Phillip Ruddock Blues"Previously unreleased7:13
18."Defecate on My Face" (MGF Remix, Sydney 2002)Previously unreleased3:33

Bonus disc

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Initial copies of the album came with a bonus disc, This Is Serious Mum: A Collection of Bedroom Recordings 1982-1992, containing 25 unreleased bedroom demos spanning TISM's first ten years.

This Is Serious Mum: A Collection of Bedroom Recordings 1982-1992
No.TitleLength
1."Eckermann is Very Silly"2:58
2."The Ballad of the Semitic Nazi"3:30
3."Yassa Ara-Thin-A-Go-Go"4:57
4."I Go to Werribee"3:01
5."Ladies and Gentlemen: The Judeo - Christian Ethic"2:26
6."Ezra Pound, Axe-King
  • Part 1: The Ballad of J. Arthur White Australia Policy
  • Part 2: The Petty Bourgeois Revolution
  • Part 3: Art, Religion and the Neo-Classical Dialectic
  • Part 4: The Hairy Diadem"
3:21
7."The English-Speaking Peoples"0:51
8."Doug Parkinson Sings Christie Allen"2:59
9."I Await the Coming of the Scottish Third Reich"2:40
10."A Tale of Two Faeces"0:21
11."Almost Blue by Ian Curtis"2:04
12."The Back Upon Which Jezza Jumped"3:09
13."Jumpin' Jivin' Jimmy "The Ghost" Joyce"3:21
14."Unknown, Unacknowledged, Unforgettable, Underpants"3:20
15."Life is Fairly Silly, Really"1:43
16."Landscape, Seascape, Escape"2:27
17."I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Whittle Away My Furniture"2:26
18.Untitled (titled "(Somewhere in This School...)" on the iTunes release)3:46
19."How to End All Suffering"2:34
20."Frenzy"1:13
21."I'm Gonna Treat Ya to a Neitszche Double Feature"2:17
22."You're Only as Good as Your Fans"2:18
23."My Geronation"2:23
24."This Morning I Had Work to Do"2:56
25."Tu e La Tua Razza fa'un Culo"1:13
  • "The Ballad of the Semitic Nazi" and "Doug Parkinson Sings Christie Allen" previously appeared in excerpt form on Great Truckin' Songs of the Renaissance.
  • The full version of "Unknown, Unacknowledged, Unforgettable, Underpants" would later appear as a hidden track on the 2021 remastered reissue of This Is Serious Mum, the band's 1984 demo tape.
  • Lyrics from "My Gerontation" reappeared in the 1993 song "Jesus Pots the White Ball" on the band's EP Australia the Lucky Cunt.
  • "Tu e La Tua Razza fa'un Culo" (correct Italian: Tu e la tua razza vaffanculo) was sampled in a demo recording of "Aussiemandias" dating back to October 1991, included on the iTunes version of the band's 1992 EP The Beasts of Suburban and the 2023 box set of that album.

Charts

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Chart (2002) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[5] 44

Release history

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Release history and formats for Best Off
Region Date Format(s) Edition Label Catalogue
Australia July 2002 CD Standard genre b.goode TISM010
2×CD Limited edition (with A Collection of Bedroom Recordings 1982-1992) TISM009
October 2009 Re-issue Digital download

References

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  1. ^ "The ARIA Report" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). 5 August 2002. pp. 2, 5, 10–12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2002. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  2. ^ "Best Off by TISM on Apple Music". iTunes. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  3. ^ Hung, Steffen. "Discography TISM". Australian Charts Portal. Hung Medien (Steffen Hung). Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  4. ^ Zumeris, Bronius (31 July 2002). "TISM Self Storage". Beat. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  5. ^ "Australiancharts.com – TISM – Best Of". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 Jne 2021.