Machiavelli and the Four Seasons is a 1995 album by the Australian rock group TISM (This Is Serious Mum). It is TISM's most famous release and the one with which they received the most critical success and fame. The album was certified Gold by the ARIA Awards and won the ARIA Award for Best Independent Release. The award was accepted in person by Les Murray, the subject of the song "What Nationality is Les Murray?" who read an insulting acceptance speech in his native Hungarian.. Three of its songs reached Triple J's Hottest 100, two of them in the top 10.

The album featured TISM's switch from Alternative rock to synth-driven techno and dance music, which still retained the loud guitars and vocal melodies of their earlier music. The two singles Greg! The Stop Sign!! and (He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River" are two of TISM's most well known tracks.

The cover of the album is not TISM unmasked: it is a cover of The Hollywood Argyles, while the title is a composite phrase of doo wop group Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and thinker Niccolò Machiavelli.

Machiavelli and the Four Seasons

The unusual title stems from a conceit found throughout the cover, although not in the tracks themselves, that this is actually an album by a group called "Machiavelli and the Four Seasons". The liner notes include an essay on the band's music, written with gushing praise. Track titles are also given, entirely revolving around the words "I", "Love", "You" and "Baby". The final song on the album, "Phillip Glass's Arse", is a melodic, a cappella harmonised song that appears as a hidden track at the end of "Give Up For Australia."

The actual tracks contain many fan favourites from TISM's catalogue and continue in the typical lyrical vein of parodying and insulting most elements of popular culture. Most well known are the singles "Greg! The Stop Sign!!" (featuring a famous Beach Boys style falsetto chorus) and the live favourite "(He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River," which deconstructs celebrity hero worship, encapsulated in the verse:

I drank the slab that Bon Scott drunk;

Injected some of Hendrix' junk;

I booked a seat on Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane;

Mama Cass's sandwich? I ate the same!

References are also made to significant works of literature and politics, including Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" ("All Homeboys Are Dickheads"), Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias" ("Aussiemandias") and Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" ("How Do I Love Thee?"). The album also contains the slightly controversial track "!Uoy Sevol Natas", an inversion of "Satan Loves You!". A parody of the belief that many classic rock songs contain backwards-masked Satanic messages.

Track listing

The official track list for the TISM release of Machiavelli and the Four Seasons.

1. "(He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River"
2. "All Homeboys Are Dickheads"
3. "Garbage"
4. "Lose Your Delusion II"
5. "!UOY Sevol Natas"
6. "What Nationality Is Les Murray?"
7. "Greg! The Stop Sign!!"
8. "Play Mistral For Me"
9. "How Do I Love Thee?"
10. "Jung Talent Time"
11. "Aussiemandias"
12. "Give Up For Australia" / "Phillip Glass's Arse" (Hidden track)Fake Track Listing

The track list of the album if it was by Machiavelli and the Four Seasons

Side One

1. "I Love You Baby
2. "You And Me, Baby Love
3. "Baby, I Love You
4. "Love, Baby-You
5. "Its You I Love, Baby

Side Two

1. "In Love With You, Baby"
2. "Baby, Baby, Baby"
3. "Love, Love, Love"
4. "Baby Love"
5. "I.L.Y.B"

GOLD! GOLD! GOLD! For Australia! - A Bonus Disc

To celebrate Machiavelli going "gold", it was re-released with a bonus disc. It featured previously unreleased tracks as well as the b-sides from all the singles released off Machiavelli and the Four Seasons.

1. Jung Talent Time #1
2. Abscess Makes The Heart Grow Fonder
3. Dicktatorship
4. Strictly Loungeroom
5. There’s More Men In Children Than Wisdom Knows
6. Garbage
7. Junk
8. Strictly Refuse
9. Rubbish
10. Jung Talent Time #4
11. Fuck ’Em Fuck ’Em - The Lot Of ’Em
12. If You Ever Hear His Name, Harden Not Your Arteries
13. Does Fame Bring Forth Madness?
14. "Don’t Believe The Hype" Is Hype
15. Bash This Up Your Ginger
16. Tracks #1 and #10 are from the Jung Talent Time single.
17. Tracks #2 and #3 are from the (He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River single.
18. Tracks #4 and #5 are from the Greg! The Stop Sign!! single.
19. Tracks #6, #7, #8 and #9 are from the Garbage single. (Track #6 is a remix of the one found on Machiavelli and the Four Seasons.)

Machines Against the Rage

Machines Against the Rage is a live CD which was available with the limited edition 1996 re-issues of Machiavelli and the Four Seasons. The title is a re-wording of popular rock group Rage Against the Machine who were nearing the height of their popularity at the time of this release. It is claimed on the very CD itself that it is a "shameless hollow publicity stunt".

Machines Against the Rage was initially released in promo form as cardboard sleeve with the unofficially released single for All Homeboys Are Dickheads. The recording was made on October 21, 1996 at the Collingwood Town Hall, Melbourne, though the front cover claims it was recorded on the same date in 1995.

Track listing

As Machines Against the Rage was released with Machiavelli and the Four Seasons, two track lists occur in the same vein as the original release.Real Track List

1. "All Homeboys Are Dickheads"
2. "Death Death Death"
3. "I'm Interested In Apathy"
4. "Get Thee To A Nunnery"
5. "Lilee Caught Dilley Bowled Milli Vanilli"
6. "Martin Scorsese Is Really Quite a Jovial Fellow"
7. "The History of Western Civilisation"
8. "Saturday Night Palsy"
9. "Aussiemandias"
10. "Root"
11. "I'll 'Ave Ya"
12. "Defecate On My Face"
13. "Give Up For Australia"
14. "I Drive A Truck"
15. "Mistah Eliot - He Wanker"Fake Track List

Side One

1. The Shit Thing
2. The Shit Thing
3. The Shit Thing
4. The Shit Thing
5. The Shit Thing

Side Two

1. The Shit Thing
2. The Shit Thing
3. The Shit Thing
4. The Shit Thing, The
5. (The) Shit Thing

See also

• Niccolò Machiavelli
• Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

References

External links

• Song lyrics