Regurgitator

Regurgitator
Left to right: Quan Yeomans, Ben Ely, Peter Kostic, Seja Vogel Big Day Out, Adelaide, February 2008
Background information
Origin	Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Genres	Alternative rock electronica pop punk alternative hip hop rap rock post-grunge
Years active	1993 (1993)–2013 (2013), 2015 (2015)–present
Labels	Warner Valve Reprise/Warner Bros.
Associated acts	Happyland Pangaea Broken Head The Stalkers Jump 2 Light Speed Blox Front End Loader Kryptonics Hard-Ons Nazxul The Boat Show
Website	regurgitator.net
Members	Ben Ely Quan Yeomans Peter Kostic
Past members	Martin Lee Shane Rudken Seja Vogel

Regurgitator are an Australian rock band from Brisbane, formed in late 1993 by Ben Ely on bass guitar, guitar, keyboards and vocals; Martin Lee on drums; and Quan Yeomans on lead vocals, guitar, keyboards and bass guitar. Their debut studio album, Tu-Plang was released in May 1996; it was followed by Unit in November 1997 which was certified triple platinum. Unit won five categories at the ARIA Music Awards of 1998: Album of the Year, Best Alternative Album, Producer of the Year (for Magoo), Engineer of the Year (Magoo) and Best Cover Art (for The Shits). Their third album, ...Art was released in August 1999.

Regurgitator had two singles reach the top 20 with "Polyester Girl" (May 1998) peaking at No. 14 in Australia and No. 16 in New Zealand; while ""Happiness (Rotting My Brain)" (July 1999) also appeared at No. 16 in New Zealand. Martin Lee left Regurgitator in late 1999 and was replaced by Peter Kostic on drums, who was simultaneously a member of Front End Loader (1991–present) and the Hard-Ons (2002–11). Casual members have included Seja Vogel, from Sekiden; Shane Rudken (Ponyloaf); Dave Atkins (Pangaea, Resin Dogs) among others. Regurgitator's fourth studio album, Eduardo and Rodriguez Wage War on T-Wrecks was released in July 2001 and was their final studio album for Warner before mutually agreeing to terminate their recording agreement. They then went on to issue four more independent studio albums—Mish Mash! recorded as part of the multimedia reality show parody Band in a Bubble; Love and Paranoia recorded in Rio de Janeiro on Corcovado after licensing the Band in a Bubble project to a US version staged in New York City; SuperHappyFunTimesFriends recorded over three weeks in their home studio; and Dirty Pop Fantasy recorded in a Hong Kong apartment before announcing an extended hiatus in December 2013. They commenced playing shows again in mid-2015.

History

Early years (1993–1995)

Regurgitator was originally a 3-piece indie rock band with Quan Yeomans (guitar and vocals), Ben Ely (bass and vocals) and Martin Lee (drums).^[1] The three had purportedly met on a bus in inner Brisbane. At this time, all three were already in several bands - Pangaea, Zooerastia, Precision Oiler, Brazilia among others. Regurgitator at this time were not considered to be the main focus of any members, rather as a side-project to their other bands.

With the emergence of the Brisbane underground scene in the early 1990s major labels, such as Warner Music Group, generated interest in increasing its Australian music roster. A&R representative Michael Parisi initially pursued Pangaea, a popular and established band in Brisbane's underground that Ben Ely fronted. It wasn't until Parisi was supplied with Pangaea recordings by their manager Paul Curtis that he discovered Regurgitator, whose material was also presented as part of a potential Valve label P&D deal. Ironically, Parisi would push for the less-established band to be signed because "it was the hook that Pangaea, for all the excitement [it] had generated on stage, had lacked."^[2] The band signed with Warner in 1995, and its second EP and first album were licensed to Reprise Records in the USA.

The release of its first self-titled EP led to a stirring of the Brisbane music scene that was well and truly interested by the time of the release of its second EP, New, which spawned the radio hits "Track 1" and "Blubber Boy".

Tu-Plang (1996)

Following the success of their first two EP releases, the band made an unusual move by travelling to Thailand to record their first full-length album at 'Center Stage Studios', a famed pop studio in Bangkok. Martin Lee pushed to record in Thailand because it was cheaper and more interesting than recording in Australia.^[3] Calling the album Tu-Plang (ตู้เพลง; Thai for 'Jukebox'), it largely featured a rock/hip hop infusion, which was evident on the third single release "Kong Foo Sing". The band also experimented in a number of genres including techno, musak, surf rock and dub. Regurgitator had gained notoriety for songs, usually written by Yeomans, with obscene lyrical content. Amongst these, the controversial pop-rock tune "I Sucked a Lot of Cock to Get Where I Am" was attacked by Australian radio identity Alan Jones, who campaigned to have it removed from airplay.^[4] Tu-Plang was a smash hit, winning Best Alternative Release and Best Debut Album at the 1996 ARIA Music Awards.

Unit (1997–1998)

After their recording experience in Thailand, the band chose to record in the comfort of their hometown Brisbane. The band favoured the idea of setting up a makeshift studio in a condemned warehouse in Fortitude Valley, affectionately named "The Dirty Room" by the band. In contrast with their rock-oriented works of the past, the band moved on with a more electronic and pop based sound on their second effort Unit. The band openly acknowledged their stylistic change with the album's opening track, ironically titled "I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff". The band released "Everyday Formula" as the first single, with Yeomans and Magoo later admitting it was a conscious decision to ease their fans into the new sound with a heavier track.^[5] The single made a lacklustre impact compared with the following pop and keyboard style of the following singles, which were instant hits. From this album, "Polyester Girl", "! (The Song Formerly Known As)" (an homage to 1980s era Prince_), and "Black Bugs" (an homage to 1980s synth pop) all gained significant amounts of airplay. Unit is Regurgitator's most commercially successful album, going platinum three times in Australia. Whilst it no doubt increased the popularity of the band, fans of their first generation of work are still divided in their responses to it.^[6][7][8] It is also considered to be ahead of its time due to heavy 1980s referencing, well ahead of the popularisation of 1980s aesthetics which occurred post-2000. Unit won 5 ARIA Music Awards in 1998, including Best Album and Producer of the Year.^[9][10] Shane Rudken, who had contributed string arrangements on Unit, was added as a live session musician on keyboards.

During the UnitShifter tour in late 1997 drummer Martin Lee had failed to appear at a second sold-out show at the University of Western Australia. After disappearing from a Perth nightclub, he was found the next day, unconscious, and was taken to hospital where he remained comatose for a week. No-one, including Lee once he had recovered, had any recollection of the circumstances that had landed him there. Jon Coghill of Brisbane rock band Powderfinger was his fill-in for the rest of the tour. The arrangement purportedly caused a rift between the two bands as Coghill and Lee were high school friends. Yeomans explained in a 2011 interview that "...those guys (Powderfinger) are kind of from a different scene I guess, if you like. Almost a different social strata in a weird way; they're all private school boys so we never had that much in common".^[11]

Lee's departure and end of deal with Warner Music (1999–2003)

After a short break in 1998 working with respective side projects (Quan formed Happyland with Spiderbait's Janet English and Ben Ely revived Pangaea) the band moved into Wategoes Beachhouse at Byron Bay on the New South Wales coast to begin recording their third album, ...art. Having rebuilt "The Dirty Room" studio with the assumption it would be used for the recording, Lee felt undervalued when Yeomans made it clear he needed a change in working environment.^[12] Ely admitted that tension had always existed between the two.^[13] Since the Unit sessions he had felt excluded from the creative process as his material would rarely be used and he was often replaced by a drum machine in the studio.^[14] After an extended absence during the album recording and a string of absences on the supporting tour schedule it was announced in late 1999 that Lee would be leaving the group due to 'creative differences'.^[15][16] He formed the The Boat Show with Matthew Strong of Custard when Custard disbanded.^[17] Lee He was replaced by Front End Loader and Hard-Ons drummer, Peter Kostic late 1999.

...art was followed by Eduardo and Rodriguez Wage War on T-Wrecks in 2001, a hip-hop-focused album that Yeomans and Ely recorded and produced in London. Despite the latter's musical proximity to Tu-Plang, both albums met criticism from many fans, who considered them lacking the creativity of the alternative and explicit Regurgitator from the mid-1990s.^[18][19][20] At the same time, the albums did not perform as well as hoped by Warner on the charts despite their success in Japan. This led into a turbulent relationship with their label, Warner, who were unable to grasp the band's lack of motivation and refusal to compromise just for the sake of commercial success.^[21][22][23] After the fourth album, discussions led to a mutual request to end the deal, and the compilation album Jingles (along with DVD Infomercials) was released – the title an obvious comment on the parallel of advertising and the focus on singles and their videos. Regurgitator would then go on to independently release further material using their manager's Valve Records/MGM distribution setup not re-signing to any actual label.

Band in a Bubble and Mish Mash! (2004–2005)

Regurgitator created and participated in the Band in a Bubble project in 2004, a new reality TV-inspired media stunt sponsored and broadcast by Australian music channel, Channel V. The band entered a small glass recording studio, built in Federation Square in the centre of Melbourne, to record their new album. Pedestrians could look into most rooms of the "bubble" and could watch the band work, or tune into a 24-hour digital cable television channel and watch their work on that. Nobody could enter or leave the bubble, a la Big Brother. In addition to the three band members, their longtime Australian producer Magoo, engineer Hugh Webb and Channel V host Jabba were all also locked into the bubble with the band. This project resulted in 2004's Mish Mash!.

The first single from Mish Mash! was "The Drop" and the second was "My Friend Robot". In May 2005 they released the "My Ego" single, which contains three remixes created by Quan Yeomans in his new home in Hong Kong. They then released the #?*! (or Pillowhead) EP which contained B-sides from Mish Mash!. Their album tour included a performance at the world's biggest short film festival, Tropfest, surrounded by 30,000 people.

Love and Paranoia and Distractions EP

Regurgitator took a break during 2006, with Ben working on his project Jump 2 Light Speed and Quan working on his solo career. The band also licensed their Band in a Bubble concept to Initial TV in the UK. In 2007 Quan released an EP with Sydney-based musician Spod called Blox.

Their sixth album, Love and Paranoia was recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and was released in Australia on 15 September 2007. It features 80's style keyboard-driven poprock tunes, with new member Seja Vogel on keyboards. The first single from the album, titled "Blood and Spunk" received airplay on Triple J. Music videos for "Blood and Spunk" and the second single, "Romance of the Damned", have been released.

In 2008, Regurgitator released Love and Paranoia in the UK and Asia with a supporting tour. It was the first time in 5 years that the band had toured the UK. It was also their first visit to China where they played alongside New Pants, who had supported Regurgitator on their Australian tour in 2007. Simultaneously, Ben Ely and Quan Yeomans both launched solo projects with "Ben Ely's Radio 5" becoming his second solo project while Quan's album Quan: The Amateur was his debut solo album which was recorded in Hong Kong, where he lived until 2010. Quan played the Big Day Out 2009 tour in support of his album.

The group's Warner Music catalogue was finally made available after much delay on iTunes worldwide in August 2009. In September 2009 it was stated on the band's website that the band were talking about recording a new album in 2010.

At the beginning of May 2010, Regurgitator announced on the news section of their website that they had begun work on their seventh album. It is also known that they are recording it in the heart of Melbourne. These sessions led to the release of four-track EP "Distractions" that was released 8 September 2010 and was followed by a major-city tour of Australia supported by Rat Vs Possum and Laneous & The Family Yah. Seja Vogel is not credited on the EP, and did not tour with the band.

When Distractions was released, Yeomans stated that the band would likely no longer release music in album format. Instead, they would release songs digitally, and consider pressed releases in a compilation-style format when they had enough material. This was supported by the subsequent internet-only release of tracks "Born Dumb" and "Evil Eye" via the band's website in November 2010.

SuperHappyFunTimesFriends and the RetroTech Tour

After announcing in 2010 that the band would not release any full-length albums in favour of regular individual tracks, and thus forth compiling them on vinyl and cassette in conjunction with future tours. When management confirmed a tour and the required deadline to have vinyl etc. available, they realised the necessity of the "focused structure and disciplined approach" that comes with creating albums of music. This has led to the release of their 7th studio album, titled SuperHappyFunTimesFriends, on 5 August 2011. The lead single "One Day" was released in July 2011. The album features a version of the song "Born Dumb" that was previously released as the Nrob Bmud EP in December 2010. The album is set to be released on CD and digital formats, as well as non-traditional formats such as vinyl, cassette, and playbutton. It debuted on the AIR chart at No. 18 and the ARIA chart at No. 91.^[24]

In June 2012, it was announced that Regurgitator would be playing their first two albums, Tu Plang and Unit, in their entirety in an Australian tour named RetroTech.^[25]

Dirty Pop Fantasy to hiatus (2013–15)

In early 2013, the band announced that they were working on their eighth studio album in Hong Kong. Entitled Dirty Pop Fantasy, the album was released on 6 September 2013 through Valve Records. The album was streamed online on 23 August 2013 on the Deezer website.^[26] During the band's keynote address at the Big Sound music conference in early September 2013, the band explained that the lower level of productivity during the latter part of their career is due to the geographical spread of the two primary band members, Ely and Yeomans—Ely is based in Melbourne, Australia, while Yeomans resides in Hong Kong. A post on the band's Facebook page on 18 September 2013 then revealed that Regurgitator will enter a period of indefinite hiatus following a national Australian and Asian tour that ended in December 2013 due to the birth of Yeomans's first child.^[27][28] Their last show for the foreseeable future was in Beijing on 7 December 2013 as part of the Converse Rubber Tracks event with touring friends Chinese band New Pants.

Post-hiatus (2015–present)

In May 2015 Regurgitator resumed and announced their Cheap Imitations tour-ché across Australia from August to September.^[29] In April 2016 they performed at the National Gallery of Victoria covering Velvet Underground's debut album, The Velvet Underground and Nico as part of the Andy Warhol-Ai Weiwei exhibition.^[30] Regurgitator's line-up was Yeomans, Ely, Kostic and joined by Seja Vogel on keyboards/vocals and Mindy Meng Wang on guzheng.^[30] In homage to Prince, they added a cover of his song, "When Doves Cry" to their set list on 22 April.^[31]

Discography

Albums

EPs

Singles

Vinyl issues

• SuperHappyFunTimesFriends – Valve Records (August 2011)
• Dirty Pop Fantasy – Valve Records (September 2013)
• Tu-Plang – reissue – Valve Records (October 2013)
• Unit – reissue – Valve Records (October 2013)
• Mish Mash! – Valve Records (October 2013)
• Regurgitator/New (double EP)|Regurgitator/New – reissue – Valve Records (June 2014)
• Nothing Less than Cheap Imitations: Live at The HiFi Melbourne Oct 2012 – Valve Records (October 2016)

VHS and DVDs

• Regurgitated [VHS] (1996)
• Regurgitator: Live at the Brisbane Festival Hall [VHS] (1998)
• Jingles: Infomercials The Best of Videos [DVD] (November 2002)
• Nein Nein Nein Slumber of the Beast [DVD] (October 2003)
• Band in a Bubble – The DVD (January 2008)

Music videos

• "I Like it Like That"
• "Couldn't Do It"
• "Track 1"
• "Blubber Boy"
• "Kong Foo Sing"
• "F.S.O"
• "Miffy's Simplicity"
• "Everyday Formula"
• "Black Bugs"
• "Modern Life"
• "! (The Song Formerly Known As)"
• "Polyester Girl"
• "I Like Your Old Remix Better Than Your New Remix"
• "Happiness"
• "Freshmint!"
• "I Wanna Be a Nudist"
• "Crush the Losers"
• "Fat Cop"
• "Super Straight"
• "Hullabaloo"
• "C'mon"
• "Transformers Theme"
• "Bong in My Eye"
• "The Drop"
• "My Friend Robot"
• "Pretty Girls Swear"
• "The Game"
• "Blood and Spunk"
• "Romance of the Damned"
• "Destroy this Town"
• "One Day"
• "No Show"
• "Be Still My Noisy Mind"
• "All Fake Everything"
• "Made To Break"
• "Sine Wave"

Other "mini videos" exist for other album tracks as seen on "Regurgitated" and "Jingles (Infomercials)".

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Regurgitator.

• Regurgitator's official website
• Regurgitator's MySpace site
• An extensive discography of the band's work