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Brick
by brick breakdown...
March 1994... Ben Ely and Quan Yeomans cemented their relationship
with Martin Lee by constructing a side project to their other
bands at the time. Ben was playing bass & singing in the
Bad Brains/King Crimson influenced 3 piece Pangaea; Quan was
playing guitar in the extreme, female-fronted, animalistic Zooerastia;
and Martin at the time was drumming in funkmetal act Brazilia
- all Brisbane based, all making interesting inroads into new
takes on music setting a great base for the self-evolving configuration
that was to become. Throwing up every name conceivable they
settled on Regurgitator as an appropriate moniker to describe
their assembled mass of styles, sounds & attitudes. Fueled
as much by their unmitigated cynicism & geek nature along
with the irreverent take on themselves, corporate culture and
human social behaviour.
Their first show was a benefit for Greenpeace in a Brisbane
public park, consisting of approximately 5 songs played twice.
Quickly following this they played a variety of guest spots
with Primus, Beck, The Buzzcocks, John Spencer Blues Explosion,
Ministry among others... Recording a tape of tracks in Brisbane
led to an eventual enlistment to the Warner corporation with
the first self-titled EP to be released soon after in late 94...
featuring the tracks "I Like it Like That" and "Couldn`t
Do it", it laid the groundwork for a reception of new sound
proportions.
The second EP NEW featuring one of their ice-breaking
singles "Blubber Boy" (a twisted take on a eskimo
fairy tale) and "Track 1" was released mid 1995. Over
this time they toured & played with Pansy Division (gay
activist punks from the USA), TISM & The Mark of Cain. Late
1995 they embarked on the first overseas trip - a full European
tour with US acts Filter & God Lives Underwater, followed
by their first performances in Tokyo at the punk club Guilty
before returning to Australia to play some shows with Swervedriver.
Their next single "FSO" - 2 minutes of punkpop fury
locked inside of 10 minutes of noise - was released in Dec 1995
as a prelude to their first national BIG DAY OUT tour in Jan
1996. Upon completion of this tour, they packed their tools
and relocated to Center Stage studios in Bangkok to record their
debut album with producer Magoo who had previously provided
the production mortar on their first 2 EPs. April 1996 the first
single "Kong Foo Sing" broke the cookie - an ode to
the humble fortune cookie and paved the way for the debut album
Tu Plang (Thai for Jukebox) - a rubble of punk
pop, hop-rock-beats & discarded sounds. This release coincided
with a guest spot on the first national tour by the Red Hot
Chili Peppers. Following on from this in June was a national
headline tour with avant garde guests from Japan, noisemeisters
BOREDOMS, preceding their first US tour as guests of God Lives
Underwater. This led to the EP NEW being released on Reprise
in America, a Sub Pop 7inch vinyl release of "I Sucked
A Lot Of Cock To Get Where I Am", and the eventual release
of the debut album. September saw a Japan/Australian tour together
with CIV from New York - including an incredible sold out date
with the Boredoms in Osaka at Wo`Hol and profile main stage
LIVID Festival performance. October saw the Japanese release
of Tu Plang along with their first sold out performance headlining
the Easy Cheese bill at Brisbane`s Festival Hall. As well as
various Summer Festival appearances in Australia, including
their first show as a guest of Prodigy in Sydney Jan 1997 &
an Auckland show co-headlining with Rocket From The Crypt. 1997
opens with another March trip to USA for press, a SXSW appearance
in Austin, Texas and dates in San Francisco & Los Angeles,
followed by their eleventh extensive Australian tour.
Upon completion of this work commenced on fabricating their
own studio The Dirty Room in a condemned warehouse in Brisbane`s
Fortitude Valley backstreets. Work was delayed on this due to
a third visit to America to do an extensive tour as guests of
Helmet & The Melvins. By August the second album UNIT
was complete... the first single "Everyday Formula"
was mixed at their warehouse studio by US producer Rob Cavallo
when on a brief visit to Brisbane. This album heralded a new
direction with a strong pop ala 80`s electro vibe although never
short of their self-deprecating sense of humour and fun. UNIT
along with second single "Black Bugs" was released
in late 1997 along with another extensive Australian tour. Although
it wasn`t until 1998, where a national Australian tour as guests
of The Prodigy & the release of the Polyester Girl single
(selling 40,000+ copies) that the album really exploded going
on to sell in excess of 240,000 copies - reaching triple platinum
in Australia. April also saw a string of benefits supporting
the Anti-Jabiluka Uranium mining campaign for the Mirrar people
- the highlight being a 5.00am performance with Midnight Oil
& Coloured Stone at the blockade of the proposed mining
site in the Kakadu National Park. A third tour to Japan follows
in June which includes their first performance at Club Milk
& the filming of the "Song Formerly Know As" video
in Tokyo; leading in to their sellout Australian/New Zealand
Caveat Emptour together with TISM. This tour saw the usage of
a large scale visual projection which was built around computer
animation's of the band members. Prior to an October Japan tour
(which included 3 shows on the final day in Tokyo including
the first show for SNOOZER magazine with Spiderbait) there was
another trip to London which along with a couple of sold out
shows saw a performance at the Reading Festival and the UK release
of UNIT. Upon return from Japan, the album UNIT was to receive
various ARIA awards including best album for 1998.
The beginning of 1999 saw Regurgitator complete their second
national Big Day Out tour before relocating their various studio
bits & pieces, along with Magoo for their third album together,
to a Byron Bay beach house. The result ...art
was released in Australia in August, with their first single
"Happiness" out in June. To launch this a tour in
June with Japan`s Audio Active, preceded a more extensive Australian/New
Zealand album tour with Custard & The Resin Dogs. At the
end of this tour Martin Lee decided to pack up his tools and
he was replaced by Front End Loader drummer Peter Kostic. After
some summer Australian festival appearances over the end of
1999, beginning of 2000, the release of the third single from
...art, "Freshmint" coincided with an extensive New
Zealand, Japan & Australian tour - the SNOOZER presented
Japan leg being their most successful dates ever, the album
going on to sell 12,000 copies there. The Australian dates included
the first visit by guests Japanese band The ZooBombs.
In the later period of 2000, Quan & Ben commenced work in
their home studios on material for their fourth album. Early
in 2001 they relocated to London to mix the new material with
Andy Gill from UK arterrorists Gang of Four fame. He had also
been involved in the musical production for Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Jesus Lizard, Michael Hutchence, Bis among others. The end result
of this being Eduardo & Rodriguez Wage War on T-Wrecks.
The first single "Fat Cop" was released in May to
coincide with a short Australian tour with guest King Kapisi.
This was followed by a quick trip to Japan for the great Fuji
Rock Festival coming after the release of the 4th album in early
June. The album was then released in Australia & New Zealand
in July and the band then conducted an extensive & successful
Australian tour - The Canon Fodder tour with guests Gerling.
During this time the album was released in Singapore, Germany
and Scandanavia. At the completion of the tour they then headed
back to Japan after performing a main stage spot on Brisbane`s
Livid Festival for 2001. The Japanese tour included special
guests the Zoobombs and had sell-out shows in Tokyo. After performing
a show on new Years Eve at the Falls Festival with The Hives
and a variety of Australian artists they then went on the 2002
Big Day Out tour in Jan/Feb performing between System of a Down
and Garbage on the mainstage. The highlight of the East Coast
performances on this tour was the inclusion of ex-Canadian now
Berlin based artist Peaches and a duet on her track Rock Show.
Since this time Quan has relocated to Europe to work on a solo
album and Ben is also working on a solo album.
In
June 2002 they played an Australian flavoured festival in London,
UK that attracted 20,000 people... along with Midnight Oil,
Spiderbait, the D4 and more.... A singles compilation album
JINGLES was released to end their deal with
Warner music. This was also accompanied by a DVD called JINGLES:Infommercials
and included a documentary edited by Ben Ely. The album Jingles
was also picked up by independent UK label Kennel and released
in April 2003 which was met with a great Uk tour that covered
many cities they had never performed in before... Brighton,
Glasgow, York, Liverpool, Newquay and Cardiff. A couple of great
sell-out shows including one at Sheperds Bush for 1200.
Work has commenced on a new album.
CLICK HERE FOR REGURGITATOR TOUR DATES
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