Regurgitator are playing a retrospective of singles on their Jukeboxxin' tour, which hits regional VIC in February and Melbourne in April.
Regurgitator are not obvious major label material.
Formed in Brisbane in 1993 and led by dual frontpeople Quan Yeomans and Ben Ely, the band opened their debut album, Tu-Plang, with a song titled I Sucked a Lot of Cock to Get Where I Am. The album’s breakout single, Kung Foo Sing, is a funk metal song about fortune cookies.
“I remember having minor arguments [with the label] about changing the names of singles,” Yeomans says. “Like, Sucked A Lot Of Cock, they wanted to change to ‘Rinsing’.”
Regurgitator: Jukeboxxin’ tour
- Fri 10 & Sat 11 April
- The Croxton
- Tickets here
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
On their next album, 1997’s Unit, Yeomans and Ely chiselled their pop instincts and introduced more electronic production. But the album’s biggest single, Polyester Girl, is about a sex doll, while the most beloved song in the band’s catalogue, also from Unit, is the Prince spoof ! (The Song Formerly Known As).
But not only did both albums come out through a major, they were also genuine hits, reaching the ARIA top five and earning platinum accreditation.
“We only signed to them on the basis that we could do what we wanted,” Yeomans says of the band’s former label, Warner Music. “And it was pretty rare at that time, but we definitely did what we wanted to do and put out what we wanted to.”
Regurgitator’s major label days came to an end with their fourth album, 2001’s Eduardo and Rodriguez Wage War on T-Wrecks, but they’ve never stopped putting out music, with their latest LP, Invader, landing in 2024.
Late last year, Yeomans, Ely, drummer Peter Kostic and touring guitarist Sarah Lim launched the Jukeboxxin’ tour, playing a retrospective of singles drawn from their ten studio albums and handful of EPs.
“It’s pretty horrifying to see how many singles there are. I mean, it’s like 54 or something,” Yeomans says.
There isn’t room for all 54, but they’ve stuffed a significant percentage of their career singles into the tour setlist. “The show is the longest show we’ve ever played as a band, close to two hours,” Yeomans says.
Regurgitator have always been hard to classify; as punk as they are pop, as esoteric as they are crowd-pleasing, as tongue in cheek as they are searingly political. This can make organising their tour setlists somewhat challenging
“The more songs there are for us, the harder it gets because it’s so much up and down and so many genre shifts,” Yeomans says. “To get it to flow and have a decent rhythm to it is really quite tricky. But it’s just what we do.”
Performing songs written as jobless teens alongside songs written as parents in their 50s, Yeomans perceives some key differences.
“I think that there’s a lot of relationship stuff that goes on with your band members when you’re starting out and you don’t know what you’re doing. There’s a lot of friction. There’s a lot of competitiveness that is really great for songwriting because there’s a lot of one-upmanship. There’s also a kind of naivety there that you can never really get back. And I feel like you take a lot more risks when you’re new with the art form, when you’re just kind of exploring.
“But a lot of things change as you get older, right? You get more tired, you get other responsibilities, priorities, money becomes more of a priority. That sort of stuff you don’t really think about that when you’re on the dole and you’re 17 or 18. They’re different priorities. And that really affects your creative headspace as well.”
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The tour’s tagline is “Wherever you go it’s fun to play.” Regurgitator have put this to the test in the course of their three-decade career, playing everywhere from pubs, bowlos and tiny bars to arenas and sport stadia.
“I remember, in my early twenties, we did a tour with Pansy Division, which was like a gay-core band from San Francisco, awesome bunch of dudes. But we played to no one – like, tiny shows – and I still had a ball,” Yeomans says. “And then I remember playing the entertainment centre with Red Hot Chili Peppers not long after that.
“I played in Yakuza bars in Japan, 20 people, 30 people, packed. If it’s rammed and everyone’s into it, it’s the best. It’s as good as playing in front of 10,000 people. I’d rather play a show like that, if everyone’s into it and there for you and you’re there for them, than play to a 40,000-crowd at the soccer – it feels like you’re just being ignored by 40,000 people.
“So it really depends on the energy that’s passing between you and the crowd. It doesn’t matter about the size so much.”
Tickets for Regurgitator’s Jukeboxxin’ tour are on sale now.
This article was made in partnership with Regurgitator.
