Regurgiatator and the Post-War Toilet Tissue Crisis

Rip It Up, Issue 236, 1 April 1997, Page 12

Regurgiatator and the Post-War Toilet Tissue Crisis

I talked to Martin Lee and Quan Yeomans of Brisbane-based three-piece Regurgitator shortly after they played the Powerstation to support Rocket From The Crypt and promote their debut album Tu Plang, which means jukebox in some Asian tongue or other. It was obvious fairly soon that interviews are not their favourite way to start the day, but in spite of this their dry sense of humour shone through and they told a great story about a Japanese weirdo. I attempt to break the ice by discussing their live show, which featured ample helpings of beefy guitar, funkin’ bass, dance-worthy beats, yelling, and what looked like a stringed piece of two-by-four. What was the box with the strings on it? Quan Yeomans: “It’s a Vietnamese stringed gong my mum brought back from Vietnam for me and said, ‘Use this in the band, love.’” . Quan has to raise his voice about two octaves to imitate his mother’s voice. But then, don’t we all?

Did you see that Polynesian guy dancing like a madman? I wondered if he was one of your crew you sent out there t 0... Martin Lee: “.. .fire up the crowd?” ' QY: “He’s actually the fourth member. We take him everywhere we go.” ' Sure. In spite of their success, the threesome still consider themselves a pub band: What’s the ideal Regurgitator live situation? QY: “I like playing to smaller crowds. Mainly in Australia we play to crowds that are a little too big, especially when we’re doing festivals and stuff. I hate playing to anything over a thousand.” What do you lose? QY: “Any connection with what’s going on, basically.” You’re from Brisbane, what’s the environment there like now? I know it’s been pretty oppressive. QY: “They’re trying to get the oppressiveness back.” ML: “Queensland’s run by the religious right.”

QY: “So, occasionally you get a weird Christian wanting to take your records off the K-Mart shelves in some backwater.” Tu Plang bristles with the cynical wit infused into Quan’s lyrics. The title of the opening track makes my next question easy: Did you suck a lot of cock to get where you are? . ■. y . ML: “Shit, yeah! Still sucking!” ' ; ' . QY: “Still got that cock in our mouths.” ML: “Sucked, fondled, you name it.” QY: “No, we haven’t actually done that badly.” But you know people who have? QY: “Oh, yeah.” ■ I take it you’re fairly cynical of the music industry? QY: “We know what it’s about now. You go in there and you learn some stuff.” Is the right sort of Australian music being promoted at the moment? QY: “Us, Spiderbait, You Am I* and Powderfinger — they’re just plugging those bands big time. They’re just trying to make the ‘Alternative Nation’.” Although they claim to have no plan for world domination, Regurgitator have nevertheless done their share of international touring. What kind of venues did you play irr Japan? ML: “Small places, 200, 300 people. It’s good to go to Japan. I’m not saying we’re massive, but in Australia you know there’s going to be 500 people [at a gig]. But in Japan you’ve still got that old feeling of, ‘Are there only going to be 10 people?’ Its a good feeling.” . QY: “It makes you. scream a little louder.’’. . And the people? ' ■ QY: “They explain some history which'is pretty bizarre, like the post-war toilet tissue crisis. Strange place.” ' The band had another taste of Nippon-style weirdness when they supported one of the country’s foremost exponents of high volume artnoise.

What was it like playing with the Boredoms?

QY: “They were great people, really nice to work with, I found.”

I’ve seen them play. Did they say ‘thankyou’ as soon as their songs had finished before anyone started clapping? ML: “I don’t think they said ‘thankyou’ at all. About 11 years ago the lead singer had another band and he made all these homemade bombs and put them behind each guitar player’s amp, and went outside and hired a Bobcat [a small digger] and just fucken drove into the venue, man, smashed in a wall. And the band were saying, ‘What are these things behind our amps?,’ and they all started freaking out. And he didn’t tell anyone he was going to set them off and blow up the amps as a piece of performance art. So, the band walked off.”

QY: “But he must have gone through a ‘thankyou’ stage.” ML: “He probably parked the Bobcat and said, ‘Thankyou!’” QY: “‘Thankyou, goodnight, you’re wonderful!”’

How important is a sense of humour? ML: “Pretty important.” QY: “It’s damn important. You can’t take things too seriously or otherwise...” ML: “Otherwise it’s... just... fucked.” I get the feeling this interview should draw to a close soon.

Well, that’s just about it. Anything else to add...? / Both: “Nah.” ...like maybe you’re up too early? QY: “No, we’re always like this. This is proba- | bly a better way to catch us actually. Otherwise | we’d be giggling.” . With the interview finished, Martin and Quan | head out to peruse a couple of Auckland’s better J music shops for vintage instruments, and I skulk | back to an air-conditioned high rise to don my | day-glo Fire Warden vest and answer the phone | for another six hours. Regurgitator’s attitude is | hardly ‘happy happy, joy joy’, but I’m pretty sure they prefer their day’s activity to mine. |

JUSTIN REDDING