Brisbane alternative band Regurgitator have done almost everything in music from rock to hip-hip to pop to electronica.
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These days The Gurge are generally a part-time band, coming together for special live shows and new albums.
“We just put out albums for fun and don’t really have any expectation or hope that people will buy them,” Regurgitator bassist and co-vocalist Ben Ely says
“We know we won’t get played on Triple J because we’re too old and we’ll just put music out because we feel like it.
“We’ll take them to our gigs and sell them there.
“We’re very fortunate to have this lovely loyal fan base of people who will come out to our shows and will buy our records, new ones and old ones.”
With their ninth album Headroxx to be released on August 1, the band is back together for a national tour.
The Life Support Tour will hit the SS&A Club Albury on Saturday, August 5.
Back in the mid to late ’90s Regurgitator were arguably the most innovative band in Australia.
After emerging from the fertile Brisbane alternative scene the three-piece announced themselves with the hip-hop and rock infusion album Tu-Plang (1996).
Then came the ARIA award-winning excursion into ’80s pop-synths in Unit (1998) featuring the singles Black Bugs and Polyester Girl.
Regurgitator has one project in the works that is probably their most radical yet – a children’s album.
“It’s kind of like a naughty kid’s punk record,” Ely says.
“We’re talking about music for young kids. Obviously without swearing of course.”
The interest in recording a children’s album comes from the fact that both Ely and fellow Gurge frontman Quan Yeomans are fathers.
“We’re all parents now and all middle-aged,” he says
“But every time we get together we act like we’re five years old, so I guess that’s what keeps us doing it.”
Besides the children’s album, Ely spreads himself among various creative projects, which include composing music for films, contemporary dance shows and even circus performers.
The band will be supported in Albury by Canberra’s Glitoris.
The fearless female four-piece roar through uncompromising, unapologetic and unforgettable punk rock.
“With our shows we normally do a big party set and play loud and fast and try and get everyone dancing,” Ely says.