Tu-Plang

Tu-Plang
Studio album by Regurgitator
Released	1996
Recorded	Center Stage Studios Bangkok, Thailand
Genre	Alternative rock alternative hip hop rap rock experimental
Length	40:58
Label	East West/WEA Australia 0630-14895 Reprise/Warner Bros. (US) 46509
Producer	Magoo
Regurgitator chronology
– Tu-plang (1996) Unit (1997)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link

Tu-Plang (ตู้เพลง Thai for Jukebox) (1996) was the first album released by Regurgitator after making two EPs. The band chose to record the album in Bangkok, Thailand, to the quandary of its label, Warner Music, which was uncertain as to what terms A&R executive Michael Parisi had contracted.^[1] Ely later said, "We didn't want to do it in just any old place, so we had a tour in Europe and Japan booked and our drummer Martin said, 'let's stop in Thailand on the way and check out some studios,' so we did and we found this place."^[2]

Producer Magoo later said the studio, "was [owned by] this guy [who was in the band] Carabao. He was described to us as the local, Thai, Bruce Springsteen. He had this compound in outer Bangkok. We'd drive there and it's in the middle of all these slums. There were wild chickens running around everywhere. There were open sewers and stuff like that."^[3]

It was the band's only full-length work released in the USA. This was the first of three Regurgitator albums to be made available on vinyl; the others were Unit in 1998 and SuperHappyFunTimesFriends in 2011. It was re-issued on vinyl by Valve in October 2013.^[4]

In 2012, Regurgitator performed the entire album along with Unit on the Australian RetroTech tour.

Track Information

• Track 1, "I Sucked a Lot of Cock to Get Where I Am" was only released as a single in the USA and UK in November 1996. Within Australia, the song was attacked by radio personality Alan Jones, who campaigned to have it removed from airplay.^[5][6] It was voted #23 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of 1996. Yeomans later said, "I recall Warner 'loving' the song but being a bit apprehensive about leaving the title as it was. I believe they bandied other more palatable titles about– "Rinsing" comes to mind– but inevitably caved into our infantile demands."^[7]
• Track 2 "Kong Foo Sing" was the second single released in Australia. It was voted No. 15 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of 1996. The song was inspired by Yeomans sending a box of Kong Foo Sing fortune cookies in an attempt to woo future partner Janet from Spiderbait.^[7]
• Track 3 "G7 Dick Electro Boogie" contains samples of street sounds in Bangkok. Yeomans later said, " I think this songs small claim to fame is attributed to the "gang-rape a cripple" line nicely taken out of context by a few bored conservative factions floating around at the time.^[7]
• Track 4 is a Muzak version of "Couldn't Do It" off the band's first self-titled EP.
• Track 5, "Miffy's Simplicity" was the third single released in Australia.
• Track 10 "F.S.O" is an abbreviation of 'Fuck Shit Off'. It was the first single from the album to be released in Australia.^[8] Ely later said, "Quan wrote this about his sister-in-law and how she got married to this guy who turned out to be a brut and was violent with her. This song is his anger at the situation."^[7]
• Track 13 is an up-tempo version of "Blubber Boy" off the band's second EP, New.

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald described the album as, "an album that leapt from rock to rap, from fun to funk, from thrash to surf rock (a la Dick Dale), and it did nothing less than announce the arrival of the most significant band in Australia today. More successfully than any of their peers, Regurgitator showed they were committed to pushing the boundaries of contemporary music through their marriage of technology and pop."^[9] The Age said the album, "at times resembles a net surfer's wet dream, skipping from one style to another, sometimes mid-song," and noted Yeomans' sardonic lyrics.^[10] They later voted Tu-Plang as one the greatest albums from the first 50 years of Australian music.^[11]

Less flatteringly, Allmusic said the album was, "an utterly misbegotten funk-rap-metal fusion which, much as the band's name implies, offers merely another rehash of the usual genre fare." The song "Pop Porn" was singled out for being, "so overboard in attacking rap misogyny that it reaches levels of offensiveness beyond anything actually in the true hip-hop canon."^[12]

Track listing

1. "I Sucked a Lot of Cock to Get Where I Am" (Q. Yeomans)
2. "Kong Foo Sing" (Q. Yeomans)
3. "G7 Dick Electro Boogie" (Q. Yeomans)
4. "Couldn't Do It (Happy Shopper Mix)" (B. Ely)
5. "Miffy's Simplicity" (Q. Yeomans)
6. "Social Disaster" (Q. Yeomans)
7. "Music is Sport" (Q. Yeomans)
8. "348 Hz" (B. Ely)
9. "Mañana" (B. Ely)
10. "F.S.O." (Q. Yeomans)
11. "Pop Porn" (Q. Yeomans)
12. "Young Bodies Heal Quickly" (Q. Yeomans)
13. "Blubber Boy (Riding the Wave of Fashion Mix)" (Q. Yeomans)
14. "Doorselfin" (B. Ely)

Awards

The album won Best Alternative release and Best Debut album at the 1996 ARIA Music Awards.

References

1. "Pig City: From the Saints to Savage Garden" by Andrew Stafford, Published by University of Queensland Press, 2004, p.280
2. Jade Lazrevic (8 September 2012). "The way we were". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
3. "How toothpicks helped make Tu Plang, Regurgitator's debut". Double J. 7 May 2015. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
4. "REGURGITATOR 12" THE LIVING END POWDERFINGER SILVERCHAIR JEBEDIAH MACH PELICAN - auction details". Popsike.com. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
5. "Regurgitator Renaissance". Australiantimes.co.uk. 2008-09-15. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
6. "Music Censorship - In Music and Media Magazine Guest Editorial". Danny.oz.au. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
7. "Retrospective track-by-track: Regurgitator, Tu-Plang". The Music Netwok. Archived from the original on 6 December 2012.
8. "Regurgitator Discography: F.S.O. (Single)". Spakatak.com. 1996-02-19. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
9. Sacha Molitorisz (7 November 1997). "The Rockless travelled". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
10. Shaun Carney (15 May 1996). "(Rock)". The Age. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
11. "Best of the best". The Age. 27 June 2008. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
12. Jason Ankeny. "Tu-Plang". Allmusic. Retrieved 10 August 2015.