Top 10 Regurgitator Songs You Need To Know

Fresh off their sold-out Units Australian tour, Regurgitator will be glowing when they join KISS as local special guests for their final show down under this November.

Founding members Quan Yeomans (lead vocals, guitar and keyboards) and Ben Ely (bass guitar, keyboards) and longtime drummer, the prolific Peter Kostic, have found love and acclaim across the country since their inception in 1993.

Earlier this year, the Brisbane outfit celebrated 25 years of Unit, which hit #5 on the ARIA Albums Chart upon its release. It is certified triple Platinum in Australia and won five categories at the 1998 ARIA awards, including Best Alternative Album. 

The album spawned their hit singles, ! (The Song Formerly Known As), Everyday Formula, Polyester Girl and Black Bugs made the Triple J Hottest 100 in 1998 at #6, #10, #26 and #32, respectively. In addition, their top streamed track, ! (The Song Formerly Known As) was nominated for the 1998 ARIA Award for Single Of The Year and Best Video.

While Unit was undeniably monumental, there’s more to Regurgitator than Polyester Girl. To celebrate one of Australia’s most successful alternative acts scoring a massive support slot for one of the world’s biggest rock bands, we’ve rounded up the Top Ten Regurgitator Songs You Need To Know (with an honourable mention).

Couldn’t Do It (1994)

This super early number from the mighty Regurgitator is so 90s – this is Australian nu-metal at its finest. Couldn’t Do It appeared on the band’s debut self-titled 1994 EP, and despite the release having no official singles, the song still landed at #45 on the ARIA Top 50 Singles Chart. Not bad for a song so weird.

Blubber Boy (1995)

Just months between these two tracks and the evolution of Regurgitator as a band, and the time couldn’t be more evident. The grungy banger hit #17 on the triple j Hottest 100 in 1995, and rightly so. The 90s grit, heavy distortion and R-rated lyrics make it an all-time banger.

Kong Foo Sing (1996)

Who doesn’t love Regurgitator when they’re making heavy, bass-driven tunes with an epic drum sound? On Kong Foo Sing, from the band’s debut album, Tu-Plang, Regurgitator seamlessly blends rap, spinning turntables and metal.

According to Ely, going down memory lane with The Music Network, Kong Foo Sing is about “how Quan Yeomans had sent Janet [English] from Spiderbait a box of the Kong Foo Sing fortune cookies in an effort to get her to go out with him.” It hit #15 on the triple j Hottest 100 of 1996.

I Sucked A Lot Of Cock To Get Where I Am (1996)

This garage rock tune, again lifted from Tu-Plang, kept up Regurgitator’s cheeky spirit – the title hints at the darker areas of the music industry or maybe Yeomans’ “infantile demands”. The track shoulda been higher on the 1996 Hottest 100 (#23), but it remains a fan favourite. And any song that upsets Alan Jones enough to campaign for its removal from the radio makes it even sweeter.

Black Bugs (1998)

The darkest-sounding single from Unit also turns out to be the best one. Black Bugs was also the first (and sadly, only) Regurgitator song to land in the UK Charts, landing at #88. An ode to the video game-obsessed millennial generation, Black Bugs still rules.

Polyester Girl (1998)

You can tell we’ve reached Unit when we’re plugging this tune. A song that needs no introduction, and you either love it or hate it, fans in Australia seemed to love it, sending Polyester Girl to #14 on the ARIA Singles Chart and #26 on the Hottest 100.

Called the band’s “anti-commercialism anthem” by The AU Review, Yeomans doesn’t find Polyester Girl as fascinating as many listeners do, describing the track as “one of those throwaway things that was done so quickly and so sillily”.

! (The Song Formerly Known As) (1998)

The fourth and final single from Unit, ! (The Song Formerly Known As) is kinda romantic for Regurgitator. Telling the story of a couple that craves staying home and listening to vinyl records together, ! (The Song Formerly Known As) is glitchy rock perfection.

Hitting #6 on the Hottest 100 of 1998 and nominated for the Best Group, Best Video and Single Of The Year awards at the ARIAs, writer Tyler Jenke labelled the song as “an essential piece of Aussie music history”. It’s hard to argue with that.

Happiness (Rotting My Brain) (1999)

Welcome to …art, Regurgitator’s third album. Keeping the grooves and electronic influence found on Unit, the band sound perfectly comfortable in this banger. …art peaked at #2 on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified Gold. It was the last album to feature drummer Martin Lee.

Fat Cop (2001)

Fat Cop, the lead single from Eduardo and Rodriguez Wage War on T-Wrecks, peaked at #27 on the Hottest 100 of 2001, and we can’t help wondering why it didn’t land higher. Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park were stealing the airwaves at this stage; rap-rock and nu-metal were at their prime, and Regurgitator deserved more mainstream love for this one.

The Drop (2004)

More mainstream rock than some of the stranger Regurgitator songs, The Drop led the band’s album, Mish Mash, which was the tenth most requested song on the radio and made Regurgitator a top-five band in demand on Channel [V]. An underrated tune recorded on the TV channel’s Band In A Bubble series that introduced fans to a band they needed in their lives.

Honourable Mention: Pogogo Show Theme (2019)

While we know that Regurgitator didn’t just disappear from 2004 until 2019, there’s only so much you can do when rounding up a band’s top ten songs, and most of their most popular songs are from early in their career.

We were tempted to include 2007’s Blood And Spunk, 2011’s One Day and 2013’s Dirty Pop Fantasy as honourable mentions, but we couldn’t look past the Pogogo Show Theme.

How did the band that wrote and released I Sucked A Lot Of Cock To Get Where I Am come out with a children’s album? In 2020, the Regurgitator's Pogogo Show album, The Really Really Really Really Boring Album, landed the Best Independent Children’s Album or EP at the AIR Awards.

With Pogogo, Regurgitator maintained their quirkiness and managed to entertain the kids and the parents.