Tu-Plang (ตู้เพลง Thai for Jukebox) is the debut studio album released by Australian rock band Regurgitator. It was released in Australia in May 1996, where it sold well despite receiving little radio airplay. It was later released in the United States on April 22, 1997. 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."

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."

Lyrics and musical style

In a September 1997 review of Tu-Plang, Alex Steininger of American site In Music We Trust described Regurgitator as being Australia's answer to the Bloodhound Gang, who are known for their comedy rap rock style. He said, "from offensive lyrics to funny lyrics, it's all covered here". Others have also compared the album to the band Ween, due to its variety of styles. The album has elements of funk metal/rap metal, cocktail music, dance, dub, Indigenous Thai music, industrial music, hip hop, Muzak, pop rock, punk, surf rock, turntablism and spaghetti western music.

  • Track 4 is a Muzak version of "Couldn't Do It" off the band's first self-titled EP.
  • "Blubber Boy" is an up-tempo version of "Blubber Boy" off the band's second EP, New.

Touring and promotion

They toured with a wide range of bands around the album's release, including thrash metal bands and indie bands. They then did their first U.S. tour as guests of God Lives Underwater, followed by a Japan/Australian tour with New York band CIV. The Age said in 1996 that 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. They later voted Tu-Plang as one of the greatest albums from the first 50 years of Australian music. In 2018, Australia's ABC referred to Tu-Plang as "the peak of weird in Australian music".

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."

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" <small>(Riding the Wave of Fashion Mix)</small> (Q. Yeomans)
  14. "Doorselfin" (B. Ely)

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

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!scope="col"|Chart (1996/97)

!scope="col"|Peak<br />position

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|-

|-

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Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable"

|-

!Chart (1996)

!Position

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|Australian Albums Chart

| style="text-align:center;"|59

|}

Certifications

Release history

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

|-

! scope="col"| Region

! scope="col"| Date

! scope="col"| Format

! scope="col"| Label

! scope="col"| Catalogue

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! Australia

| 6 May 1996

|

| EastWest Records

| 063014895

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! United States of America

| 1997

|

| Reprise Records

| 946509-2

|-

! Australia

| 2013

| rowspan="2"|

| Valve Records

| V130V

|-

|}

References