| My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Genres | Industrial rock, experimental |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Labels | Interscope/Atlantic Records Red And Records Rykodisc SleazeBox Records Wax Trax!/TVT Records |
| Members | |
| Groovie Mann: Vocals, guitar, keyboards Buzz McCoy: Keyboards, guitar, samples Charles Levi: Bass guitar Justin Thyme: Drums, percussion, electronic drums Westin Halvorson:guitar |
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| Past members | |
| Thomas Thorn: Keyboards, samples Otto Matix: Drums Ruth McArdle: Vocals, dancer Jacky Blacque: Vocals, dancer Lydia Lunch: Vocals William Tucker: Guitar Shawn Christopher: Vocals Kitty Killdare: vocals, dancer Sekret Dame DeZyre: vocals, dancer Dick Fury: Drums Linda LeSabre: Drums Pepper Somerset: Vocals Sinderella Pussy: vocals, dancer Arena rock: vocals, dancer Brian St. Clair: Drums, TKK's 1st show Skip Towne: Drums, TKK's 1st tour |
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My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult (often shortened to Thrill Kill Kult or TKK) is an American electronic industrial rock band originally based out of Chicago, Illinois.
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Thrill Kill Kult's name originated with Frankie Nardiello, who was touring with Ministry in 1986 as a lighting technician. Frankie wrote a few songs with Ministry frontman Alain Jourgensen, who was a previous bandmate of Nardiello's in an outfit called "Special Affect", and one of the songs was titled "Thrill Kill Kult". Soon after, Nardiello and friend Marston Daley began to conceive an art film called Hammerhead Housewife and the Thrill Kill Kult. The film was never completed, but the music they had recorded for its soundtrack appealed to Wax Trax! Records, who released the completed songs as a three-track EP.
Dubbing themselves Groovie Mann (Nardiello) and Buzz McCoy (Daley), they launched My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult. When the first EP sold well, a full length album, I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits, followed in 1988. Both attracted attention from college radio stations and dancefloors, as well as religious groups who balked at the overtly occult imagery in both the music and the artwork of the releases. The group continued to stoke controversy with each subsequent release, which included a remix EP entitled Nervous Xians, and they became even more popular with release of the 12-inch single "Kooler Than Jesus".
Thrill Kill Kult's second album, Confessions of a Knife, became one of the best-selling releases on Wax Trax!, and continued to goad parental groups with song titles like "A Daisy Chain 4 Satan" and "Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness".
Along with labelmates Ministry, KMFDM, and Front 242, Thrill Kill Kult helped develop the industrial music genre, but they themselves continued to evolve, creating a sound that was not easily identified or categorized. It was electronic club music with heavy beats, reminiscent of both disco and funk, yet amplified to a sometimes abrasive level. Thrill Kill Kult reflected a shift where dance records could be ominous and aggressive, and they laced their music with riffs and references that would seem more at home in a heavy metal group. One of their most distinctive characteristics is their use of spoken-word samples lifted from B-movies and other sources.
At the onset of their career, the band's music was known as having a "Satanic" theme, but it's worth noting that none of the songs ever had anything overt about Satanism or devil worship, although blasphemous images were often a part of their lyrics and artwork. For instance, the aforementioned song "A Daisy Chain 4 Satan" would seem to suggest otherwise, but in reality it was simply the title of a pulp mystery novel written by Joan Fleming, spotted by Nardiello on a bookshelf.[1]
The occult element of the band has moved to the background in recent years, as they have focused more on their sleazy disco sound. The 1991 album Sexplosion! marked TKK's leap toward more psychedelic house beats and their later grind house lounge sound. Later albums expanded on these sounds and explored new directions as well, such as the 1995 Interscope release Hit & Run Holiday, which combined the Kult's signature electronic sound with a psychedelic surf rock/go-go theme reminiscent of 60s garage rock and more modern acts like The B-52's.
Nardiello and Daley recruited Thomas Thorn (aka Buck Ryder) to play keyboards and administer samples on the band's first tour. Brian Gillespie (aka Skip Town) from The Five and later Concussion Ensemble played a classic Slingerland Silver Sparkle drum set pimped with sample triggers. The live act also featured female backup singers referred to as "The Bomb Gang Girlz", among the first of whom were Jackie Blaque, Rhonda Bond and Kitty Killdare.
Thomas Thorn soon departed amicably from the live act to form his own band, The Electric Hellfire Club (which embraced the overtly Satanic themes My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult had only flirted with).
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult kept adding a revolving cast of characters to their stage show that, over the years, has included No Wave chanteuse Lydia Lunch, bassist Charles Levi, guitarist William Tucker, Chris "Curse" Mackey from the bands Evil Mothers and Grim Faeries, Lady Galore from Lords of Acid (who appeared in TKK as Cherrie Blue), and a great number of artists, sound technicians, musicians, and filmmakers. Creatively, however, the core of the band has always been Nardiello and Daley, both on record and in the live act.
The "Sexplosion!" tour in 1991 achieved a particularly notorious reputation. In addition to being interestingly staged, featuring an actual bar and bartender onstage with the band, the show also featured a male/female duo known as Ten and Avaluscious White, who appeared onstage dressed in a number of different guises. At one point, Ten was dressed as Jesus strapped to a cross and featuring a large black dildo or alternately a large sausage between his legs, while Avaluscious White dress as a demon girl simulated oral sex on him. This created controversy and protest in a number of American locations, adding to the band's notoriety.
In the summer of 2010, the band once again hit the road with Lords of Acid, with whom they toured on the Sextacy Ball Tour in 1995.[2] The 2010 tour was originally titled Sextacy Ball 2, but was changed to the Sextreme Ball for legal reasons.
Thrill Kill Kult left Wax Trax! Records after their third album, Sexplosion!, surpassed Confessions to become the biggest seller on the imprint, and major label Interscope Records took notice. TKK signed to Interscope, which re-released Sexplosion! and garnered the band their most familiar alternative radio hit, "Sex On Wheelz".[3] Their following two albums, 13 Above the Night and Hit & Run Holiday, were recorded for Interscope until they parted with the label in 1996. The band's subsequent album, A Crime For All Seasons, was released on Red Ant Records.
In 2001 the album The Reincarnation of Luna appeared on their own Sleazebox Records imprint, distributed by Invisible Records. The band released a companion piece to Luna called Golden Pillz: The Luna Remixes, as well as a live album called Elektrik Inferno. Rykodisc became the band's next and most current home after putting out the rarities compilation Dirty Little Secrets. Rykodisc eventually released My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult's entire back catalog, as well as a new "best-of" compilation, a non-stop megamixremix album featuring mash-ups of tracks from different eras called(Diamonds & Daggerz), and a long-unreleased project entitled Gay, Black & Married.
In 2009, the band's own SleazeBox Records joined forces with Italy's Rustblade label and have together released TKK's most recent CD's "Blood + Dope + Sin + Gold"(2008), "Death Threat" (2009) and "Sinister Whisperz"(2010).
Both Nardiello and Daley have worked on various side projects and with other bands and musicians.
Daley has also remixed tracks for bands such as Radio Iodine, KMFDM, Evil Mothers, Pigface, Voodou, and Professional Murder Music.
As an original Wax Trax! artist, Buzz McCoy returned to Chicago February 23, 2007 to DJ Classic Wax Trax! rarities and remixes from his personal collection at famed TKK hangout, Berlin Chicago.