My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult
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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 in Chicago and founded by Groovie Mann (born Frankie Nardiello) and Buzz McCoy (born Marston Daley). They became known in the 1980s as pioneers of the industrial music genre – although by the early 1990s they had changed to a more disco-oriented sound – and as a frequent target of censorship groups, including the PMRC, which objected to the band's humorous and satirical references to Satan, Jesus and sex in their song lyrics and stage shows.[1]
During the early 1990s, Thrill Kill Kult had several hits on the U.S. dance club and alternative charts.[2] They also contributed songs to several movie soundtracks and appeared in the 1994 film The Crow. The band has continued to record and tour with a rotating lineup in addition to core members Mann and McCoy. In 2017, the band celebrated its 30th anniversary.[3]
History
Nardiello and Daley met in spring 1987 while touring together with the band Ministry. Soon after, Nardiello and Daley began to conceive an art film to be called My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult – a headline taken from a British tabloid Nardiello had noted a few years prior when he lived in London. 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,
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
At the onset of their career, the band's music was known as having a "
Live shows
Mann and McCoy recruited Thomas Thorn (a.k.a. Buck Ryder) to play keyboards and administer samples on the band's first tour. Brian Gillespie (a.k.a. Skip Town) from The Five and later Concussion Ensemble played a classic Slingerland Silver Sparkle drum set with sample triggers. The live act also featured female backup singers referred to as "The Bomb Gang Girlz",[4] among the first of whom were Jacky Blaque, Rhonda Bond and Kitty Killdare.
Thorn soon departed amicably from the live act to form his own band, The Electric Hellfire Club (which embraced the overtly Satanic themes that 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 Mann and McCoy, both on record and in the live act.
The "Sexplosion!" tour in 1991 achieved a particularly edgy reputation. In addition to its staging, which featured a 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.[citation needed]
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.[5] The 2010 tour was originally titled Sextacy Ball 2, but was changed to the Sextreme Ball for legal reasons.
In 2012, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult announced their 25-year anniversary tour covering over 30 dates in the US tour featuring direct support by Left Spine Down.[6][7]
Record labels
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.[8] TKK signed to Interscope, which re-released Sexplosion! and garnered the band their most familiar alternative radio hit, "Sex on Wheelz".[9] 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 megamix 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 CDs Blood + Dope + Sin + Gold (2008), Death Threat (2009) and Sinister Whisperz (2011).
Soundtracks
Thrill Kill Kult has contributed songs to soundtracks of several movies, including
Related projects
Both Mann and McCoy have worked on various side projects and with other bands and musicians.
Groovie Mann
- Special Affect – with Marty Sorenson on bass, Al Jourgensen on guitar and Harry Rushakoff on drums
- Drowning Craze
- Darling Kandie – with William Tucker
- Fred EP with Fred Giannelli
- The Katastrophe Klown
- Trash Deity
Buzz McCoy
- Rota – as a producer for a cover of Kiss's "Do You Love Me?"
- Excessive Force – with Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM
- Pigface – on live album Welcome to Mexico... Asshole
- Cherrie Blue – with Ruth McArdle (a.k.a. Lady Galore) from Lords of Acid
- Bomb Gang Girlz
McCoy has also remixed tracks for bands such as
Wax Trax! Deejays
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.
Discography
- I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits (1988)
- Confessions of a Knife... (1990)
- Sexplosion! (1991)
- 13 Above the Night (1993)
- Hit & Run Holiday (1995)
- A Crime for All Seasons (1997)
- The Reincarnation of Luna (2001)
- Gay, Black and Married (2005)
- The Filthiest Show in Town (2007)
- Death Threat (2009)
- Spooky Tricks (2014)
- In the House of Strange Affairs (2019)
References
- ^ Hodael, Nima (December 6, 1991). "The Thrill Kill Kult Revamps Music Scene: Less Industrial Rock Concept Worships Satan". The Michigan Daily. Ann Arbor, Michigan. p. 8. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
- ^ "My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult Top Songs". MusicVF.com. Music VF. 2016. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Brian Cronin. Archived from the originalon June 29, 2014. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
- ISBN 9780199832583.
- ^ "Sextreme Ball 2010 Dates". sextremeball.com. Retrieved September 12, 2010.
- ^ "LEFT SPINE DOWN TO SUPPORT MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT"
- ^ "My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult celebrate 25 years with tour"
- ^ Reed 2013, p. 263.
- allmusic.com. Retrieved September 12, 2010.