Artists | My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult

In late 1987, artist/performer Groovie Mann and musician Buzz McCoy met one night in a dark and seedy Chicago bar. Discovering their common love for tabloid newspaper tales of sex and Satan, kitschy horror flicks, and trashy exploitation films, the boys started conjuring up the plot for their own “B movie” to be called MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT”. Yet without much experience and limited access to video equipment, the duo scratched their dreams of celluloid, but decided to transmute the project’s accompanying soundtrack into a live band scenario. To accompany their vision, they also formed a trio of bodacious and sultry back-up singers/dancers known collectively as THE BOMB GANG GIRLZ, and later that year the group hit the road!

The project soon caught the attention of renowned industrial-dance label Wax Trax Records, who signed them in early 1988. In July, the band went into the studio to record their first full-length album, the ominous and foreboding I SEE GOOD SPIRITS AND I SEE BAD SPIRITS. It introduced the world to TKK’s unusual style of blending dance rhythms, distorted vocals and sampled movie dialogue, to create a sound that would become their signature trademark. The public response to the LP was unexpectedly overwhelming, and quickly established THRILL KILL KULT as one of America’s premier “alternative-industrial” acts.

Their next endeavor, the psychotic and dark CONFESSIONS OF A KNIFE (1990) brought its listeners deeper and darker into the twisted, warped minds of its creators. It gained them growing notoriety among the underground club scene with tracks like “Kooler Than Jesus” and “The Days Of Swine & Roses”. MLWTTKK also recorded a string of 12”s for Wax Trax, including “A Daisy Chain 4 Satan” and the hard-hitting “A Girl Doesn’t Get Killed By A Make-Believe Lover…Cuz It’s Hot” which featured the vocals of “cult poet” Lydia Lunch.

Not satisfied with dabbling merely in the dark side and sensational aspect of life, the boys dropped the gothic horror theme and turned to pumping disco bass lines and big burlesque horns to create their next masterpiece, SEXPLOSION in 1991; an album filled to the brim with lust and sexual innuendo. The LP also spawned the chart-topping college radio hit “Sex On Wheelz”, and soon the major labels came knocking!

TKK signed to a fledgling Interscope Records in 1992, whereupon releasing the haunting, techno inspired 13 ABOVE THE NIGHT (1993). The album featured new bass player Levi Levi, and guest vocalist “house diva” Shawn Christopher. In 1995, the band added twanging guitars and a brass horn section to their ever-changing sound, thus creating a groovy, surf/punk rock opus entitled HIT & RUN HOLIDAY, (a concept album of sorts, which told the tale of a “rebellious vixen,” Krystal Starlust, and her “fatal attraction” to a drifter named Apollo).

Oddly enough Groovie and Buzz soon found themselves back in the world of film, writing material for an array of soundtracks like director Paul Verhoeven’s naughty “Showgirls”, animator Ralph Bakshi’s “Cool World”, Gregg Araki’s “Nowhere”, the South Park guys’ comedic “BASEketball”, “The Flintstones Movie”, and even the cult classic “The Crow” – in which the band also performs, making their silver screen debut! Their music has also been featured in dozens of movie trailers, network tv and cable shows.

The band teamed up with Rykodisc in 1998 and released the playful DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS, a saucy little dish, which featured obscure remixes, b-sides and unreleased material that had fallen along the wayside. Ryko has since reissued TKK’s entire back catalog!

In 2001, Groovie and Buzz formed their own label, SleazeBox Records, as a vehicle for their many developing side projects. Groovie released DARLING KANDIE, a project he co-wrote with the late William Tucker, and Buzz co-wrote and produced CHEMICAL MESSIAH with Cherrie Blue (aka Lady Galore from Lords Of Acid). They also released a new KULT offering entitled THE REINCARNATION OF LUNA, the band’s first studio album in 4 years!

Even now, 20 years later, the band continues to tour extensively, and has shared billing with the likes of Siouxsie And The Banshees, Lords Of Acid, Ministry, KMFDM and Marylin Manson, to name but a few. THRILL KILL KULT also continue to record and produce albums, such as 2005’s sleazy homage to the 70’s disco era called GAY, BLACK & MARRIED, and their latest accomplishment; the sultry and depraved THE FILTHIEST SHOW IN TOWN, which was released in April 2007.

MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT have certainly stood the test of time, and remain one of the true pioneers in today’s alternative music scene.