My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult

25th Anniversary Tour!

Sunday, October 14, 2012 • Doors 7pm • Show 8pm • $18 Advance • $20 Day of Show • All Ages

w/ Left Spine Down

Artist/performer Franke Nardiello and musician Marston Daley shared drinks one night at a neighborhood Chicago bar in the fall of 1987. They discussed their common love for tabloid newspaper tales of sex and Satan, kitschy horror flicks, and trashy exploitation films in the vein of Russ Myers and John Waters. It was then they started conjuring up the plot for their own B-movie to be titled MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT – a headline taken from a British news rag that Nardiello noted a few years earlier while living in London. Yet with little experience and limited access to video equipment, the duo soon scratched their dreams of celluloid, but continued working on what was to be the film’s accompanying soundtrack. Chicago’s renowned industrial-dance label Wax Trax Records heard some of the initial tracks and were intrigued by the unusual blend of hard beats, distorted vocals, lush instrumentations, and sampled movie dialogue. They released a 3 song, self-titled EP in 1988, followed by the full-length album I SEE GOOD SPIRITS AND I SEE BAD SPIRITS later that year. The response was unexpectedly overwhelming, and the pair realized the world now perceived their debunked film idea as an actual band.

For the next few years the KULT ruled in the underground club circuit, releasing a string of tracks with almost blasphemous names such as “The Days Of Swine And Roses”, “Kooler Than Jesus”, “A Daisy Chain 4 Satan”, and “A Girl Doesn’t Get Killed By A Make-Believe Lover Cuz It’s Hot”, which featured cult-poet Lydia Lunch on vocals. Needless to say, the PMRC were not too thrilled with the band’s choice of song titles and accompanying sacrilegious imagery, and they were swiftly placed on the PMRC band “hit list”, so to speak.

Oddly enough Hollywood began taking notice in the band and the cinematic aspects in their music. The boys 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”, and even “The Flintstones Movie”. The band also stepped in front of the camera for a cameo appearance in the cult classic “The Crow”, performing the soundtrack’s song “After The Flesh”.

Over two decades have passed since its conception and THRILL KILL KULT continue to evolve musically with each new album, which are now released via their own label SLEAEBOX MUSC. This summer 2012, they will release the very first BOMB GANG GIRLZ solo album titled A TASTE 4 TROUBLE. It features long time vocalist/dancer Jacky Blacque, with guest appearances by Groovie Mann, Viva Nova and Stellae Suicide. The album is produced by Buzz McCoy.

The band also remain a favorite among directors, and their music is used frequently in both major and independent films, television, and most recently on Showtime’s Californication. Standing up to the test of time, MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT remain current and are true innovators in today’s alternative music scene.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Past Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.