RFI: Tell Me About My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult

a daisy chain 4 satan, and one of the 2 versions of confessions of a knife are good, but they never really lived up to the image, and spent too much of the time as a schlocky goth wax trax industrial thing, when they could have been more creepy/funky/dirty, which would have been better

Sexplosion ain't bad either, it's best track being the entirely surreal "Mystery Babylon," which is more burlesque sound pastiche than anything remotely resembling 90's Wax Trax industrial.

Think: Ministry with a big ol' hard-on and an urge to dance rather than destroy.

Spot-on! They should've left the menace to all the other bands on the label and concentrated instead on the funky aspects. The Lords of Acid certainly owe them a thing or two.

Confessions:
Their most popular album and arguably their greatest, Confessions Of A Knife is the apex of early MLWTTKK
industrial-goth-sleaze fusion! Featuring the life-changing “Daisy Chain 4 Satan” and “Ride The
Mindway”! Includes three tracks not found on the original release: Waiting For Mommie (JB’s Blackjack Mix),
Ride The Mindway (UK mix), Confessions Of A Knife (Theme Part 3)!

I see...
Their first album started life as a soundtrack to a never-completed film, eventually leading to the birth of Thrill
Kill Kult – the band! Includes three additional tracks: Nervous Xians (Live), X-Communication (Live), and
Back From Beyond!

s/t:
Previously known as Kooler Than Jesus, this collection of TKK's early EP releases has been expanded to include
six more tracks from singles and compilations, including their collaboration with Lydia Lunch, “A Girl Doesn’t
Get Killed By A Make-Believe Lover, Cuz It’s Hot”! The song "Nervous Xians" was re-worked into "After The
Flesh," which the band performed onscreen in The Crow.

They started out as a group of amateur filmmakers who wanted to do a Mansonesque movie about a Satanic cult; their first EP was supposed to be the soundtrack. As it turns out, they had so much fun doing the music that they chucked the movie idea out the window (although the original idea still echoes throughout their obsession with image). The first album (_I See Good Spirits, I See Bad Spirits_) is a fairly oppressive experience; it's actually the only album that I've listened to where I've thought "Ooh, maybe it isn't a good idea to listen to this too much." They had ties into the Chicago industrial dance scene from the beginning, but things really started to pay off with "Kooler Than Jesus" and "Nervous Xians" from the "Kooler Than Jesus" EP, which mixed a lot more house into the pot while playing up the campier side of their image. This EP also has "Devil Bunnies" on it, a song that seems to be about Satanic female mechanics who want to sex you mightily. So YAY TO THAT.

_Confessions Of A Knife_ is their best balancing act; they get the menacing camp pose down to perfection on this album and, as a result, decide their somewhat tired of that entire avenue of presentation. Their next album is _Sexplosion_, an effort best described as the spirit of Studio 54 channelled through a pentagram dipped in Esquivel. Unrelentingly disco and largely inspired by the _Confessions..._ track "Waiting For Mommie", most of the overt Satanic references are ditched in favor of all-out sexathons in the back of a leopard-print lounge.

_13 Above The Night_ was their nod to the rave scene and seen as some as their "return to form" album; the gothy mopeheads who scribbled "AND THIS IS WHAT THE DEVIL DOES" all over their spiral notebooks during study hall weren't sure what to make of _Sexplosion_'s "All we want is sex and cocaine!" vibe and welcomed the jagged synths and thumping beats. TKK took this as an indication that they should turn into the B-52's and released _Hit And Run Holiday_, an Athens-influenced surf-rock album inspired by beach party movies and almost universely despised by everyone in their fanbase who isn't me.

They've since released a film noir album (_A Crime For All Seasons_) and another EBM-goth album (_The Resurrection of Luna_) in addition to the aforementioned live album. I think there's merit to everything they've released but the true power is in their live show.

"I live for drugs!"

OTM. What a stunner.

What's your name?
Secret! What's yours?

I was lucky enough to catch TKK live once, eleven or twelve years ago. They were the support act on an EMF tour, implausibly enough. Seeing their crew of Leather Goddesses and mincing drama queens burst onto the stage of a grotty cavern in pre-economic boom Dublin was... unexpected. As Mr Clean remarked in Apocalypse Now, "this sho nuff is a bizarre sight in the middle o' this shit".

God, that disco bassline.

I've been searching for an mp3 of the version of "A Daisy Chain 4 Satan" that was on the CASSINGLE, without success -- all I can find is the "Acid & Flowers Mix." ;_;

Dug out Confessions and am really grooving on it. I've never heard a lick post Sexplosion! but everything up till then was amazing. Worth tracking down the last twenty-odd years worth of stuff? Anyone kept up with them, or heard the new remixes of the early EPs called Sinister Whisperz?

13 Above The Night and The Resurrection of Luna are worth it; everything else is kind of only-for-completists

haven't heard Sinister Whisperz

Thank you sir! I'll keep my eyes open for those two.

i will break out my old man with a cane routine for the umpteenth time ans say that they lost me forever with Sexplosion!

my goal for jjj's wedding is to hijack the P/A and play a bunch of post-Sexplosion! TKK

Hit and Run Holiday is kind of hilarious in its all-out quest to be the tackiest-sounding album ever recorded.

Dare I ask for details.

Ha, there aren't really that many details to be had! It sounds like a B-52s album made on a &6.66 budget.

Hahahaha. Anything choice on YouTube?

I only know one song of theirs and it was my favorite songs on the Flinstones movie soundtrack, I was 8 at the time. I'm afraid of listening to it now to discover it sucked. Can someone check for me before I shatter my childhood?

Song was called "hit and run holiday".

Ok noone helped so I listened to it. It's okay. Singer voice is very lol 90s and the music sounds like B52's. Turns out a part of my memory still strongly relates it to that Flinstones movie so I can't picture it in a more serious context.

Ha I was just about to write "how well that song holds up depends on how much you enjoy nostalgia and kitsch"

yeah sorry - it's OK but probably not the best/most relevant place to start with them

rfi: can someone tell me with album and/ or tour a t shirt is associated? the front is a graphic of a red flying demon blowing an elongated straight trumpet or bugle and the obverse is the first seven circles of heck.

with which, or just which, i dunno

http://s203.photobucket.com/user/slugbert/media/trumpetguy_zpsbbwfe1uf.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6Zw7aRSrrxE/TIGCLx9gXQI/AAAAAAAADyU/Scn22rpZ-aU/s1600/DSC03230.JPG

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6Zw7aRSrrxE/TIGCLx9gXQI/AAAAAAAADyU/Scn22rpZ-aU/s1600/DSC03230.JPG

jesus, i'm not good at this

reverse, not obverse, double jesus. maybe i meant verso.

No idea which album but that shirt rules

Yeah its a good one. Never seen that design though. Also weird that the shirt drops the "my life with..." bit. Maybe a bootleg?

I'm guessing bootleg, too. Only trace of that image I can find in GIS is the one you posted, which is from a Malaysian blog. Lots of quality bootlegs across the Asian markets.

It's a sweet shirt.

love the t-shirt ..
would totally wear that out and about

It is not a bootleg, it is an official shirt. TKK recently re released it. I have a copy of the old one and the new one.This is my first time on this site. I just registered because I saw this post. I'm not sure on how to post a picture of the back of the shirt, but on the back, it has the first 7 circles of hell. That's the "official name" of the shirt. On the back, it starts with the "gate of hell" and has a line map of / layout of hell. Pretty cool shirt imo. I have almost 100 TKK shirts dating all the way back to the first tour! I have not read thru all the posts on this shirt so if this has already been answered - my apologies. I'm just a mega fan of the genre. Any other TKK questions, feel free to drop me a line under my screen name at gmail dot com. I've known the band for decades.

thanks! i knew that the shirt itself is old because the tag on mine dates it somewhere from the late 80s up through the mid 90s. it's the same one as in the picture i posted, fruit of the loom 100% cotton, with a bit of the american flag across the bottom edge. of course people print modern fakes on old blanks but the plastisol print shows signs of aging so it seems legit. also there was no copyright printed on the shirt but i looked at other tkk shirts online and there didn't seem to be any on those either.

you are correct about the back of the shirt.

do you have a good guess as to when it was first produced/ with which album or tour it is associated? the occult imagery suggests it was early, compared to the acid disco bacchanal imagery of sexplosion! and later, but i don't really know. i like knowing the particulars because this shirt is an artifact of a specific place and time; it represented something to the person who originally bought and wore it. to me it makes a difference if that point in the culture is 89 or 93; my associations and the aesthetic sensation i derive just from looking at it or wearing it will be different.

The shirt is from the 2nd tour I believe.

@Moka the Hit and Run Holiday single is pretty good as is the Hit and Run cd - well in my opinion ... it is good driving music

Another rare remix is the Vinyl of Blue Buddha My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult ‎– Blue Buddha
Label:
Interscope Records ‎– DMD 2048

A1 Blue Buddha (Housewarming Mix)
Remix – Mike Filly, Rob Sherwood
5:24
A2 Blue Buddha (Last Minute Dubstramental)
Remix – Mike Filly, Rob Sherwood
5:17
B1 Blue Buddha (Soundshock's Funky Oskillator Mix)
Remix – Graflin Booth, Rick Phifer
9:22
B2 Blue Buddha (PK Trance Dub)
Remix – Graflin Booth, Rick Phifer
6:00
Some people do not like it as it is more of a club mix than
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult ‎– Blue Buddha
Label:
Interscope Records ‎– DMD 2042
A1 Blue Buddha (Master Of The Ultra Flesh Mix)
Producer [Additional Production], Remix – Buzz McCoy
4:35
A2 Blue Buddha (World's Greatest Lover Mix)
Producer [Additional Production], Remix – Buzz McCoy
6:09
B1 Blue Buddha (3rd Floor Mix)
Remix – DJ EFX & DJ Digit, Marc "Funkyman" Paley*
4:36
B2 Blue Buddha (Ba Baloo Extended Mix)
Producer [Additional Production], Remix – John Ficarrotta, M.C. Shan*
7:02

Sorry to blow up the post but I do own every cd, 12 inch and cd singles including the Rustblade Ultra Limited tin box with cd singles etc. Same with LoA and the B-52's, huge fan of all three groups. Also have the solo Ruth stuff / Cherrie Blue and Darling Nikkie stuff from Loa I do not have all of the Jade 4 u Praga stuff, but I own over 90% of all of it. KMFDM was another group I bought all the singles of. I put a video of Cherrie Blue in Tampa on Youtube if anyone liked her in either Lords of Acid or with TKK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_ueMUGAKR0 she was cool enough to let me copy the show I also have TKK from the same night - I did color correction them because I did not know I had shot it in night vision.Yes, she got bigger but she is still a doll imo.

I'm finding you to be a treasure trove of information and am greatly enjoying your posts on the thread!

Just remembering that Confessions of a Knife is a perfect album

it really is

what's this about repping for Red Red Groovy?

Oh yes, they ruled

we listened to that Red Red Groovy album so much when it came out! Siouxsie rave music

Best youtube comment on Confessions...

In the early 90s I was playing this cd for a friend (who's Buddhist) and after 2 songs he ask me to turn it off, because he thought it was polluting his house. Which I guess is a complement.

lol that's great

cntrl-f > vanity search reveals i have told my one and only TKK story.
i have recently added the debut, and a weird somewhat crappy disco remix compilation ('dirty little secrets'), to my archive, the only TKK cds i have unfortunately.
but not dived back in yet.

presses play on the debut : ok, i now remember that this is possibly the best opening track of any album ever.

Yeah, I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits is just a beautiful piece of work, also a perfect album.

hang on : the opening track of my cd edition of Confessions is : 'a daisy chain 4 satan' (acid and flowers)'

i am confused as there is no track re Good Spirits/Bad Spirits !?

(was Confessions not their debut !? I always assumed it was .. )

Confessions is their second album! I See Good Spirits... is the debut.

("A Daisy Chain 4 Satan" is amazing tho)

ahh just checked .. rookie error. sorry DJP.
life before t'internet meant that for 30 years i had assumed Confessions was their debut.
apologies.

[obvious xp]

ok, i see why now.
no cd edition of the debut released in the UK until the reissue in 2004.
i have never seen the cover of the debut in any racks ever in the UK.

I See Good Spirits and I see Bad Spirits is still my fave. I've listened to "These Remains" a lot recently; so lovely.

KOOLER THAN JESUS!!

don't sleep on Cuz It's Hot, either

Confessions is indeed so so good. Need to dig that back out soon.

Cuz it’s Hot single (EP?) is how I discovered them at the goth club night. Remains their absolute pinnacle

great band

kinda feel like they should be super on trend but somehow kids skipped them in favor of more obvious commercial touchpoints like NiN & manson

It didn't have that pent-up aggro vibe that pushes most teen's buttons, their whole hedonistic disco vibe always seemed more seedy and grown up

... wow i love this band

just heard confessions of a knife and sexplosion! for the first time recently and wow

i'm probably not going to go any further but based on the first four albums and their contemporaneous singles, this is my favorite band of all time

Brad!! you should absolutely hear the 5th album, as well as this comp:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Little_Secrets:_music_to_STRIP_by...