My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult at Santos Party House

Buzz McCoy (background) and Groovie Mann

Frankie Nardiello fronted bands in the late 1970s in Chicago, Illinois. Marston Daley attended Berklee College of Music in 1979, but soon realized a formal education in jazz piano was not for him; he played guitar with art-punk groups in Boston, Massachusetts, before relocating to Chicago. Nardiello met the newly transplanted musician over drinks in a Chicago neighborhood bar in 1987. Inspired by a shared love of tabloid tales of sex, kitschy horror and exploitation films in the style of John Waters and Russ Myers, Nardiello and Daley began to conceive a shocking and lurid trashy B-movie. It was to be called My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - a headline taken from a British tabloid that Nardiello had noted a few years prior when he lived in London. Yet without much film experience and access to video equipment, the film project was scrapped and never completed, but they continued work on its accompanying soundtrack with hard beats, distorted vocals and bizarre film samples.  They released the music as a three-track EP in 1988. Dubbing themselves Groovie Mann (Nardiello) and Buzz McCoy (Daley) in the spring of 1989, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult (often shortened to Thrill Kill Kult or TKK) was transformed into an electronic industrial rock band. The band's popularity peaked in the 1990s with provocative titles like "Sex on Wheelz",  "A Daisy Chain 4 Satan" and "Sexplosion!" The band's 13th album, Spooky Tricks, was released on May 6.

Mann and McCoy have been performing sonic tales of sexcapades and kitschy horror for more than 25 years. At Santos Party House tonight, they were assisted by guitarist Westin Halvorson, bassist Mimi Star and drummer Justin Bennett. Unlike most rock bands, the guitar ironically was the least-utilized instrument. Mann fronted all the songs with his snarling singing, McCoy filled in most of the music's sonic curves and fills on his synthesizers, and the rhythm section powered the song's driving force with hard bass lines and percussion. The band performed electronic club music that crossed several genres with industrial beats and rock riffs that might be equally at home in a death metal band, amplified to an ominous and abrasive level.

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult's webpage seems to be deactivated. Visit the band on FaceBook instead.