The band formed in 1987, when two Chicago club kids took the soundtrack for an art film project they were working on, and transmuted it into one of rock’s most influential alternative industrial acts. The title of the film became the name of the band, and Franke Nardiello and Marston Daley assumed the stage roles of “Groovie Mann” and “Buzz McCoy”, rounded up some of their night crawler friends to complete the cast, and hit the highway!
Playing up the B-movie theme,
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incorporated the use of horror film imagery and bizarre vocal samples within a unique mixture of electro-glam-punk-funk-disco-rock-lounge music. They created an over the top stageshow full of glitz, glam, tease and sleaze. A revolving cast of musicians, performance artist, fire-breathers and their own Russ Meyer-esque back-up group of voluptous vixens, known as the BOMB GANG GIRLZ, rounded things out.
The concept landed them a recording deal with Chicago’s infamous, industrial-dance label Wax Trax! Records, which released their first album I SEE GOOD SPIRITS AND I SEE BAD SPIRITS in 1988. It introduced the world to their unusual style of blending dance rhythms, distorted vocals and sampled movie dialogue, to create a sound that would become a signature trademark for the band in year’s to come.
Their next lp, CONFESSIONS OF A KNIFE (1990) took its listeners deeper and darker into the twisted, warped minds of its creators. It also gained the band growing notoriety among the underground club scene with tracks like “Kooler Than Jesus” and “The Days Of Swine & Roses”.
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also recorded a string of 12” singles for Wax Trax, including “A Daisy Chain 4 Satan” (produced by long time friend Paul Barker of Ministry) 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 goddess Lydia Lunch.
With the release of 1991’s SEXPLOSION!, the band mixed up its formula even more, which in turn would change how their devoted followers would view them forever. Not satisfied with merely dabbling only in the dark side of life, the boys dropped the gothic theme and turned to pumping disco bass lines and big brass stripper horns to create an album filled with lust and sexual innuendo. The lp spawned the very successful, chart-topping alternative radio hit “Sex On Wheelz”, which gained the band major label attention. In 1992
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signed to a fledgling Interscope Records, where they went on to record two more very sonically soundinding different albums. The first, 13 ABOVE THE NIGHT (1993) was a haunting,techno filled masterpiece, which featured voals by house diva Shawn Chrostopher, and in 1995 they released the raucous retro-surf guitar laden HIT AND RUN HOLIDAY. The album told the tale of wild child Krystal Starlust and her adventures cruising in the fast lane, on the rocky road of life. Oddly enough, Groovie and Buzz soon found themselves back in the world of film, writing material for such movies as animator Ralph Bakshi’s COOL WORLD, director Paul Verhoeven’s naughty SHOWGIRLS, and the cult classic THE CROW (in which the band made their sliver screen debut).
After many years of extensive touring throughout the USA and Europe, performing with the likes of Siouxsie and The Banshees, Lords of Acid, KMFDM and Marilyn Manson,
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hit the studio once again in 1997 and produced the synth bred with guitars, electro-rock A CRIME FOR ALL SEASONS.
In 1998, the band teamed up with Rykodisc and released the playful DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS, a saucey little album which featured obcsure remixes, b-sides and unreleased material that had fallen along the wayside. Ryko also reissued all of
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’s earlier titles which had since gone out of print.
Groovie and Buzz founded their own label, SLEAZEBOX RECORS in 2001 as a vehical for their many developing side projects. (Groovie released DARLING KANDIE, a project he wrote with the late Amber GuitarStar (William Tucker), and Buzz co-wrote and produced CHEMICAL MESSIAH with bandmate Cherrie Blue (Ruth McArdle). They also released a new KULT offering called THE REINCARNATION OF LUNA, the boys’ first studio album in 4 years. As a follow up to that, a club oriented remix CD titled GOLDEN PILLZ was released in March of 2002. It featured mixes by Eat Static, Baldwin Brothers, Frances A. Preve, Nitzer Ebb and Juttajaw to name but a few.
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are preparing yet another assault on America this Fall (2004), with the Ryko release of their first dvd,THE KULT KOLLECTION, It will contain a mixture of live footage, rare music videos and a trailer containing some of the band’s original film ideas. Ryko will also be releasing a collection of KULT favorites titled THE BE(a)ST OF
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, and another revved-up remix cd called DIAMONDS & DAGGERZ which features loops andsamples from some of the boys’ more notorious tracks.