Kooler Than Ascii
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What You'd Expect To Read In "Teen Beat"

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What are Pill Krazed Music and the Mindway Corporation?
They're the two most common "organizations" associated with the Thrill Kill Kult. Pill Krazed Music handles the copyrights on the Kult's music and lyrics, while the Mindway Corporation exists to take care of the band's contracts with the outside world and individual band members' financial liabilities within the band as a whole.
Another name which often comes up in a similar vein is that of the Kult Konnection, which keeps track of the band's Fan Klub, merchandising, and what-have-you. If you're at all interested in contacting the band, correspondence should be addressed to: 
        The Kult Konnection
	PO Box 608215
	Chicago, IL  60660
Back in the day, semi-regular Fun Fakts mailings would be sent out to everybody on the Konnection's mailing list; they were compiled by Tina Casanova, who solicited submissions for newsletters.
One last name that might come up in conjunction with the band's many recordings is that of StarLust Studios, which is the recording studio where much of their material has been recorded. Prior to the recording of 13 Above the Night, Buzz and Groovie cranked out their musical mayhem at the aptly named Mindway Studios, though most of I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits was recorded at Revolting Cock Luc Van Acker's home studio in Belgium.
What videos have been released so far?
Sadly, the band isn't terribly active on the video scene. Allusions to the existence of bits and pieces of THE movie abound in interviews, but their videography to date is rather small. So far, the list of videos which have been turned up by keen-eyed TKK fans includes:
  • "...And This is What the Devil Does": Directed by Bradley Summers, this short video is made up of almost the exact same footage as the slightly longer "The Devil Does Drugs" (see below). It was also re-edited by roadie par excellence Wolfgang Dodge for inclusion on the recently-released TKK video compilation.
  • "The Devil Does Drugs": As mentioned above, this is essentially an extended version of "...And This is What the Devil Does" with a tiny amount of additional footage tacked on to round things out.
  • "Kooler than Jesus": Produced and directed by Dion Labriola (a Chicago-area DJ in the late '80s), this video supposedly set the band back all of $1000... it was also marked the first appearance of Bomb Gang Girl Sekret DeZyre.
  • "Ride the Mindway": This one was apparently tucked away somewhere in vault until the Kult's video compilation saw the light of day, as nobody in any of the online TKK forums had ever heard of it before they received their copies of the long-awaited videotape in the mail.
  • "Sex on Wheelz": While this could just be a matter of somebody being confused by the existence of the Cool World version of the song-and-video combo, two versions of this particular release are said to exist: the original version (shot while the band was still signed to Wax Trax! and which likely accompanied the release of that label's short-lived single) and a re-edited version by Instant Action (which was unleashed on the public once the Kult had signed with Interscope).
  • "Sex on Wheelz" (Cool World version): Not just another editing job to coincide with the release of the 1992 movie, this particular video was actually directed by Almighty Animation God Ralph Bakshi on the set of _Cool World_. It's worth noting, by the way, that the red- haired dancing girl who appears now and again is supposed to be the woman upon whom the character of Holly Would was modelled.
  • "Dream Baby": Another closet-dwelling video that only surfaced with the release of _Ride the Mindway_... can anybody provide any details on it?
  • "Blue Buddha": Directed by L.A. video personality Martha Burr, it was eventually dragged out to New York for final editing under Buzz's supervision and is the only TKK video to appear on MTV's oh-so-classy "Beavis & Butt-Head".
  • "Blue Buddha" (live): Recorded at the Halloween Jam show from the Inferno X-Press II tour, this celluloid fragment surfaced on ABC's "In Concert".
  • "Final Blindness": Even though Interscope coughed up the money to produce this video, it never really made it outside of a couple of rave clubs before vanishing in a puff of smoke. It was assembled from a bunch of footage by Groovie and one Mark Hejnar.
  • "Glamour is a Rocky Road": Another Hejnar-ific product, this one is made up of footage from the H&RH tour and could only be found on the band's video compilation as of a couple of months ago... whether it has since been released to broadcast outlets or not is unknown.
Release dates for these videos aren't known at this time, and any extra information that could be supplied would be greatly appreciated, not to mention handsomely rewarded. Or not.
The Sexplosion tour (1991) also yielded a rockumentary-style TKK film, assembled by Ron and Louanne (a pair of TKK band and Bomb Gang Girlz members, also known as Instant Action), which the band also included on Ride the Mindway, making said tape one of the better investments that a drooling fan could possibly make in appreciation of his or her favourite band.
For more information, check out the Ride the Mindway video and the Kult Konnection DVD.
Where else has their music appeared?
This section of the FAQ is mostly made obsolete by the discography, which can be found elsewhere. However, there are a couple of items which don't quite fit in that section, so they continue to be listed here.
The song "Dimentia 66" also appeared as background music in one scene in the movie Sliver (that silly Billy Baldwin/Sharon Stone thing from 1993), though it didn't appear on the soundtrack album. "The Devil Does Drugs" (or one of the many similar-sounding offshoots) also appeared in the background at one point in Showgirls.
TKK fans can also be proud of the fact that a good-sized portion of the video for "Blue Buddha" appeared in the Beavis & Butt-Head episode, "Pumping Iron", which originally aired on 28 March, 1994 (during the show's fourth season).
Daytime TV watchers might have spotted the inclusion of the song "Delicate Terror" in an episode of Another World in the mid 1990s; it apparently involved one of the recurring characters being bricked into a tiny room by one diabolical genius or another.
The Ministry track "Tonight We Murder" (which features Groovie Mann on vocals) was worked into a scene in the 1995 movie Demon Knight; Groovie was listed in the end credits as "Frank Nariello" [sic].
Other moments include the use of an unspecified song being used in a FOX network promo for one of their sitcoms, "Blue Buddha"'s appearance in an MTV Sports feature on surfing, HBO's use of "Leathersex" in Real Sex 15, and the appearance of a TKK poster in Brian Austin Green's drug dealer's apartment in an episode of Beverly Hills 90210.
More recently, the movie trailer for 'Be Cool' (the sequel to 'Get Shorty' with John Travolta) featured 'Hit and Run Holiday' very prominently towards the end.
Was that really them in The Crow?
You bet! The club scene around the middle of the movie, which involved the band playing "After the Flesh" while assorted bad guys were being thrown out of windows and into the crowd was filmed at some cold and grimey warehouse in North Carolina, really featured the Thrill Kill Kult in all of the glory. It was apparently really cold in there.
And no, that wasn't Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor crowd-surfing along in the pit while they played, merely a lookalike.
What's the story with all of these labels and changing release dates?
It's actually a pretty painless story to follow along, really. When the band was first formed, all of their material was released on Wax Trax! Records, which was an independent record label of sorts devoted to "strange" music. In the fall of 1992, though, Wax Trax! was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and were promptly taken over by the folks at TVT Records, who gradually re-released most of the Wax Trax! back catalogue (this accounts for the 1993 release dates on a lot of the older releases, though these don't appear on the album/single packages).
After the release of the "Sex on Wheelz" single, however, the band decided to move over to Interscope Records (Groovie's explanation, given in an interview with dRaven, was something along the lines of "They offered us more money"), and have been happily recording new material ever since.
Since the release of Hit & Run Holiday, the Kult have moved on to yet another label, the eclectic Red Ant Entertainment, who have since put A Crime for All Seasons on stores shelves around the world, as well as supplying copies of a best-of collection to assorted lucky DJs who say their prayers and sacrifice virgins to the great volcano god Lawrence before going to bed at night. Not that I'm thankful that I got a copy or anything...
More recently (still!), they've moved again, over to Sleazebox Entertainment, a record company that they own and run themselves (as if it wasn't that obvious from the name!). In addition to their move, Rykodisc has been re-releasing all of their old material in addition to some newer material.
Where did all of those samples come from?
Obviously, there have been far too many samples used in TKK material over the years for that question to be answered in this piddly little FAQ. The best places to refer to for information on sample sources are in the TKK Sample List or rec.music.industrial (where individual questions can occasionally be answered, and which is also a commmon source of Peter Cigehn's sample lists.
For what it's worth, though, it seems as though a fair number of the samples from Confessions of a Knife were lifted from the works of '70s sleaze/horror director Jes Franco, particularly A Virgin Among the Living Dead, which you'll probably have to do some digging to unearth.
Are they touring right now?
The standard answer to this question is "Ask somebody else". The best places to find this information are on the Ride The Mindway news page or on one of the varied TKK mailing lists that can be found here and there.
Are any of the band members gay?
This question gets asked about pretty much every band on the face of the planet, doesn't it?
For what it's worth, though, Groovie Mann has frankly admitted to his homosexuality; Buzz and his boyfriend (Tom) were briefly mentioned in the November 1995 article in Raygun; and Beatmistress has stated in at least one interview that she has more or less "tried everything", and that the rest of the band seems pretty open to all sorts of experimentation along similar lines.
One tidbit of information that started floating about around the time of the Sextasy Ball tour also mentioned that one of the band members at the time was a full-fledged transsexual...
What TKK resources are available online?
Before going any further with this one, it may be worth mentioning the Yahoo TKK mailing list. This is a list without a huge amount of traffic, but you may glean a small piece of useful information here and there if you're lucky.
Recently, (mid-2004), the Hour of Zero site set up a decent online forum for discussion purposes.
There is an online TKK shop at the domain for the Kult, where you can find various toys.
Once upon a time, there were also pages devoted to a lyrics database, and a nifty-keen description of the Mindway BBS, but they've all since been sucked down by the undertow that is so common on the Web.
Until recently, the only Usenet newsgroup where one stood much of a chance of seeing any TKK-related postings was rec.music.industrial; this changed, however, with the creation of alt.music.mlwttkk, a group which doesn't appear to have terribly wide propogation so far (read: there are almost never any postings to it).
And then, of course, there is the band... they seem to have settled in (sortof) at a new home location.
Where can I contact any of the labels mentioned so far in this FAQ?
In addition to being sources of all sorts of TKK-related material, the labels listed below are good places to look for other outstanding industrial material as well.
Unless otherwise stated, all of the mailing addresses and phone/fax numbers listed are based in the United States, so don't forget to take that into account when trying to get in touch with those labels. Web page URLs are also assumed to be case-sensitive.
In no particular order, the people to contact are: 
   Web Commandos
   Rykodisc
   Three Broadway
   Beverly, MA 01915
   WWW:   http://www.rykodisc.com/
These are the guys that have been re-releasing older material, and have started releasing some new material of late. 
   Sleazebox Records
   P.O. Box 608215
   Chicago, IL  60660
   WWW:   http://www.sleazeboxrecords.com/
The current record company of the Kult, they also released some side project work including Darling Kandie, Cherrie Blue and Gay, Black, & Married. 
   Invisible Recordings
   P.O. Box 16008
   Chicago, IL   60616
   WWW:    http://www.invisiblerecords.com/
Home to Pigface and a number of lesser-known acts, Invisible is the label to contact regarding the availability of several releases which feature guest appearances by several of your favourite Kult members. 
   Red Ant Entertainment
   9720 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 400
   Beverly Hills, CA   90212
   phone:  310 247 1133
Where the gang hung out from 1996 until 1999 or so. They're now quite defunct in their online presence. Whether or not the label still exists is another question entirely.
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Alex Fletcher