My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Hit & Run Holiday

I noticed today that the strange part of the world who actually knows about My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult has finally accepted that they are in fact "industrial disco." The history of Wax Trax and Chicago industrial music is a subject worthy of an entire library, but MLWTTK is my favorite band to emerge from those humble record store beginnings. They are an unpredictable band for sure, and i definitely don't like all of their albums, but Hit & Run Holiday is an album i think every human being on the planet should hear at least once.

This album is simply impossible to describe, because it doesn't actually belong to a musical genre as we understand them. It's actually a movie. I know that sounds weird, but the band is actually a movie. My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult was the name of the movie they were trying to make, but composing the soundtrack led them so far afield that they just shrugged and kept going as a band instead. All of their albums come from that perspective, it's the music for a trashy b-movie they would make if they were making movies instead of albums. If you're old enough to remember the "cult classics" section of your local video rental store, then you'll sort of understand what i'm talking about.

Well, Hit & Run Holiday is one of those Go-Go Dancer, pleasure cruise, Valley of the Dolls type cinematic experiences. Skewed funk, disco, rock 'n roll. The band describes themselves as "sleaze" the same way KMFDM calls themselves "ultra heavy beat." I told you "industrial" was a parent genre, and Thrill Kill Kult is your strange fourth cousin who dresses like Rob Halford but somehow convinces Great Aunt Gladys to do the Watusi with him at the family barbecue.

If it sounds like i'm struggling for words it's because i am. MLWTKK isn't a band you can describe, you really do have to hear them for yourself. I'm partial to this album, I See Good Spirits..., and Confessions of a Knife, but you might like others. They are all very different albums in their own right and you simply have to go check them out for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL58D858B69F562A07

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