INDUSTRIΛL ΛCCIDENT from Wax Trax! Films on Vimeo.
According to pitchfork.com, “a documentary about the influential Chicago label and store Wax Trax! Records has been announced. INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT was directed by Julia Nash—daughter of Wax Trax! co-founder Jim Nash and owner of Wax Trax! Films—and it features interviews with Steve Albini, Trent Reznor, Dave Grohl, Ian MacKaye, Jello Biafra, and more. A soundtrack album will also be released, featuring rare and unreleased tracks from Ministry, Revolting Cocks, KMFDM, and others. Both the film and the soundtrack are due out April 16.”
Co-founders Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher set up independent and unconventional Wax Trax! Records on Chicago’s north side in 1978. The eccentric record store catered to fans of new wave, punk rock, electronic, and eventually the industrial scene. The co-founders also started their own label, signing acts that major labels, of course, shunned. Record #2 was a Divine single. At the time, Divine had gained some popularity as a “movie star” by being cast in John Waters’ films Pink Flamingos and Polyester. Cold Life by Ministry (Al Jourgensen) of the new wave genre became release #3, this being in 1981. Cold Life garnered success in US dance clubs that spread to Europe. For release #4, the label signed Belgian band Front 242.
Wax Trax! gained momentum. In addition to being a record store, label, and company headquarters, teens made the Lincoln Avenue location a cultural meeting hub, an information center, and a DESTINATION. I would think that as news spread, nonconforming bands approached Wax Trax!. The symbiotic relationship helped the label sign, among others, Cabaret Voltaire, Psychic TV, and a Swiss group named The Young Gods. The cult following grew here and abroad.
No artist had a history more intertwined with Wax Trax! than Jourgensen. After he signed with Arista in 1982, Wax Trax! started to release Jourgensen side projects such as Revolting Cocks, Pailhead (with Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi), and 1000 Homo DJ’s (with Trent Reznor). Jourgensen returned to Wax Trax! to record “Every Day is Halloween,” which became a dance staple. I even shuffled my feet and bopped my head to the song as a collegian after a few friends, who dubbed themselves “The Policemen,” started to organize on-campus dances. They, of course, spun “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell.
In 1985, Wax Trax! released an album by Coil that featured a remake of “Tainted Love” as a fundraising effort for the Terrence Higgins Trust, an organization dedicated to helping persons with AIDS. The label’s catalog continued to grow by signing Meat Beat Manifeto, Mussolini Headkick, Germany’s KMFDM, and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, among others. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1992, and TVT swooped in to save the day.
Jim Nash learned he had AIDS in 1993; he died of a heart attack in 1995. At the time of his death, Mr. Nash and his life and business partner, Danny Flesher, had released over 200 albums! (Flesher was also HIV+ when he died in 2010.) Richard Giraldi of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote in 2011, “As important as Chess Records was to blues and soul music, Chicago’s Wax Trax imprint was just as significant to the punk rock and new wave genres.” Rock critic Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune wrote, “Reagan. AIDS. ‘Greed is Good.’ The 80’s – what a disenchanting decade. And Wax Trax was the sound of Nero’s fiddle.”
Ciao, ciao for now.
