REMEMBERING WAX TRAX!
February 19, 2010
Posted by RAW

Some of our all-time favorite electronic bands had their first release in the states on a single, super-influential record label—Wax Trax! We're talking about artists like Front 242, Ministry, The Revolting Cocks, Meat Beat Manifesto, Front Line Assembly, My Life With the Thrill Kill Cult...the list goes on and on.

Wax Trax! got its start in the mid-1970s when partners Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher (cute couple pictured above) opened a record store called Wax Trax! in Denver. In 1978, they sold that store (which is still open by the way) and moved to Chicago. They opened a new Wax Trax! shop, which become the center of the new wave, punk rock, and industrial music scene in Chicago. It also led to some of the most important music of that decade (at least in our opinion).

Nash and Flesher officially launched the Wax Trax! record label in 1981, with the release Strike Under's 12-inch EP Immediate Action. This was followed with the 1982 release of Divine's 7-inch Born To Be Cheap. You know RAW loves Divine! It was their third release though, a re-issue of Ministry's Cold Life EP (which they had previously put out in limited edition), that set the stage for the label's eventual status as THE record label in the states for electro-industrial music.

There were so many hot artists with Wax Trax! releases. Bands like KMFDM, PIG, Fini Tribe, Clock DVA, Chris & Cosey, Underworld, Young Gods, Sister Machine Gun, Coil, A Certain Ratio, and Laibach. The label also spawned so many side projects by Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker of Ministry it was hard to keep up. Groups like The Revolting Cocks (with Richard 23 of Front 242 and Luc van Acker), Acid Horse (with Cabaret Voltaire), Pailhead (with Ian Mackaye of Fugazi), Lead Into Gold (a solo vehicle for Barker), and 1000 Homo DJs.

It's too bad the story doesn't end on a happier note. Things got rough in the early 1990s when a lot of their artists moved on to major labels. In 1993, TVT Records bought the label and gave Nash & Flescher creative control. Despite their involvement, the label never reclaimed its glory. Then Nash died in 1995, and Flesher (his life partner) retired from the music business. TVT continued to use the imprint for many of their electronic releases.

In 2000, a former Wax Trax! employee started a new label called WTII Records (short for Wax Trax II) in an effort to rekindle the spirit of classic electro-industrial sound that Wax Trax! was known for. Sadly, last month, surviving founding member Flesher also passed away. The music and creative spirit they pioneered lives on. Check out this amazing inventory of Wax Trax! releases and listen to some of RAW's favorites.

Here's the video for their best-selling single, Front 242's Headhunter plus Fini Tribe's I Want More. Below are tracks from more Wax Trax! artists, including a live version of Divine's Born To Be Cheap.

Divine - Born To Be Cheap (Live) | Download

Ministry - All Day | Download

Revolting Cocks - No Devotion | Download

Front 242 - Quite Unusual | Download

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - A Daisy Chain 4 Satan | Download