Wax Trax! Records

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Wax Trax! Records

Background information

Wax Trax! Records was a record label in the United States. Wax Trax! began as a record shop in Denver, Colorado opened by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher. They sold the store in 1978 and, in November of that year, opened a new one under the same name at 2449 North Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. This store would become the center of the New Wave, punk rock and industrial music scenes in Chicago.

The record store became a record label slowly at first, initially releasing limited edition records such as Brian Eno's "Wimoweh/Deadly Seven Finns" seven inch [1]. The first official Wax Trax! release [2][3] was Strike Under's Immediate Action twelve inch EP in 1980 [4], followed by Divine's Born To Be Cheap seven inch. But it was the release of Cold Life by Ministry — along with the licensing of Front 242's Endless Riddance EP — that set the stage for Wax Trax! to become America's preeminent industrial music and dance label of the 1980s and 1990s.

Nash and Flesher licensed a number of recordings from Play It Again Sam of Belgium, and eventually opened a North American office for the label (dubbed Play It Again Sam Records U.S.A.) as a division of Wax Trax!. PIAS, in turn, oversaw the operation of Wax Trax! Europe, although it closed abruptly when the relationship between the labels ended acrimoniously in late 1990. Play It Again Sam U.S.A. was subsequently absorbed by Caroline Records.

Following a bankruptcy filing, Wax Trax! was bought by New York-based TVT Records in 1992, with Nash and Flesher retaining creative control of the label. TVT continued to use the Wax Trax! imprint for years, even after Nash's death from AIDS-related symptoms on October 10, 1995 [5].

Bart Pfanenstiel, a former Wax Trax! employee, founded WTII Records in 2000 in an effort to rekindle the spirit of Wax Trax!'s early music [6].

Among the most noteworthy artists released by Wax Trax! were Front 242, KMFDM, PIG, Underworld, Meat Beat Manifesto, Front Line Assembly, Young Gods, Sister Machine Gun, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, Cubanate, Coil, Controlled Bleeding, The KLF, Psykosonik, and Laibach. The label also released a bevy of side projects by Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker of Ministry, including Revolting Cocks, Acid Horse (a collaboration with Cabaret Voltaire), Pailhead (a collaboration with Ian Mackaye of Fugazi), PTP (short for "Programming The Psychodrill"), Lead Into Gold (a solo vehicle for Barker), 1000 Homo DJs, and Lard (with Jello Biafra).