![]() ![]() ![]() Ministry/Front 242 side project Revolting Cocks' signature sound was born from a happy accident We feel that there is a big market out there for that type of stuff."Ħ. A major label is not interested in a record unless it's going to sell at least 50,000 copies – they wouldn't even consider signing them. Jim Nash said in an interview at the time, "There is a lot of people out there that will respond to this music, but there's no exposure for it. For the label, it was their first time working with someone outside of the local Chicago scene. The pairing between the band and label coincided with Front 242's attempt to move past the post-punk moniker they'd been slapped with previously and further into the realm of early electronic body music. I didn't even know that 12-inches were imported in America until we received one day a fax saying 'Hey, we love your 12-inch. Later in 1983, Belgian electronic act Front 242 joined the ranks of bands introduced to America via the Wax Trax! spearheads. "The 'Endless Riddance' 12-inch was imported by a label or a shop in the states called Wax Trax!," explains Front 242's Richard 23, "but we didn't know that of course. "For all of us, our impression was that we had entered into some kind of very camp, kind of gay enclave." The then-fledgling band had released their most recognizable track and inimitable goth anthem "Bela Lugosi's Dead" just one year prior to their stay with the record store and label founders. ![]() "They were most personable, and they took us to their apartment," recalls Bauhaus bassist David J. shows in 1980 at Chicago venue Space Place. Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, the Wax Trax! owners, booked one of Bauhaus' first U.S. Wax Trax! introduced America to Front 242 and Bauhaus They all ended up at Wax Trax! Records."Ĥ. "The whole scene from David Bowie on was about misfits, people who didn't belong anywhere else. "The music, the record store: it was all about misfits," continues Heffley. That attitude helped shape the breezy, no-fucks-given attitude that made Wax Trax! the haven it became for punks, freaks, glam rockers and other societal outcasts later on in its run as a store and label. "Being an out gay couple at that time and where they lived, in Kansas and Denver, was a big deal," explains store employee Steve Knutson, "And they didn't apologize for it, they didn't hide from it, they didn't give a shit … they didn't care what anybody thought." What Jim had, Dannie didn't, and what Dannie had, Jim didn't." Close friend Bill Maney confirms, "You definitely got the sense that they really loved each other, but they had some amazing ways of showing it which included beating the shit out of each other." Their friend and photographer Patty Heffley recalls, "Jim and Dannie were an amazing couple … they fit together like glue. Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, previously carpenters and cabinet makers, weren't just record collectors with a dream: they were lovers and partners, an openly gay couple in the mid-1970s when homosexuality had been decriminalized only a decade or so earlier. Wax Trax! was an early LGBTQ haven for Midwestern glam rockers and punks See dates here - and read on to discover ten things you may not have known about the famed label and record store.ġ. These special events will also feature a panel discussion and performances by Ministry (doing a Wax Trax! era set) and Cold Cave. Throughout April, Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records will be screened at select cities across the U.S. The story of Wax Trax! centers on late founders Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher (Nash passed in 1995, Flesher in 2010), whose unique and passionate dedication to discovering - and fostering an accepting atmosphere for - new progressive, and subversive, music kick-started an industrial juggernaut: from Wax Trax!'s first physical store established in Denver in the mid-1970s, through their 1978 move to Chicago and the label's eventual sale to TVT Records in 1992. Through interviews with such notable artists as Dave Grohl, Jello Biafra, Al Jourgensen, Trent Reznor, Fugazi's Ian MacKaye and many more, the history of Wax Trax! takes on new life through the pieced-together narrative formed from the memories of those who were there. ![]()
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