Wax Trax! Records, the seminal Chicago record store and label once run by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher will be the subject of a much deserved documentary and soundtrack this coming Spring. Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records is due out April 16th on DVD and Blu Ray with VOD to follow. In addition, the documentary will be accompanied by a soundtrack featuring 10 cuts of unreleased, out of print, and classic songs from essential Wax Trax! artists including Front 242, Ministry, Revolting Cocks, KMFDM and more.
During the 80s and 90s, Wax Trax! Records was the epicenter for an underground scene that blended post-punk, industrial, and the emerging electronic dance music coming out of the Midwest, UK, and Europe, with Nash and Flesher’s iconoclastic sensibilities and twisted humor. With the success of their record store–initially located in Denver before moving to its’ famous Chicago location–the pair started a label that would go on to launch the genre of “industrial dance music” with the help of bands like Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Front 242, Coil, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, and more.
Ultimately, though, Wax Trax! Records would end a tragic tale after the label’s bankruptcy in the early 90s, as well as the untimely passing of both Nash and Flesher in 1995 and 2010, respectively. Leaving behind a complex and tangled legacy, Wax Trax! Records’ influence is still an undeniably vital chapter in the history of experimental music. Luckily, in 2010 Jim’s daughter Julia Nash would uncover a forgotten Wax Trax! archive, as well as the entire visual history of the shop and label, in a rural barn in Arkansas. She would go on to reopen the label in 2014, as well as direct the upcoming documentary.
Look for Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records to include interviews with Al Jourgensen, Trent Reznor, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Dave Grohl, Ian MacKaye, Jello Biafra, and many more. The accompanying soundtrack will be available in various exclusive additions that contain unreleased material including answering machine messages from the label, photos and mystery bonus tracks. As a special collaboration, Wax Trax! has also partnered with Record Store Day for an exclusive RSD edition available early on April 13th. Pre-orders of the album are available here.
Below, you can watch a trailer for the documentary and listen to a formerly unreleased track from Revolting Cocks called “Animal Nation.”
INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT: THE STORY OF WAX TRAX! RECORDS
SOUNDTRACK TRACKLIST:
- My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult – “A Daisy Chain 4 Satan” (Acid and Flowers Mix)
- Revolting Cocks – “Animal Nation”
- The Young Gods – “Envoyé”
- Pankow – “Me and My Ding-Dong”
- KMFDM – “Vogue (Apart Version)”
- Ministry – “Tonight We Murder (Original Version)”
- FRONT 242 – “Headhunter (Live in NYC)”
- Mussolini Headkick – “Your God is Dead”
- Laibach – “Leben-Tod”
- Chris Connelly – “Shipwreck”
1-833-WAX-TRAX
