Wax Trax concerts to salute founders and their misfit genius
Throwing a party in honor of Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, the founders of Wax Trax Records, is a daunting task. There were parties, and then there were Wax Trax bacchanals. But Jim Nash’s daughter is giving it a try.
“They were great guys – crazy, but great,” says Julia Nash, who is spearheading a series of tribute concerts dubbed the “Wax Trax! Records Retrospectable” April 15-17 at Metro for the two gone-but-not-forgotten life partners (Jim Nash died in 1995, Flesher in 2010).
“After Dannie passed, we thought, ‘This is it, the end of an era,’ ” Julia Nash says. “It was time to celebrate what they had done. But I’ve gotten overwhelmed with how huge it has become. It started out kind of intimate and small, and it’s become this huge thing that I am trying to reel in before I lose it completely.”
Among the former Wax Trax bands and artists scheduled to play at the three-night Metro blowout are Front 242, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, Rights of the Accused, Luc Van Acker, Ministry’s Paul Barker, Chris Connelly and members of the Revolting Cocks and KMFDM.
Somewhere Nash and Flesher are probably laughing at such excess being committed in their honor. They wouldn’t have it any other way.
When the two fled Topeka, Kan., in the early ‘70s their goals were relatively modest: “We worked lousy jobs in construction and got tired of it,” Jim Nash once told the Tribune. “So we thought, ‘OK, now how can we retire at the tender age of 23?’ ”
They did much better than that. Their desire to live a less-structured life led to Denver, where they opened the Wax Trax record store, then relocated it to Lincoln Avenue on Chicago’s North Side in 1978. The shop, a couple doors down from the old Biograph Theater, instantly became just about the coolest place in Chicago to hang out for the city’s most colorful outcasts. It was stuffed with punk, glam and subterranean-dance records, and was the Midwest headquarters for fanzines and news about all the latest underground shows. It instantly attracted a clientele that liked their music harsh and their clothes provocative. Combat boots, bombardier jackets, dyed hair, tattoos, piercings and ripped fish-nets mingled with the blare of the latest singles by Throbbing Gristle and Joy Division.
Within a couple years the store expanded into a record label, first as an outlet for Nash and Flesher to put out records by their friends that wouldn’t stand a prayer of being released by anyone else. The releases included a punk EP by locals Strike Under, a single by John Waters’ film star Divine, and fey synth-pop sung in a fake British accent by a record-store employee, Al Jourgensen, in the band Ministry.
But soon Jourgensen was pumping up the volume and the aggression, and a particularly brutal brand of electronic music was born. Some called it “industrial” (though Jourgensen and most of his labelmates hated the term) and Wax Trax became its epicenter. Other bands and artists from around the world – most notably Nine Inch Nails -- made millions a decade later capitalizing on the aggressive, technology-abusing blueprint established by Ministry and other Wax Trax artists (See a list of Wax Trax's greatest hits HERE).
A gleeful irreverence underlined much of it – how could anything associated with Nash and Flesher not have a certain frivolity attached to it? But the music also flashed a pointed political edge, sometimes overt (as in the case of Ministry), most often implied by a wicked, against-the-grain attitude. Wax Trax was a rude gesture, a style defined by its refusal to conform. Its primary messages? Think for yourself. Taking nothing at face value. It’s OK to march to your own drum-machine. In the era of AIDS and Reaganonmics, the Wax Trax culture struck a chord with kids allergic to the Cold War and boilerplate pop music.
“The plan was there wasn’t any plan,” Jim Nash once said. “We weren’t going after the Bananaramas of the day. The music we liked, it’s not exactly pleasing.”
The label owners blew past the nuances of running a business, but they were passionate about music and culture and the people that made it. Wax Trax broke bands such as Germany’s KMFDM and Belgium’s Front 242 before those groups were well-known in their home countries.
“I came from Scotland with Fini Tribe, a band that worked very hard but couldn’t find anyone to (care) because we didn’t sound like the Pastels or the Jesus and Mary Chain or the Soup Dragons, who were big at the time,” says Chris Connelly. “Chicago was the one place in the world where there was more than one human being who heard our record and liked it. Jim could get a record played at (underground dance club) Smart Bar or at a college radio station like WZRD, and we felt our band was taken seriously for the first time.”
Connelly and the early incarnation of the Revolting Cocks crashed at Julia Nash’s apartment in 1987, and he recalls a steady stream of meals and cash from Jim Nash and Flesher that helped tide over Wax Trax artists as they got their careers off the ground.
The owners’ open-hearted attitude and hand-shake deals with many of their artists eventually doomed the label. Wax Trax plunged into bankruptcy and was bought out by another label, then quietly disappeared after Nash died of AIDS at age 47 in 1995.
Julia Nash, who ran her father’s record store in its waning years and was friends with many of the artists, eventually went into private business (she now owns a gift shop in Oak Park). For her, the label’s legacy is less about music than it is the extended family it created, which is why proceeds from the Metro concerts will benefit the Center on Halsted, a community hub for the Midwest’s gay, bisexual and transgender population.
“It’s a community place for misfits, the disenfranchised, much like Wax Trax was,” Julia Nash says. She adds that there are no plans to revive the label, which remains tied up in litigation, but Connelly is hopeful that the reunion of some of electronic music’s most vivid personalities will light some sparks.
“It’s a nostalgia show, but we’ve pulled back from the ‘has-beens getting together for the money’ aspect by doing it for charity,” Connelly says. “If Jim and Dannie were here, they’d love the party and the cause but they’d also be bullying us to do something new, which would be fantastic. They would always encourage us to make records, no matter how esoteric or strange, and they would be happy to foot the bill.”
greg@gregkot.com
Wax Trax! Records Retrospectacle: 33 1/3 Year Anniversary: 8 p.m. April 15-17 at Metro, 3730 N. Clark St., April 15-16 sold out, $41 or $350 VIP table for April 17; etix.com.
1) While WT! won't be resurrected, WTII is definitely alive and kicking, and played a huge role in negotiating the Retrospectacle. It is also helmed by a WT! refugee, Bart Pfanenstiel, who definitely channels the renegade musical spirits of Jim and Dannie, while successfully avoiding their ultimately dooming (and somewhat fiscally irresponsible) over-generosity.
It would do both your column and your NPR show justice to include mention of these guys, as it would help mitigate some of the egregious mistakes you've made about the genre in the past. Calling This Mortal Coil (4AD) an industrial band on the show, while totally ignoring Coil - also on WT! - was just embarrassing to hear.
2) The WaxTrax Denver store outlasted the Chicago store by at least a decade, given that it is still in operation. Was this omission based on the fact that it hadn't been owned by Jim and Dannie since '79-'80, or so, upon their relocation here?
3) While I've always felt Paul Barker (and Bill Rieflin) was the musically gifted (as well as the most together, relatively sober, non-narcissistic personality disordered) half of Ministry, do we know why he is the one representing Ministry, and why Alain Jourgensen appears to have zero involvement with the Retrospectacle? Why even tag him in the article, since he appears to be an ungrateful d*bag, unwilling to honor the people that made his entire career possible? He didn't go from leaving Special Affect to Arista and then to Warner Bros. without some divine Jim and Dannie intervention.
4) Encourage your readers to pick up Chris Connelly's book 'Concrete, Bulletproof, Industrial and Fried'; his memoir of his WT! years. Short of his having produced a comprehensive label biography, it provides the best insight into the era that he was capable of recalling (quite a testament to his ability to remember events despite the fairly constant state of altered consciousness he maintained). Promoting his current, more cerebral singer-songwriter material/performances within your media spaces would be a generous and appreciated gesture, too. He's not Tortoise or Wilco, but he is still ostensibly a local artist, worthy of the exposure.
PS: Why no mention of the passing of Mick Karn? Yeah, Japan was mostly (mistakenly) assumed to be nothing but a fluff NewRom act by US critics, but his subsequent solo works and collaborations were highly esteemed, as was his unmistakable bass-playing style. Dali's Car and Gary Numan would have suffered for his lack of presence.
Greg responds: I have written about Chris Connelly's post-Wax Trax albums several times, and his memoir, most recently here:
http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2008/03/chris-connelly.html
Posted by: mlm | April 06, 2011 at 01:06 PM
@mim
AL Jourgensen [and Sascha Konietzko] weren't invited. That is how you have Connelly, Barker, Van Acker, Esch, Gunther and others willing to participate- those two egomaniacs won't be in attendance.
Posted by: Jack | April 06, 2011 at 07:00 PM
This is an absolutely great event for two Industry Icons ...honoring them and the great artists and music they supported, and brought to the world with a passion unsurpassed by Wax Trax! Records' owners and good friends ...Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher! After many years of working with Wax Trax! Records, Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher ...and recording so many of their artists / great music at my studio, Chicago Trax Recording, I am deeply moved that we're coming together many years later to celebrate their lives and passion, while donating the proceeds to a most worthy cause. I am very proud to have been part of the lives of Jim, Dannie and all the artists throughout the years! I'm additionally grateful for Greg Kot for writing this article, Joe Shanahan at the Cabaret Metro/Smart Bar, Julia Nash and to everyone that has worked so hard to make this event happen. I thank everyone and especially all the dedicated fans past, present and future ...the legacy lives on! Reid Hyams ...from the other Trax.
Posted by: Reid Hyams | April 10, 2011 at 08:49 AM
@ mim & Jack:
There is no reason to speculate why Al J and Sascha are not making this event.
What is paramount is the event, honoring all of those who were Wax Trax! Records, the artists and the legacy ...knowing, understanding and appreciating those that are putting this on, supporting, participating, donating to this most important charity are doing this unselfishly.
Calling people names and dissecting anything in such a negative manner serves no purpose.
We are coming together to celebrate the lives of two of the most musically passionate and people passionate the music industry has ever known.
In the spirit of Jim and Dannie - I and many others who knew them well ...would appreciate it if we could do away with the negative commentary.
Thank you,
Reid
Posted by: Reid Hyams | April 10, 2011 at 09:23 AM
There was no mention of the fact that this very worthy event is happening the night of RECORD STORE DAY & I don't know if it was part of the plan, but it couldn't be more appropriate. Wax Trax was the epitome of an indie record store & I can just imagine what a bash it would have been if RSD had existed in their day. Congratulations to all who have worked so hard to make this happen.
Val Camilletti
Val's halla Records
Oak Park
Posted by: val camilletti | April 10, 2011 at 01:41 PM
As the founder and host of CLUB BEAT on WNUR back in the 80s (THE place to hear this music on the radio back then), I would often go straight from the Wax Trax offices above the record store to the radio station to play the brand new tunes from Jim and Dannie--often test pressings or advance white labels. I often described the music as "industrial dance" and don't recall ANY of the bands or Wax Trax label staff having a problem with it. Admittedly I didn't ask Al Jourgensen but I don't think it was as reviled a term as it seems in the article above.
For several years Wax Trax embodied the sounds of what the Northside clubs were playing much in the way Trax or DJ International was doing for the Southside. It was DANCE music but with a rough, hard edge to it. I miss the store, the label and the people greatly. I had a lot of fun back then and Jim especially was always very generous and kind to me.
--Dirk V-
Groove Distribution
Posted by: Dirk van den Heuvel | April 12, 2011 at 04:30 PM