The premiere of the long-in-the-works documentary about the rise and fall of Chicago’s Wax Trax! Records retail shop and record label is just over a day away, but for those who can’t make it Chicago, or just want a glimpse now, here’s a 3-minute trailer to whet your appetite. Watch the trailer here.
The long-in-the-works documentary about the rise and fall of Chicago’s Wax Trax! Records retail shop and record label — home to Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Front 242 and more — will premiere with two special test screenings and panel discussions on April 1 in the Windy City.
On the eve of the Record Store Day release of a new Wax Trax! Records box set, the Lethal Amounts Gallery in Los Angeles will celebrate Ministry mastermind Al Jourgensen and his labelmates on the highly influential Chicago imprint via a new photo exhibit called “Without Sympathy: The Visceral Journey of Al Jourgensen.”
A trove of early Wax Trax! Records material from Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Pailhead, 1,000 Homo DJs, PTP and Acid Horse — including previously unreleased tracks and demos — will be compiled on a limited-edition 7CD/1LP box set to be released for Record Store Day next month in both the U.S. and the U.K.
One of Ministry’s earliest tracks — the oft-bootlegged “Same Old Madness,” which was recorded in 1982 and even has a video, but never was released — finally sees the official light of day on an expanded 2CD reissue of Al Jourgensen and Co.’s classic Wax Trax!-era compilation Twelve Inch Singles 1981-1984.
The recently resurrected Wax Trax! Records imprint next month will commemorate the 30th anniversary of Front 242’s first U.S. show by releasing a new 7-inch single featuring a pair of tracks recorded live by the EBM pioneers at concerts in Chicago in both 1984 and 2011.
Not only is Wax Trax! Records being reborn as a label, but the famed Chicago record store will return next month, too — for one day only. Julia Nash is planning a one-day Wax Trax! pop-up shop inside Windy City music venue Metro on June 15 to mark the label’s first release.
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