Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive, or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initially a blend of avant-garde electronics experiments and punk provocation." The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by members of Throbbing Gristle and Monte Cazazza. While the genre name originated with Throbbing Gristle's emergence in the United Kingdom, artists and labels vital to the genre also emerged in the United States and other countries.
Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music. It initially originated in the 1970s, and drew influence from early experimental and industrial acts such as Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten and Chrome. Industrial rock became more prominent in the 1980s with the success of artists such as Killing Joke, Swans, and partially Skinny Puppy, and later spawned the offshoot genre known as industrial metal. The genre was made more accessible to mainstream audiences in the 1990s with the aid of acts such as Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, both of which have released platinum-selling records.
Illinois, including Chicago has a wide musical heritage. Chicago is most famously associated with the development of electric blues music. Chicago was also a center of development for early jazz and later for house music, and includes a vibrant hip hop scene and R&B. Chicago also has a thriving rock scene that spans the breadth of the rock genre, from huge stadium-filling arena-rock bands to small local indie bands. Chicago has had a significant historical impact on the development of many rock subgenres including power pop, punk rock, indie rock, emo rock, pop punk, and alternative rock.
Wax Trax! Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago. It began as a record shop in Denver, Colorado, opened by life partners Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, who sold the store in 1978 and moved to Chicago. In November of that year, they opened a store under the same name in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. During the 1980s and 1990s, the accompanying record label became a strong presence on the industrial music scene as well as the punk rock scene in Chicago, and an outlet for European bands. The label was purchased by TVT Records in 1992 and was discontinued in 2001. In 2014, it was re-established by Julia Nash, daughter of co-founder Jim Nash.
Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term "post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad constellation of groups. Initially taking inspiration from post-punk and noise rock, post-hardcore began in the 1980s with bands like Hüsker Dü and Minutemen. The genre expanded in the 1980s and 1990s with releases by bands from cities that had established hardcore scenes, such as Fugazi from Washington, D.C. as well as groups such as Big Black, Jawbox, Quicksand, and Shellac that stuck closer to post-hardcore's noise rock roots. Dischord Records became a major nexus of post-hardcore during this period.
Naked Raygun is an American punk rock band that formed in Chicago in 1980. The band was active from 1980 to 1992, along with reunion shows in 1997, and since 2006.
WTII Records is an independent record label created in 2001 by former Wax Trax! Records employee Bart Pfanenstiel, and David Schock.
Violent Apathy is an American hardcore band that formed in March 1981 at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States, and sparked the Kalamazoo hardcore scene. The original band was three high school friends from Jackson, Michigan along with Eliot Rachman, another WMU student who hailed from East Lansing. Rachman had worked on the 1980 United States Census in Lansing, MI with members of The Fix and the original publishers of Touch and Go magazine. He introduced the other members of the band to the then very new music of the Fix, the Necros, and Negative Approach, and all three bands provided a great deal of support and encouragement to VA.
Pegboy is an American punk band from Chicago, Illinois with a relatively large cult following. They were founded in 1990 by John Haggerty, along with his brother Joe Haggerty, Larry Damore (vocals/guitar), and Steve Saylors (bass). Both Damore and Saylors had been members of the Chicago-based hardcore band Bhopal Stiffs, whose 1987 demo had been produced by John Haggerty. Pegboy's 1990 debut EP, "Three-Chord Monte", was also the first release by Quarterstick Records, an offshoot of Touch and Go Records. Steve Saylors dropped out in 1992 after job commitments prevented him from touring. Steve Albini, a longtime friend of the band, filled the bass slot on the "Fore" EP. Former Naked Raygun bassist Pierre Kezdy became the permanent bass player in 1994. After the reformation of Naked Raygun, Mike Thompson took over for Kezdy on bass.
Steve Bjorklund a/k/a Steve Björklund a/k/a Steffan Bjorklund was born ca. 1960 in Chicago, Illinois. He was an early figure in the first punk rock music scene in Chicago. He briefly attended Roycemore School in Evanston, Illinois. His first known recorded appearance was in July 1978, as a guitarist-singer with the protopunk-garage-New Wavish band The Rabbits, who opened a show in Schaumburg, Illinois by power-pop up-and-comers Pezband.
The Effigies are an American punk rock band from Chicago. The band played its first show in 1980 and was active initially for approximately a decade, undergoing multiple personnel changes before disbanding in 1990. The band released 3 albums, 2 EPs and one single during this initial run, most on the record label they founded in 1981, Ruthless Records, which was distributed by Enigma. Later albums were released on the Fever Records and Roadkill Records labels. They toured the U.S. and Canada, sharing bills with bands such as Black Flag, The Dead Kennedys, UK Subs, PIL, The Birthday Party, The Plasmatics, SS Decontrol, GBH and The Circle Jerks at iconic venues, including Metro, CBGB, Maxwell's, First Avenue, Mabuhay Gardens, Paycheck's, Exit and The Rathskeller among others. They were heavily featured in the underground press, and received a significant amount of national airplay on college radio at a time when it was the only medium for alternative music.
Breaking Circus was a post-punk band from the 1980s, based in Chicago and later Minneapolis, founded by guitarist and vocalist Steve Björklund.
Spite was an American hardcore punk band formed in Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S. and was a part of the Michigan hardcore scene. It was made up of members from other regional bands who participated in the hardcore music communities inside and outside the region. Vocalist Scott Boman became an area libertarian politician and media personality.
You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk, 1977–1984 is a 2007 documentary film about punk subculture in Chicago from 1977 through 1984. The film was written and directed by Joe Losurdo and Christina Tillman, and profiles the punk bars and local bands that gave rise to the city's punk rock scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Losurdo was the one-time bass player for the Chicago-based 1980s hardcore band, Life Sentence, although his group is not profiled in the movie. Reviewer Max Goldberg of the San Francisco Bay Guardian called the film "a thrillingly exhaustive survey of early Chicago punk."
Mark Durante is an American musician and songwriter who is based in Chicago.
DA! was a Chicago-based post-punk band of the early 1980s, known for their songs "Dark Rooms" and "Time Will Be Kind". Their sound was influenced by artists such as the Cure, Gang of Four, Bauhaus and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Pierre Kezdy was an American bass player, known for playing with various Chicago punk bands, including Naked Raygun, Pegboy, Strike Under, Arsenal, and Trial By Fire. He was also the younger brother of Effigies frontman John Kezdy.
Raygun...Naked Raygun is the fifth studio album by Chicago punk rock band Naked Raygun, released in 1990 through Caroline Records. The album was recorded at Chicago Trax and was co-produced by Keith Harbacher and the band. It was the band's first album with their new guitarist Bill Stephens, who had replaced John Haggerty. This was the last album by the band before they broke up in 1992.
"I'm Falling" and "Cold Life" are songs by American Industrial band Ministry. Written by Al Jourgensen, these were first released in 1981 by Wax Trax! Records, as the band's debut single. Initially featuring "I'm Falling" as the A-side, the single found success via its B-side, "Cold Life", which was chosen as the A-side on release in the UK. In 1985, during Ministry's short-lived return on Wax Trax!, the single was reissued with "Cold Life" as the A-side.
Over the Overlords is the sixth studio album by Chicago punk band Naked Raygun. It was released on August 2, 2021, on Wax Trax! Records. It is their first album in 31 years.
