In or about 1980 Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher started a dinky record shop in Denver, Co. They soon handed off that operation and headed to Chicago to set things up again using the same handle they employed out west. Landing on N. Lincoln Ave. was WAX TRAX! RECORDS. Quickly the store also became a label.
The maiden release in that year of 1980 was the STRIKE UNDER – "Immediate Action" 12" E.P. Yes, let it be know that WAX TRAX released a single "rock" (punk rock) offering before going almost instantly and exclusively into the realm of industrial / electro dance mode. Many a descent Chicago punk rock effort cannot go without some sort of branch on the Naked Raygun and/or Effigies tree. Here we have both Pierre Kezdy, later of Raygun and Chris Bjorklund who took up duties with the Effigies. STRIKE UNDER also contributed two fine tracks to the super "Busted At The Oz" Comp. Then they went kaput – one year and out!
But not before leaving behind one the earliest Chicago punk/HC memories. Here we’re featuring tracks from that very hard to find album. Posting the whole damn thing just wouldn’t be sporting, get out there and dig! Maybe you’ll get lucky. But with the internets these days all the fun of the hunt is slowly going the way of the buffalo (as they say).
Post Script: CD? NO NEVER, AS FAR AS I KNOW, BUT ONE SONG DID MAKE IT ON THE WAX TRAX BOX SET.
STRIKE UNDER – context
STRIKE UNDER – elephant’s graveyard
STRIKE UNDER – immedate action