We’d love to hear your thoughts and memories of the album. Please share in the comments here, or on social media – tag them with #shipwreck30.
For a taste of Shipwreck live, check out this recording of Chris and the Shipwrecked Band from New Orleans 1995:
Go to Bandcamp
Julia Nash and her family have begun the process to designate the original WaxTrax Chicago storefront landmark status with the city of Chicago. Chris lends his support to the effort and remembers 2449 N. Lincoln Ave. fondly:
Walking into the WAXTRAX! store on North Lincoln was PARADISE for any music fan, music collector, record nerd, fashion fanatic, manic panic manipulator, a haven for the shaven, a shelter for the shaggy, LGBTQ… it was all there for you, from the eccentric staff (myself included) to the latest TUXEDOMOON import, or maybe a MARTHA & THE VANDELLAS greatest hits album. On any given day, the often belligerent (but loveable) staff might play the most awkwardly terrifying NURSE WITH WOUND album whilst smoking and downing a six pack of St. Pauli Girl lager behind the counter, studiously ignoring the customers.
Posters from DEPECHE MODE to SID VICIOUS hung around, and upstairs you could maybe try on an asymmetrical dress while Robert Plant sat in a chair studying the latest British Rock magazine…
Those were loud, rhythmic, creative and hedonistic times, in a beautifully inclusive setting…
Yes, it’s true that I coincidentally turned 50 this year—considered by many to be power outage, so I COULD not notice it as it was DARK, enough senses working to reach out and pour from a bottle of single malt in a freezing dark room—so, in other words, little changed… ho hum…
What was remarkable this year was, how busy with music I was—busy to the point of confusion: The year started with an avalanche of light and sound when SONS OF THE SILENT AGE brought in 2014 with a New Year’s show, hotly followed two days later with a scaled down version of same at the club Berlin on Chicago’s north side…
A couple of days after THAT, I was in the studio recording the lead vocals and guitar for what will eventually become my 15th solo album… more on that later…
That month also saw the release of the first EP by the mighty COCKSURE as well as the 25th anniversary remix/reissue of the 1985 monster “DETESTIMONY” by FINI TRIBE (not technically a 25th anniversary, more like 28th). AND, at the end of that month the first ever gig by COCKSURE…
The middle of the year was a schizophrenic affair with me vacillating and oscillating between my own solo album and working hard on the debut album and another single by COCKSURE. Almost in the same breath we signed to the recently revived WAXTRAX! label for a one-off EP and we signed to METROPOLIS for the debut full length—girding my industrial rock loins whilst keeping it REAL and on the modern tip, whilst I salivated over TYLER THE CREATOR mixtapes, I managed to become the petty Scottish tyrant that I always knew I could.
The new COCKSURE EP, “TKO MINDFUCK”, came out in the summer and we played to celebrate it at some dark disco bar in the sweltering June heat… Then, all of a sudden, SONS OF THE SILENT AGE were back taking another lick of the BOWIE catalogue…
Summer stretched on, and the COCKSURE album, “TVMALSV”, was there, in your face, like Tarantino adrift in the highlands of Scotland with a bag of bath salts and the burning remains of a Porsche belching black smoke into the sky… and then, and then… before you have time to take this in, SONS hit again outdoors at DALEY PLAZA in Chicago for the opening of DAVID BOWIE IS… at the Museum of Contemporary Art. I ran offstage with full Bowie make up on to make my flight to NEW YORK to play with Cocksure, opening for the legendary FRONT 242. I was confused and tired, and I flew back to do THE SAME THING at Metro in Chicago…
RIGHT ON TIME for my 50th!!!! The “Book Club” (second, expanded) edition of “CONCRETE, BULLETPROOF, INVISIBLE & FRIED: MY LIFE AS A REVOLTING COCK” is AVAILABLE!!! In both fancy-pants-with-colour-pictures and extra naughty WORDS and as an audio book read by myself—a sort of public service, my parole officer offers…
It is time to regroup, or not: “World Fair” by the amazing HUMAN GREED comes out featuring my performance of “Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair”. An album of strange sonic experiments I must have made in the 80s comes out on the prestigious Vinyl On Demand label… and then COCKSURE fucks off to Antwerp to play the Belgian Independent Music festival. It is almost Christmas, and on the 24th, the new solo album is DONE, MASTERED, TITLED, COVER ART ASSEMBLED and there you have it…
There’s clearly much to look forward to in 2015—including this rebooted web site! Happy new year, everyone!
Chris was interviewed by Steve Edwards on WBEZ’s “Afternoon Shift” in Chicago.
Listen to the interview online
On Friday, July 8, Chris and Paul Barker will be guests on Sound Opinions as they look back on the legacy of WaxTrax Records. Check the web site to find out when the show airs in your region. The show will also be online to listen to on the 11th!
Update: If you missed the show, you can read the show notes and download an MP3 on the Sound Opinions web site!
Originally posted on July 4.