Die Warzau

Die Warzau was born in the late eighties, when Van Christie and Jim Marcus were working as individual performance artists in Chicago, Illinois. After deciding to join creative forces, their early shows became less about music than destruction and visual mayhem, garnering attention from fans, members of the press, and police officers. Fiction Records, distributed in the United States by Polygram and at the time serving as home to bands like The Cure, quickly added Die Warzau to its roster. This proved to be a wise move when in 1988 the band's first single, 'I've Got to Make Sense', reached number twenty-three on Billboard's dance chart and topped college club charts across the country. Their next effort would prove to be an even bigger hit, as 'Land of the Free' climbed to the top spot on the Billboard dance charts and stayed on the import charts for a record thirty-six weeks. Despite a racy video that was banned on major media outlets and only played in clubs after midnight, the next single, 'Welcome to America,' reached the number twelve spot on the Billboard dance charts.

Riding a wave of success that kept getting bigger and more powerful with every single, Die Warzau released its debut full-length, Disco Rigido, in 1989. The album spawned two more top club singles, including 1990's 'Strike to the Body,' which reached the number five spot on the Billboard dance chart, and seven other songs that charted on various radio stations across the globe. Aside from the success of its individual singles, the album as a whole helped prove that Die Warzau was not just a band that released songs made for the dance floor, but rather one that was capable of creating an eclectic collection of songs that refused to fit within the confines of any single category.

The band soon moved its United States distribution base to Atlantic records, under the A&R reins of Ivan Ivan, the producer responsible for 'The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight.' But distribution wasn't a major concern, because the band had already been wholly embraced by the industrial music community, despite the fact that the music of Die Warzau did its best to destroy genre boundaries and really didn't sound anything like the industrial music people were accustomed to.

The band's next single, 'Funkopolis,' was still in the number one spot on the Billboard dance chart when its sophomore full-length Big Electric Metal Bass Face started receiving the sort of reviews that began to cement Die Warzau as one of the leaders in electronic innovation. With such prominence came production work with acts like Sister Machine Gun, Machines of Loving Grace, Pigface, Lil Louis, Bjork, Pansy Division, Revenge, Final Cut, Gravity Kills, and KMFDM. Meanwhile, 'Never Again,' one of the singles from Big Electric Metal Bass Face, was climbing its way to the number eight spot on the Billboard dance chart, and proving to anyone who cared to listen that, despite all of its recent success, the band was as political and uncompromising as ever.

In 1995, Die Warzau's third full-length, Engine, was released via WaxTrax/TVT Records. Not only was the album greeted by critical and commercial success similar to that which welcomed the band''s previous releases, but Engine was praised as one of the greatest industrial records of all time by magazines such as Alternate Press, Option, and Independent Music Reviews. This eclectic album was brimming with complex and energetic songs that would help fill dance floors for several years to come, and 'All Good Girls,' in spite of never being released as a single by TVT, reached the top of multiple dance charts and was featured on the soundtrack for the film Hideaway, as well as on numerous compilations.

Nine years after the release of Engine, Die Warzau has made a triumphant return with its fourth full-length, Convenience. The album comes to us via Pulseblack, a new independent record label based in Chicago that specializes in industrial, funk, electronic, techno, and experimental dance music. Convenience was produced live in the band's own studio and stands out as its catchiest and most infectious album yet. With it, Die Warzau further cements its reputation by blending styles and genres with ease. The founding duo of Van Christie and Jim Marcus remains intact, but is now complimented by Abel Garibaldi and Dan Evans. Christie's production is raw and aggressive as always, but despite the wild complexity of each song, the material remains strangely accessible. Marcus' vocal range has grown over the years, and now includes a depth unknown to most industrial artists. Meanwhile, the contributions of Garibaldi and Evans only add to the stylistic and technical prowess of the band as a whole.

Yes, it has been a long time since you last heard from Die Warzau. But with Convenience, this seminal band does everything it can to prove that it has been well worth the wait.

Members of Die Warzau worked with; Louis Svitek (Ministry), Martin Atkins (Killing Joke, Pigface, Murder Inc), Chris Vrenna (Die Warzau, NIN, Stabbing Westward, Tweaker), Mars Williams (The Psychedelic Furs, Liquid Soul), Chris Randall, (Sister Machine Gun), Chris Connelly (Ministry, Pigface), Bill Rieflin (Ministry, KMFDM), and remixes for Bjork, George Clinton, Peter Hook (New Order), KMFDM, Pansy Division, Sister Soliel, Pink Noise Test, Machines of Loving Grace, Gravity Kills, Chemlab and a shitload of others