The Nihilists

The Nihilists is an imaginary band I made up. It thrived during 1974-1981 and mainly played psychedelic rock, indie rock, and hard rock; that being said, they also explored other styles such as hard rock, jazz-rock, shoegaze, and many other styles. One of the band’s signatures is that they wore masks to their shows- and not ordinary masks, but paper boxes and paper bags. This added to the mysterious vibe of the band, as the band didn’t show their face to the public until 1977( although there were pictures leaked in 1975). The paper box and bags each member wore were different and would change.

The members of the band include: Agnes Woolly( lead singer), James Michael(lead guitarist), Sonny(bassist), and Daniel Linton(drummer). (See the bottom sketch for each member’s details)

During the band’s fleeting seven years of existence, they published five albums, which can be considered as productive as each album contains at least ten and at most twenty-five songs. These albums include, ranked chronologically: Flour Titanium Joy, Alphabetic Learner, The Nihilists, Penny Fudge, and Eternal Sleep. Their first album was a quirky and new hit to the field of rock and roll, bringing the audience through the looking glass to a more bizarre Wonderland. This quirkiness is a double-edged sword- on the one hand, this style attracted viewers’ attention almost immediately; on the other hand, the unusual style might need a while for the new audience to adapt. Nevertheless, this peculiar trait is consistent in all their albums except the fifth one, which has heavy lament and mourning emotions- looking back from the future, this may somewhat foreshadow the tragedy happened three months after publishing this album.

The band broke up in 1981, shortly after their lead singer, Agnes Woolly, passed away from a plane crash. There have been rumors about the band’s conflicts and gossip about them breaking up in no time, yet no one had expected the band to end in such a tragic way. Some said that the band’s fifth album, Eternal Sleep, is almost like a Lacrimosa Woolly wrote for herself; it’s almost as if she foresaw her death and thus produced this mournful album. It was a pity to the world of music that Woolly passed just when the band started to explore a new style, not to mention what a heavy strike this is to Woolly's bandmates and family.

Five years and seven months after Woolly's death, the band published the sixth album, Salt Lake Loonies, in remembrance of Agnes Woolly. This album includes completion of some of Woolly's unfinished tapes. Compared to the fifth album, this album instead sounds less mournful- this might convey the band members' hope that Woolly could live in people's hearts.

See this sketch for the members' details!: