Money? Funny!
“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
Stop me if you’ve heard this before…
Young punks form band, write songs, play gigs, release records, fail to catch, earn nothing, sink without a trace, part ways, fade into obscurity. A distressingly typical musical trajectory. Yet mine has a twist: Nihilistics still exist, booking the occasional show and continually re-reissuing recordings. The current edition of the band includes two original members: Ron (Vocals) and Troy (Drums). Ajax Lepinski took over on guitar circa 1990 and has now been a Nihilistic approximately 3.5 times longer than I, if you mark my tenure from 1979 to 1986 (with a slight return in 1989). On bass there’s been a revolving roster on since Mike first fell out with Ron, then departed this earthly plain.
On social media news will filter down about Nihilistics gigs, perhaps a half-dozen a year. I’m always gobsmacked anyone still cares. I suppose there’s something to be said for longevity and Ron continues to captain the S.S. Nihilistics, so he must get something out of it. It must be the supposed “prestige” that comes with being one of New York Hardcore’s (NYHC) “Founding Fathers” because there’s no money in it. No one’s making coin off the Nihilistics, though record companies continue to try. A year ago I heard about a compilation that used a few Nihilistics tracks and had our picture on the cover. I contacted the record label owner, asserting my mechanical and performance rights and seeking proper compensation, and got a hateful response along the lines of No one’s making money in punk rock and you must be a Trump supporter if you’re looking to get paid but with a ton of spelling and grammatical errors. The dude basically told me to go piss up a rope. And fuck myself into the bargain. This has happened a few times, with varying levels of vitriol, and it always creates cognitive dissonance:
I was there at the beginning. There’d be no Nihilistics if not for me. I was a co-author on many of the songs, adding to and changing the lyrics, figuring out the music behind the words. I played on those original recordings. But it’s like none of that matters. It all belongs to someone else now, even though I never signed away my rights.
Over the years Ron’s sent a few dollars, most recently in 2021 when Nihilistics music appeared in the film North Hollywood. But now I hear (and not from former band-mates) Jib Machine Records has reissued Nihilistics material in a multitude of formats, prompting one more “Hey, did you know I was a member of that band and have rights to this material?” email from me (of course they don’t know: the band photo on their website has Ajax in it). I’m bracing myself for another Who the fuck are you and why are you bothering me?! response but a fella has to try, no? This is one of those It’s the principle of the thing! things and why NIHILSTIC exists: to reassert my part in the history. Or, to quote Bruce George Wingate, former guitarist of NJ Hardcore legends Adrenalin O.D. (playing this Fri., May 31 at Dingbatz in Clifton, NJ)
It’s sixty year-old guys talking about forty year old music played by twenty year-olds.
