Thursday, February 15, 2024

The Hassle Brigade

 
ORIGINS: Lower Blue Mountains, NSW
GENRE: Street Punk, Ska-Punk
YEARS ACTIVE: 1996-1998, 1999-2001
 
MEMBERS:
RELEASES: 


  • Self-Titled Cassette (Recorded in 1996 and 1997) - Download Here and Download Here.
    • 1. Weekend
    • 2. School
    • 3. Phil
    • 4. That Way
    • 5. Don't Tell Me What to Do
    • 6. Fuckin' Unreal
    • 7. Arse Kisser
    • 8. ID

  • Self-Titled Cassette (1998) - Download Here.
    • 1. Degenerate
    • 2. She's a Lesbian
    • 3. Better Off Dead
    • 4. Aint That Bad
    • 5. No Way
    • 6. Drug Squad
       

  •  Blood, Sweat and Beers (1999) - Download Here
    • 1. Stay Clean
    • 2. Fuckin' Unreal
    • 3. Deadbeat
    • 4. Turn Away
    • 5. Triple J
    • 6. Act Your Age
    • 7. Squat
    • 8. Better Off Dead
    • 9. Oh My God
    • 10. This Town
    • 11. No Way
    • 12. I.D.

  • She's a Lesbian (2000, Unreleased until Rare Stuff album in 2013) - Download Here
    • 1. Medication
    • 2. Fuck the World
    • 3. Life Can Suck
    • 4. TV
    • 5. Daddy's Little Girl
    • 6. Severe Migraine
    • 7. Stupid
    • 8. Destroy the Airwaves
    • 9. She's a Lesbian
SUMMARY: 
 
 
 
 
1992: Adam starts playing guitar/bass at 13 years old. Playing in garage band called Cremation (later called Animosity). 

1993: Adam plays first show with Cremation; 5 songs - all Nirvana and Sex Pistols songs. 

1994: Adam playing in a punk band, Concrete Diver, at 15. They record a demo tape and play a couple of shows. 

1995: Aaron and Ben playing in punk band Spasm. Adam now living in the city and playing in a grunge band. 

1996: Aaron, Ben, and Adam are all at Wycliffe Christian school at the same time. They form The Hassle Brigade and play their first show (4 songs) at Uncle Bucks Jam Night in Mt. Druitt. Ben writes regularly to The Vandals Voice (Fox Trotsky's zine). Fox invites the band to record a song for the compilation Bust-a-Move '96. This also leads to the band recording their first cassette (4 songs) with Lex Feltham (Frenzal Rhomb). Cassette sells for $3, launched at Blaxland Community Hall (AKA Jasper). 

1997: The band plays lots of shows around Sydney, Penrith, Blue Mountains. Second cassette tape (4 songs) is recorded and sold at this time. Ben leaves the band and The Hassle Brigade breaks up. Ben and Aaron form Fuznut with ex-members of Fatboy. Adam joins Dropzone. 
 
1998: Aaron decides to leave Fuznut and also plays in a band with Ivan called Special Sauce. The Hassle Brigade re-forms as a 4 piece with new drummer Ivan, and new bassplayer Swanny. Adam plays guitar. Melrose Hall incident occurs here. Swanny plays about 4 shows, a demo tape is recorded by this lineup with 'She's a Lesbian' on it. Swanny leaves and Adam goes back to bass - the band decides to stick with being a 3-piece. 
 
1999: The Hassle Brigade record their album Blood, Sweat and Beers in 12 hours and launch it at St Mary's Memorial Hall (now the Don Bosco Youth Centre). Dan Leah (?) becomes manager for the band and they start playing shows with lots of bigger bands (Frenzal Rhomb, The Porkers, Nancy Vandal, Def FX, Insurge). Interstate tours take place. Lots of touring with Fatigue. 
 
2000: The band records 9 tracks for an EP that doesn't get released. Brad 'Bomber' Moore becomes manager for the band and focuses on online promotion. The Hassle Brigade undertake an East Coast tour.
 
2001: The Hassle Brigade breaks up after a show at Winter Magic in Katoomba. Ivan goes on to play in the Architects. Aaron and Ben form Badanga with Checky and Dean from Detox Unit. 

2013: Adam re-releases Blood, Sweat and Beers on vinyl. He also releases the majority of the other recordings on a new compilation album called Rare Stuff.

2016: Adam passes away.

    
SHOWS: 
 
ORAL HISTORY:
ADAM: I played a gig at the Axolotl. And Adam and Ben were there and they were talking to me about their band, and they were saying they wanted a bassplayer. I asked them what style, and they said 'punk', and I was like, 'yeah, that's all I wanna fucken do.' And we started jamming in Aaron's mum's lounge room. And it clicked, we started writing songs together, it was really cool. We all had a mad time.
Adam O'Sullivan, unreleased interview, 2000

AARON: We ended up going to this gig at Panthers, it was like a downstairs Panthers all-ages jam thing, and there was a band playing there called Concrete Diver. And Concrete Diver... weren't all that good, but they were fronted by Adam, and we were like, fuck, we know this guy, this will be really cool. So Concrete Diver come up onto the stage, Adam's walked up in a pair of cut-off army slacks and a blue flanny and an AC/DC T-shirt, walked up to the 'microphone and went 'Fucken'... 1 2 3 4!' (...) Concrete Diver, they were okay at what they did, playing Hard Ons-y pop punk sort of stuff. I'm pretty sure Adam wrote all the songs. He made them.
Aaron Baker, Noise Levels Episode 1, 2024
 
ADAM: Our first band practice was in Aaron's parents lounge room. We got absolutely fucked up on cheap wine and wrote a punk song. I started writing all these songs, one being Fuckin' Unreal and another called I.D., and those are the only 2 original songs from that period that we kept playing after Ben left the band. It's a shame because from that first wave we had some blood great songs that I still remember. We had one song I loved called Why Am I Such an Idiot? and another called Don't Tell Me What to Do.
Adam O'Sullivan, unreleased interview, 2009

AARON: Our first live gig ever was Uncle Bucks in Mt. Druitt and it was a jam night, we got to play four songs... I don't think we went down all that well.
Aaron Baker, Noise Levels Episode 1, 2024

AARON: It took a little while, we kind of started getting an overinflated opinion of ourselves. We thought 'we can do this shit, we find it easier than other bands just to punch out loads of songs', and we were young and arrogant enough to think we were better than everyone... Ben used to write to The Vandals Voice, and he used to send cartoons and stuff, and they used to write back. And Fox ended up saying 'Hey, would you guys be interested in doing an '80s cover for a compilation on Half-Arsed Records called Bust-A-Move '96'. So we recorded 'Boom Boom Boom, Let's Go Back to My Room'. It took fucken' 5 minutes to write, or re-write, and so we done that. We recorded that at Zen Studios with a fella called Geoff Lee and he suggested we come back and do a demo with our originals, so we did, and that was our first little cassette that we released, and we sold it for $3. And we printed all the covers in fucken' Video Ezy, cut out all the stickers ourselves. I think that was it, because we got those songs out there by playing those local gigs at the Jasper Hall in the Blue Mountains and we just had this cheap cassette that was decent quality and the songs were there, they were catchy, and we were kind of funny, and it just became accessible.
Aaron Baker, Noise Levels Episode 1, 2024

ADAM: We played with some top bands like Nancy Vandal, Frenzal, Gilgamesh, Toe to Toe, Downtime. Played with some shit ones too like Quadbox and Dogbuoy. One gig we did with Gilgamesh in Katoomba, one of our fans who loved us was getting king hit by some guy, so me and Aaron halfway through a song dropped our instruments and dived in.
Adam O'Sullivan, unreleased interview, 2009

AARON: We worked pretty hard just playing loads of jam nights, loads of youth halls, loads of... a couple of gigs in the city... We used to play the Waterloo Tavern, which isn't there anymore. We worked really hard, Adam was living in the city for a while and on the piss. Sometimes that would be pretty hard... there were musical differences... Adam was really wanting to move towards the old style rock 'n' roll punk-rock, a little bit of ska. Benny was sort on more on the Cali scene, because that was exploding at the time. I was sort of caught in the middle, I just wanted to play. Adam wasn't in a good space at the time. Six months into that (after Hassle Brigade broke up), that's when Adam joined Drop Zone.
Aaron Baker, Noise Levels Episode 1, 2024


ADAM: The Hassle Brigade broke up (the first time) and I started hitting it really badly. I started hanging around, like, a big group of skinheads and punks who lived in Epping. And they started helping me out 'cause I was really loathing, and miserable, and feeling sorry for myself and they made me feel welcome in their, fucken, family, 'cause there were heaps of them, y'know, hanging out together and going to gigs.
Adam O'Sullivan, unreleased interview, 2000

ADAM: I bumped into Aaron and we got talking about how good it would be to have The Hassle Brigade back again. So we got this guy Ivan on drums who was only 15 when he joined the band and he played like a fucking champion, and we got this guy Luke on bass. We recorded a demo with 4 songs and played around 3 shows in that format... then Luke left and I ended up going back on the bass and we started playing gigs as a three piece again, from then on it was a fucking riot.
Adam O'Sullivan, unreleased interview, 2009

IVAN: I started learning (the drums) as soon as I could walk. My dad was a drummer back in the day so it just came naturally to me and I started learning when I was about, maybe, 5 or 6 years old. So The Hassle Brigade already had a drummer, Ben, and he kind of dropped off, and Aaron asked me if I wanted to try out for The Hassle Brigade because they were looking for someone.
Ivan Lisyak, Noise Levels podcast, Episode 1, 2024

LUKE: I was super lucky to be a part of such a special band. Really was a privilege to be asked to join the band when theyr eformed. Surrounded by three awesomely talented muso's; Adam, Aaron and the drummer Ivan, I really did feel out of place at times. But I had a lot of fun with The Hassle Brigade and really do count myself lucky to be a part of the band, even if it was a short stint on the bass.
Luke Swannell, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

ADAM: The Hassle Brigade got back together and I haven't drank for a year or done drugs for about a year. I started doing something constructive. I went through detox about 4 times and after that I wanted to start doing something with myself, and I had the idea of a record label, putting out CDs for fun. Raunchy Records.
Adam O'Sullivan, unreleased interview, 2000

ADAM: I remember our first show back, 400 people turned up to Melrose Hall to see us but we never ended up playing. This still cracks me up to this day. Spilt Milk were halfway through their set. We were all out back just chilling when suddenly the power went off, then we heard people screaming and yelling. Turns out two rival gangs who I remember as the Penrith Boys and the Emu Boys were having a feud and chose our gig as a battle ground. A fight broke out in front of Melrose Hall and one of these nitwits produced a sawn-off shotgun! Then apparently the police were tipped off, next thing we know about half a dozen cop cars and assorted paddy wagons turned up and it was the cops that shut off the power. The story was in the Penrith Press and The Star! I remember walking to the side of the stage and Spilt Milk were still on stage wondering why their amps wouldn't work and why the lights were out. Then the cops started rounding up the crowd telling everyone to go home. Turns out the idiot with the gun shit himself when the cops arrived and did a runner, only to trip over and twist his ankle, hence he got pinched. So we didn't get to play our first official show back.
Adam O'Sullivan, unreleased interview, 2009

IVAN: We set up the drumkit and we were kind of ready to go and then we were told to stay in the backroom until the police came and took the guy away. But there was actually a bunch of them, it was when the Penrith gang stuff was happening back in the late '90s, back then Penrith and Emu Plains were pretty rough places, comparative to now... two of the rival gangs, and someone had a shotgun and some machetes and stuff. I think (The Melrose) was maybe a few shows in, our first show was a private party somewhere with some punks in a backyard.
Ivan Lisyak, Noise Levels podcast Episode 1, 2024

AARON: We landed a few decent supports with bands that we loved like Lawnsmell and Frenzal. So we thought we'd like to record. We went to Damien Gerard Studios and pumped out Blood, Sweat and Beers in 12 hours. That was nuts. Russell Pilling was the engineer for that and he just let us go. He was pretty cool... we sold it for 12 bucks. 12 songs in 12 hours for 12 bucks.
Aaron Baker, Noise Levels podcast Episode 1, 2024

IVAN: Some of the songs were just one take. Some of them it took a bit longer and Adam wanted to put a bit of keyboard on top and stuff like that. The keyboard you hear on some of the songs was one of those little Casio tone keyboard from the '90s.
Ivan Lisyak, Noise Levels podcast Episode 1, 2024

ADAM: At St Mary's Memorial Hall, I stage-dived and no one caught me. I also stage-dived at Melrose, but the majority of times I've been caught. Anyway, the Memorial Hall was packed and I jumped in and theymoved out of the way, and they were staring at me lying on the ground. Fucking idiots.
Adam O'Sullivan, unreleased interview, 2000

ADAM: I never took any bands too seriously, except for The Hassle Brigade, which seemed to get lots of gigs for some reason, people just kept asking us to play.
Adam O'Sullivan, unreleased interview, 2000
 
IVAN: It was a lot of very short songs played really fast with a lot of banter in between by Aaron and Adam. The banter would go from kind of being convivial to accusational to really offensive and everything in-between. Sometimes it would appear that they had arguments on the stage but it was all part of the fun, they were never really trying to blue with each or anything like that. I would sit there and wait for them to be ready for the next song... sometimes I would just count it off and they would have to stop and start playing. That was always pretty funny.
Ivan Lisyak, Noise Levels podcast Episode 1, 2024

ADAM: We did the Grounded Festival twice, which was fucking awesome. Playing in front of a thousand people is a fucking amazing experience, plus I got to borrow the bass amp from Killing Heidi and my girlfriend stole a heap of good that their manager put out for them.
Adam O'Sullivan, unreleased interview, 2009

AARON: We played a gig at the Gabba (Brisbane) and Rollo from Blowhard mixed us, rest his soul. He was great, he gave us a great compliment when we walked off, he said 'Well done boys, fast and tight', and that was nice.
Aaron Baker, Noise Levels podcast Episode 1, 2024

IVAN: We did a few East Coast tours. One of them was with Topnovil and that was in the middle of 2000. That was fun, in a van with a bunch of punks and staying in rickety old terrace houses and squats and stuff. That kind of era was really kind of important in how it changed my perception of punk rock.
Ivan Lisyak, Noise Levels podcast Episode 1, 2024

ADAM: I turned up at Uncle Bucks, and we were supposed to play. I was drunk out of my fucking mind. I'd been drinking since about, what? Nine that morning? And I'd had about 14 Strongbow Drys and after I'd been to the pub and I'd had about 7 schooners, not exaggerating by the way, I was out of my mind. So I was in there having an argument with me missus, and she was going off at me 'cause she didn't want me to get drunk, and I thought, 'fuck it, I can get drunk', but I was being a dickhead, I admit. I ended up going to the toilet and I ripped one of the doors off the cubicles and apparently I smashed the fucking mirror and broke a couple of tiles in the toilet. The owner came in and fucking turfed me out. And then four regulars at Uncle Bucks came out and decided to deck me. So I had four people punching into me and my missus freaked out and we walked up the street and they followed us and we hid int he chemist.
Adam O'Sullivan, unreleased interview, 2009

AARON: There was supposed to be an EP, a six song EP that we were talking about putting out. All of those songs were demo'd at Zen, we were going to go off to somewhere and record the big shebang but that didn't happen... I think the EP was going to be called She's a Lesbian.
Aaron Baker, Noise Levels podcast Episode 1, 2024

AARON: (Adam and I) didn't talk for a long time, until about 6 months before he died and I'd given him a phonecall... I rang him and hear this 'Hello' and I said 'Hey man, how you going... are we all good, man?" and he said, "It's all water under the bridge" and he sound content, he sounded happy.
Aaron Baker, Noise Levels podcast Episode 1, 2024

RELATED BANDS: Spasm, Cremation, Concrete Diver, Fuznut/Offset, Dropzone, Special Sauce, Badanga, Huntsmen, Unstable, The Architects, Bells Will Ring, Detox Unit, Easy Company, Baby Fist, Haze, Kayzus, Dye Green, Treehouse, Titanic Dance Orchestra, Attack Destroy Machine, Hosebeast, The Paper Scissors, Philadelphia Grand Jury, Machine Death, Deep Sea Arcade, IIII, Tanned Christ, Hviske, Narrow Lands, Skeleton, Tanned Christ, Brightness
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