Re-released on the fancy new Hassle Bandcamp, in honor of the Hassle’s ten-year anniversary COMING UP THIS YEAR, is the original Bodies of Water Arts and Crafts local music compilation titled “Boston Hassle.” What started it all.
All proceeds from the purchase of this album will be donated to the Trans Emergency Fund of MA.
Here’s the original description from the 2011 release:
“This compilation is the physical embodiment of the various underground music scenes that B.O.W. Shows & the Boston Compass attempt to foster week to week, year after year. BOSTON HASSLE is a snapshot of an amazing music scene and community in 2011, and quite literally (thanks to the format) a badge for the listener to wear to show that they are down with the Boston underground sound.
ALL TRACKS ARE EXCLUSIVE TO THIS COMPILATION AND AVAILABLE NOWHERE ELSE.
BOSTON HASSLE will be released exclusively on a 3” wearable button music playing format called Playbutton. Wearers of the button simply need to plug in their headphones and press play. Yes, it is a new format, and hell yes we love records as much as(if not more) than most people, but we think this format actually seems viable, so we thought we’d give it a try.
credits
released December 11, 2011
compiled and re-released by N. Malte Collins
creds to Dan Shea for digging this up and securing the files
original art work by Chris Leamy
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Boston and its surrounding area(Greater Boston) have problems. Rents are high. The train doesn’t go where the rents are low. Nearly all the clubs in town treat bands like scum and have little or nothing to do with the music communities that keep them in business. In short it can be a serious hassle to be a band in the area, especially one that isn’t, let’s say, built for explicitly mainstream audiences. Greater Boston lacks much of the serious and permanent infrastructure needed to nurture a healthy music community, underground or otherwise. But somehow the bands just keep coming. And they keep getting stranger and more awesome. This is a compilation full of bands that are flourishing in, and carving out a community and scene out of a wasteland of Dunkin Donuts, Walgreens, and Chipotles. Basement show promoters, record store owners, music collective members, actual people doing and making,
underground music warriors all, this is their music. This is the sound of the REAL Boston, blasting through the sewers beneath Fenway Park, Harvard University, and the Dropkick Murphy’s mansions. This is the sound of the music makers who are hustling to reclaim this city by the ocean that inspires them.
