Jeff Hassett

Jeff Hassett

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Musician of Rock
A.k.a. Jeffrey Forest Hassett The Silver Cloud

Jeff Hassett began drawing, collecting music and playing bass, sometime while attending high school in Irvine, California. In 1994, at age 17, Jeff joined Josh McCurdy's noise-rock trio, Moldy Ghetto, learned the songs, and became bassist for the band. He appeared on 2 cassettes that were released by McCurdy's label Hot Damn! Tapes and performed at gigs, including a few at places like the Whisky A Go Go (where he yelled at the audience), The Alligator Lounge (where he yelled at the audience again) and other places kindly recommend to Josh McCurdy by Damion Romero, the "distorted" bassist for Slug. Bongload records recommended the group to various people. KXLU (LA.) and KUCI (Irvine, CA) helped the group gain a wider audience by hosting Moldy Ghetto at various shows, and live in-studio. In 1995, Moldy Ghetto began to temporarily merge into another, similar band called Rusty-Like, which was lead by singer / guitarist Denis Samoree. Hassett became an auxiliary guitarist for that band's earliest (and most chaotic) gigs. He was infamous for playing his instruments violently, but never in a way that hurt anyone. However, by the end of his first performance with Rusty-Like at Koo's Cafe (Santa Ana, CA.), the guitar he was playing became smeared with his own blood, due to him rolling into his amp and mangling Denis' Fender Mustang so hard that he accidentally ripped his own hands open. Suffice it to say, Rusty-Like was summarily banned from that club forever after. In 1996, he guested as bassist on Rusty-Like's second LP, "Dusty", which was recorded by Tom Grimley at the legendary Poop Alley Studios, and released on vinyl by Samoree's label Pink Monkey Tapes. The group played a few gigs in Los Angeles in support of the album, opening for bands like Versus, and with people like Spacemen 3's Sonic Boom sitting in the audience at excellent clubs like Spaceland. But unfortunately, due to a series of fights within the band, Rusty-Like split up. During this time, McCurdy suggested to Hassett that he begin creating and recording his own music, compile his favorite tracks on cassette and release it. So, it was under Jeff's early moniker, The Silver Cloud that he recorded his first mad-hat experiment, the acid-induced "Pastures of Heaven: Vol. I" cassette. Compared to Moldy Ghetto + Rusty-Like's indie-rock leanings, "Pastures" was pure noise. It's intense, lo-fi listening, with wailing backwards guitar solos and the sounds of broken glass. Monotonous, and somewhat comparable to Merzbow. He only gave out 2 copies of that cassette. That same year, he guested on drums for the opening song on McCurdy's "4-Channel Paintings" cassette, released under his new project named The Song Cycle. In 1998, Jeff made his "Pastures of Heaven: Vol II" cassette, which contained newer, more discreet material, some takes on neo-classicism, as well as outtakes + alternate mixes from "Vol. I". It was limited to 2 copies. From 1998-1999, he co-produced the collaborative "Jeff Hassett & Takahiro Yuasa w/ Josh McCurdy" cassette, which was a true departure in sound from The Silver Cloud. It embraced the trappings of indie-rock, while sounding like a full-on Krautrock band which combined aspects of early British industrial noise with the plodding, minimal Jamaican dub of 1970's UK. He gave out 1 copy of this cassette. In 1999, appearing again as The Silver Cloud, he recorded his finale, the slightly more sophisticated "Pastures of Heaven: Vol. III" cassette. This time, his sound changed, thanks to a gift given to Jeff by Josh... a drum machine. He began to sound similar to Flying Saucer Attack, while still maintaining that familiar, monotonous, plodding noise. That same year, along with Phone's Clay Leo Adam Young on drums and guitarist Takahiro Yuasa, Hassett was invited to play electric guitar for the only gig ever by The Song Cycle, held at Activities Studio, in Santa Ana. However, for some reason, Jeff decided to sabotage the band's set and deliberately played the worst sounds the he possibly could, which did not win him any favors from the audience who were shocked with his discordant rambling. Some were questioning who he was and why had he made such a disaster out of the evening. That night, he was fired from the band; after which, he disappeared for a while. In 2001, he'd recorded another EP's worth of songs under his own name, including a track featuring a very forgiving McCurdy on drums. However, it remained unfinished and was shelved for the next 6 years. In 2003, Jeff reunited with his old bandmates in Rusty-Like, appearing again as the groups' 2nd guitarist. He recorded parts for their then-new demos, also performing live with the band for their first reunion gig. However, after threatening to bury the lead singer, Jeff was fired from Rusty-Like in 2004 and did not partake in the band's sessions for their compact disc "Pirouette". In 2006, he co-founded the little-known vinyl collector website Waxidermy, and began to operate online under the pseudonym HCrink. From 2007-2014, McCurdy's label Completely Gone Recordings generously remastered and reissued nearly all of Hassett's work with Moldy Ghetto + Rusty-Like, as well as his work as The Silver Cloud (including a remix-album by Sweden's avant-surrealist wall-man METEK), with the latter now collectively rebranded under his better-known HCrink pseudonym. Since 2007, HCrink has also appeared on a couple of compilations, the most popular of which being "The Big California Noise Compilation", which was released by Thee Instagon Foundation in 2013. In 2014, indie label Love All Day also released a cassette by HCrink, simply titled "Pastures of Heaven". It contains entirely new mixes, and was produced by label-head Doug Fogelson, using Hassett's original 4-Track studio tapes as it's source material. Aside from the releases he's gained since 2007, Jeff Hassett has remained absent as an artistic entity since he was dismissed from Rusty-Like in 2004. Subsequently, he was not invited back when Moldy Ghetto, Rusty-Like, and The Song Cycle reformed in 2016.