OFF: Stoner Rock (fwd)

[K Henderson]

Hi...thought this might interest some here...

Grakkl (FAA)
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When Welcome to MeteorCity came out, I tried to get a distributor called
Bayside to buy it.  It featured the first released songs of a lot of bands
no had ever heard of before: Goatsnake, The Atomic Bitchwax--
        “The Atomic Bitchwax?” the executive on the phone demanded of me.
        “Yeah.  Have you ever heard of a band called Monster Magnet?  The gui--“
        “The Atomic Bitchwax?  No one will ever buy a band called The Atomic
Bitchwax!  Who would say that name in a record store?  Are you serious?”
        “Yeah, it’s a new genre called sludge rock, stoner rock--“
        “What is it like?”
        “It’s heavy, downtuned--“
        “Like heavy metal?”
        “It has the same influences.  Black Sabbath, for example--“
        “Heavy metal’s dead.  No one will want that.  What’s your label called again?”
        That distributor is now one of the two official distributors of Man’s Ruin.
        Yes, my friends, they mocked us, they reviled us, and now suddenly
everybody wants to get involved.
        It’s a hard transition to make.  We used to belong to an obscure musical
cult, and now bands we like get radio airplay.  How does MeteorCity respond?
        We’re doing what we’ve always done.  We’re ignoring the trends, refusing
to go back over the ground we’ve already covered, and searching the world,
as always, for the coolest new music (cosmic/sludge/groove/doom) no one’s
listening to, getting ready to unleash it on an unsuspecting but already
whiplashed world.  And damn, do we have some cool things in store for you
this year.  It will be like listening to Welcome to MeteorCity all over again.

        Most notably, we’ve finally done something worthy of our reputation, which
takes a huge load off our shoulders.  Yes, we’ve saved the worldor
obliterated it, depending on your philosophical perspective.  We’ve
released the first album from Solace.  Thundering riffs, haunting melodies,
clobbering jams and stunning lyrics.  The Web’s premier heavy radio station
has added it to rotation--go to HardRadio and check out the Hard Music page
(http://www.hardradio.com/hr3lead.html).  And Mjuice.com has just put up an
interview with Tommy Southard, Solace’s guitarist, along with lots of MP3’s
(http://www.mjuice.com/mjuice/showcase?id=solace).  We’re getting excited
phone calls and email messages from people all over the world about this
album.  But, what’s most thrilling to us is that Further (their CD)
contains no cute pop tunesthese are raging songs lasting an average of 7
minutes each, and somehow they’re catching on anyway.  Solace has done
absolutely nothing to change themselves to appeal to the world: the world
is changing to reach out to them.  Hell yeah.
        A lot of people, needless to say, are upset about the delay our albums are
experiencing getting released in the rest of the world.  MeteorCity
customers get them first anyway, so no problems there if you’re getting this
message, you’re probably getting our music before its official release date
anyway, so you don’t care.  But, just so there are no hard feelings, we’re
giving those of you outside of North America exactly what you deserve: both
Solace and Lowrider are going to be getting killer, amazing, double
gatefold vinyl releases in Europe and the rest of the world outside of
North America.  (Select stores in North America will be carrying some on
import.)  And, we know we’re really, really late on getting you Spirit
Caravan’s Dreamwheel EP--so to make you feel better about that, we’re
making a Dreamwheel 10” to complement the CD.

        Right alongside Solace in terms of quality (and song length) is Eternal
Elysium.  We used one of their songs for the upcoming I Am Vengeance movie
soundtrack, and we were literally overwhelmed.  If you want to know why we
keep on working at MeteorCity instead of moving on to higher paying jobs,
the possibility of being involved with something like Spiritualized D is
the answer. This Japanese band offers sludge-filled riffs; massively
plodding doom rhythms; slicing, soulful, raging vocals; psychedelic,
jazz-filled leads; sweeping jams and driving grooves: every song is epic
and raw, each note unforced and shuddering with power.

        In addition to our long-publicized 2000 releases (The Quill, Eternal
Elysium, Solace, Slave to the Power, and the forthcoming Lowrider: Ode to
Io and I Am Vengeance CDs), we’re in the process of signing two awesome new
bands that we are certain will have a huge impact on the scene.  We hope to
have an album out from Abdullah by the end of the year.  Stoner Rock Rules!
(through reviewer Mike Knecht of Warhorse) writes, “Without hesitation or
doubt I can say that Abdullah are one of the best bands I’ve heard in a
while.  
You really have to hear this thing to really appreciate what I’m
saying... no question Jeff and Alan are producing some of the most
interesting, honest and well written doom inspired heavy rock
around.”  We’re very, very proud to be able associated with these guys, and
we’re also amazed that we’ve been able to keep finding so much great
music.  Abdullah’s Snake Lore demo, which has gotten rave reviews at a host
of sites, will be released in a limited edition on the Rage of Achilles
label.  We encourage you to check it out once it reaches our All That’s
Heavy section, if you haven’t already obtained a copy through the
demo-trading rounds.

        Speaking of demos, we’re a small label, and even though there are a lot of
other great sludge/cosmic rock labels out there, there’s just no way all of
us combined can release all of the good music in this scene.  Added to this
there’s the fact that Jadd and I decided recently that we’re no longer
going to release any band we don’t both absolutely love.  One of us loving
the band, or both of us liking it a lot, is no longer going to be good
enough for us.  (Among other reasons, we simply can’t promote every band
we’d have to release otherwise.)  That means that we’ve been unable to
release some music which really deserves to be heard.  That led us to think
about how unfair it is that record labels, including us, get to decide who
gets heard and who doesn’t.  So we’ve started something which we hope will
get even more good and hard-to-find music heard.  We’ve started an Demo
Marketplace, where listeners can find out about tons of unreleased new
bands and get demos from them at the same time the record label execs
do.  Go to our website and look for it in our Message Boards
section.  There’s already a whole lot of music there.

        Another new feature of our site is the MeteorCity Affiliate Program.  (The
Meteorite Program?  We’re still considering names.)  Everyone links to us
anyway, so now we can thank you by paying for the link!  You can promote
the world’s coolest music and get paid for it.  We’ve tried it before, but
we’re using better technology now, with a real-time affiliate tracking
program that you can look at whenever you want to on our website to find
out whether anyone’s followed your link recently and how much money you’re
making.  This system is actually working right now, we’re just making sure
it works without flaws, and then next week we’ll unveil it on our website.

        For anyone who hasn’t been coming to our website recently, we’ve also
added a few other cool features.  One is our customer reviews.  Obviously,
everyone has different taste, and different ways of describing music.  So
now, you can tell everyone what you think of the new full-length albums we
sell, and find out what other fans think.  We add new music constantly, and
most of it is unavailable almost everywhere else, so this will help you to
decide which you’ll like (or dislike) the most.
        We also now have two different music trading pages.  One is very
sophisticated and lets you search by band or trader; the other lets you
just scroll down an alphabetical list of music traders and red their
descriptions of what they want and have to trade with you.

        In All That’s Heavy news, we’re also selling a lot of Atomic Bitchwax
vinyl.  We have new purple vinyl 12”s of their album (one, mixed in
randomly with our stock, is signed by the band), and we’re giving away a
signed Atomic Bitchwax to poster to each person who buys one of the black
vinyl 12”s.  And don’t think that’s the last you’ll hear about this band
from us
.

        One last note: for those of you who are overwhelmed by all of our new
stock, it’s because we’re finally adding all of the fundamental
sludge/cosmic releases to our catalog.  Partly, this is because we were
getting embarrassed about always having to explain why we didn’t carry the
main Monster Magnet and Kyuss albums.  The answer was that our fans already
had every Kyuss album; they counted on us to sell them Sons of Kyuss and
the One Inch Man single.  They already had every Monster Magnet album; they
came to us for one of the Cage Around the Sun singles.  But there’s a
better reason for us to add the other main albums.   A lot of people are
coming to MeteorCity who have just heard someone mention “stoner rock” in a
record store but have never even heard 25
.Tab, and we’re realizing that
the days when all of our customers came from Jay’s Kyuss Trade Page are
dwindling fast.  So, just above the Red Sun compilation (our second
shipment just got in) and new sHEAVY: Celestial Hi-Fi import (our first
shipment just sold out), we have a list of sludge/cosmic rock classics
we’ve just added.

        Oh yeah, we have a print catalog now, too, since some of our customers
simply refuse to go online.  But you can get it too.  We’ll start working
on the third issue soon.   It’s called Smoke Signals, and the last issue
had an interview of the Blood Farmers by Drew (they’ll be on the I Am
Vengeance soundtrack) and the second installment of Neddal Ayad’s
description of playing this kind of music.

        Singles Club members, Daredevil Magazine Vol. II is on its way to you now,
a 7" featuring Rollerball, Thumlock, Cockburn and Ridge.

        At the bottom of our front page, there's a link to The Hunger Site.  All
you have to do is visit it, and hungry people get fed.  It's paid for
through advertising revenue.  A lot of people check our site every day to
find out what new music has been released, and following that link when you
visit us could give you some good karma along with good music.

        Thanks again for your continued support of MeteorCity.  As always, we look
forward to your comments, suggestions, questions and advice.  And if you
have any complaints, send them to Jadd.  His email address is
<info at meteorcity.com>.

aaron

MeteorCity                      http://www.meteorcity.com
P.O. Box 40322          aaron at meteorcity.com
Albuquerque NM 87196    011 (505)254-4872
USA

Since 1997.  The MeteorCity.com Store / The MeteorCity Record Label / The
MeteorCity Single of the Month Club.