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StonerRock.com Down for Good

As someone who has continually used StonerRock.com not just as a place to put reviews and promote this site, but also as a way of finding new bands and discovering things I may have missed, learning more about this genre, the news today that the site is down for good hits almost too hard to put into words. Thank you to Dan and Melanie for your years of service to the community and, hell, for being the community. There is a huge void left in the wake of the site, and it’s going to be a long time before anything can take its place.

Amidst the splinter cells of blogs out there (this one included), StonerRock.com was the central location that had the power to bring everyone together. It unified the scene and gave an outlet to both bands and fans that, now, simply doesn’t exist.

Dan and Melanie posted a statement on the site this morning, and it’s with a heavy heart that I reproduce it here:

StonerRock.com R.I.P.
December 15, 1999 – November 29, 2010

On November 29, 2010, the StonerRock.com website was suddenly sucked into the void. We did everything we could do, but it was not possible to save it.

We would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to the community supporters, forums administrators and content contributors. You can give yourselves a high five for keeping StonerRock.com online for an extra year. Thank you!

We are not revealing any details about what happened because we don’t want to give the perpetrators any satisfaction or notoriety.

From now on we will be 100 percent devoted to our other websites, All That is Heavy and MeteorCity. We hope that you will continue to support us in our continued efforts to bring the rock to the people.

This is our final statement with regards to StonerRock.com and this very difficult situation. Our heads are spinning. We are devastated.

Sincerely and regretfully,
Dan & Melanie

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66 Responses to “StonerRock.com Down for Good”

  1. JohnArz says:

    StonerRock.com was, without question, my home. Not only did I learn more about music – regardless of genre – there than anywhere else, I made lifelong friends. At StonerRock.com, I finally found a place in the world where I belonged. This is a sad day.

  2. Woody says:

    Mega-bummer. I got turned on to so much great music from that site and was greatly entertained by a lot of the posts.

  3. greenskeeper says:

    What the fuck? Shitty.

  4. Damn. That place was truly a god send for our community and for me personally.

  5. jmucke says:

    I just celebrated 10 years at SR.com. This bums me out big time.

  6. nexus7 says:

    Goddammit! I can’t believe that SR.com is no more. What really pisses me off is that it sounds like someone took it out intentionally, that is if I’m not reading too much into the released statement. RIP.

  7. Mike H says:

    Goddamn hackers…?

    I’m thankful ATIH will continue on though.

  8. Mike H says:

    JJ, you should consider expanding The Obelisk in light of this. I think Andy “Dinger” Beresky would make an excellent addition. I always like reading his reviews. I know he is trying to put something together with others from SR, maybe a merge of sorts under the Obelisk moniker would work.

    Just a thought

  9. PEACE MASTER MAZZ says:

    SHIT!

    Reading some of those retarded yet funny threads helped me deal shitty work days.

    R.I.P

    You will be missed.

  10. Mr. B says:

    Sad =\

  11. Jotun says:

    I’m going to miss that site dearly. I made many friends, discovered much cool music, wrote some reviews, and had a shitload of laughs. Rest in Peace StonerRock.com, you will be sorely missed.

    This occured on the same day the the federal govt shut down 82 websites citing copyright infringement. StonerRock.com was not among those listed, but may have piggybacked on one of them or been on an entire server that was shut down in the sweep, thus becoming collateral damage. It’s just a theory, but the specific timing and circumstances appear extremely suspect in my opinion.

  12. MC says:

    What Mike H said

  13. stonetoroll says:

    I wasn’t that involved with SR.com compared to some, but it was a priceless resource I’m gunna miss sorely. I agree with Mike H, something needs to fill this void and quick.

  14. Skillit says:

    Forums. We need forums, thats what I think.

  15. Andy says:

    fortunately i remembered this place from reading your reviews on the SR.com website……. please keep us informed if another forum/community pops up to fill the void…..

  16. Heavythisaxe says:

    SR.com provided a lot of laughs and musical insight…rarely did a day pass that I wasn’t tuning in…I’ll miss it big time…big thanks to Arz, Dinger, JJ, GodShifter and all the other folks who kept things lively in the forums and review sections…my only fear is that Dong no longer has anyone to dunk on…

  17. I joined in 2001 and couldn’t even begin to estimate the amount of time I spent on here, the number of bands and people I discovered, attended gigs of, met, travelled half way around the world for etc because of the site. I also wrote a few reviews on there. Not to mention the classic album reviews section which was pivotal in all the old stuff I dig. The big question is what will replace it? There’s no reason why something can’t. I started my own NZ stonerock forum already.

  18. Mike H says:

    I was not suggesting The Obelisk could take the place of SR. Much of what SR had to offer in the last year has its origins elsewhere (The Obelisk, the Soda Shop, Heavy Planet, etc). I think the sense of community people are going to miss the most is something that existed in the forums. While I have no doubt a new community forum will arise, it will never be quite the same.

    What would be nice for readers, and part of what I was suggesting, is a one-stop shopping type deal. The roots in this community run deep and far. There are a number of sites that share team members and outwardly promote each other, The Obelisk, Heavy Planet, Doomantia, The Soda Shop, and a few others. Having a central hub for readers would be nice. In a way that is what SR provided as of late as most of the sites listed contributed content to SR. Roadburn would be a nice place for such a thing. The festival already is all that and more. The site could be as well.

    Ed’s Doomamntia does have a forum at:
    http://doommantia.forummotion.com/forum.htm

    Roadburn also has a forum at:
    http://foreverdoomed.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=37

    Which just a part of the much larger:
    http://foreverdoomed.com/
    &
    http://foreverdoomed.com/forums/

    DFFD has a great forum set-up, but as is the case with so many other sites, it appears finances are an issue these days.

    In the end…whatever…I have a list of places I consider essential reading daily and will continue to visit all of them whether they stand alone or merge in to one massive Stoner Rock Space Colony.

  19. Mike H says:

    When I was listing related sites, I inadvertently forgot to mention The Sleeping Shaman (The Heavier Than Thou Webzine).

    ;-)

  20. rhodostom says:

    Total bummer. Thanks to Dan and Melanie, Arz, any everyone else for keeping the place up to snuff these last few years.

  21. Francis says:

    I think it’s a real mistake not to explain to the loyal readers what happened…it won’t give any notoriety to the hackers or whatever. I know this sounds over the top, but knowing what went down and how the site failed would give me some real closure. It was my favorite website on the internet, I checked it every single day for the last 8 years probably. I will miss it so much.

  22. Josue Casa says:

    I’m speachless. Just can’t believe this. I’ve been visiting those forums at least once a day since 2000.
    The enormous amount of musical input just changed my life. And the people…man. I already miss some of those peeps. It’s like my second home. And it was all so quick and unexpected.. A big part of my life was down for good.

    jmucke, robocop, stonetoroll, skillit, heavythisaxe, godamn Scrjotun! Do you have more info? We need to get back together, man. There is (was:/) no forum like the general discussion of sr.com.

    \m/

  23. MrNeutron says:

    While I cant say General Discussion will be missed, the actual music forums were an invaluable resource.

    Well, maybe Gay Roofers…but nothing else.

  24. Ed says:

    I am deeply saddened by this news and I am still in shock. There is a few unanswered questions but the main one from me is, didn’t they have a back-up plan in place ?

    I am prepared to host the site myself if they can get it back up and a forum for this site would be a killer idea.

  25. MadJohnShaft says:

    What a bummer. 10 Years. Now what?

  26. Jake Ball says:

    I think it would be a good idea to create a new hub with everybody. At the very least, we create a new forum. The community continues. Nobody died, the establishment just burned down. You mourn the loss, but we can rebuild. It won’t ever be the same, but different isn’t always bad.

    Bill and myself are willing to be a cornerstone in this project. I’m sure with everybody, we can make it much more secure and immune to what killed our beloved stonerrock.com. Let us know what you think. I hope we can do something together. If not, we at TSS will create something by ourselves, but I don’t think it could ever compare.

  27. kyusswyvon says:

    Yea total bummer. was one of the main websites I had been on since my last tour in iraq now I have nothing left, but fond memories and fuzzed out reefer induced good goddamn tunes.

  28. Mr Red says:

    Bummer for sure. All things end though. I was just a few days from my 11th anniversary there!

    The real tragedy is losing that amazing album and live gig review archive! I sure hope that stuff can be salvaged someday.

    Selfishly, I met the best group of people in my adulthood there, so many quality people over the years.

    A lot of the more recent qualitiies I won’t miss, but we definitely need some type of online resource where we can keep in touch! I’m probably starting a blog revolving around the amazing heavy music scene of the Pacific Northwest and going to jump on Facebook, but we DO need some type of forum. The old Relapse and Southern Lord boards did this.

  29. cleanerofdemo says:

    I am in a complete state of shock, it is like having an old friend die – someone whom you’ve know for years. Thanks to stonerrock.com my musical tastes have been open wide, a love of poster artwork created & also ways to live & not live in general life, oh and a great deal of laughs along the way. Without it i wouldn’t be the person i am today.

    I wish to thank all the peopl involved with the site over the years for building a site that grew with each year & allowed many a place to enjoy. The world is a lesser place without the site in it.

  30. Philo Beddoe says:

    This just sucks, My buddy (Robgara75) got me hooked on that place a while back and to not have those resources that it provided is a total and utter loss. That place will be missed and thanks to Dan and Melanie for putting the time and effort in. Gonna really miss the show and album reviews. Just wish my buddy could have seen the end. Thanks

  31. Sad, sad, sad, sad, sad. My favorite site, one of my biggest resources for information and show news/reviews, and certainly one of the more entertaining sites I’ve visited as far as the ridiculousness in General Discussion. Really fucking sad. I hope something good comes out of this.

    Mr Red – Please do start a blog or something of that nature. In the meantime, got contact info?

  32. peyotepeddler says:

    wow, i’m pretty sad and amazed the site is gone, no backup? wth

    i have poked around on that site since 2001, and will miss all the true lovers of music that posted there, i was turned on to some great stuff from them, cheers on that

    i would love to see some sort of forum pop up out of this, to keep the communal vibes alive, but………………a strong hand to ban the well known asshats that we grew to loathe, that was a real weak point

    cheers
    mike

  33. koi says:

    Not only does this suck for the community members, but think about the ripple effect this is going to have on all the small bands and labels. Such a shame.

    Sure there are great sites, like this one. But they’re all spokes to the main hub that was Stonerrock.com.

    I’ve already been reading all kinds of blogs who think they’re going to be the next SR. Kudos to whoever does it right. But I personally don’t think anyone will. Pessimistic, I know.

    The albums reviews section alone was one of the greatest underground music review archives I’ve ever seen. Printed or otherwise. And the classic albums section!! I’m gutted to see that go!!!

    Where else could you go and get direct responses from the members of the very bands you were worshiping? No where!

  34. SunnO))) says:

    I was seriously at home there. I never ventured out of the jam room much, and I wasn’t well liked, but that was the BEST fucking place to go and snob around, with other snobs. Depressing shit. If there’s any sort of revival, or a forum made specifically for this shit, someone shoot me a line… enslavedinrot@gmail.com

  35. Jor el says:

    Fuck.
    Thank you Dan, Melanie, & John.

  36. MrNeutron says:

    maybe I dont understand what the “catastrophe” was very well (if there really was one, aside from the cost of hosting)
    Is it that hard for someone to set up a generic VB board?
    I dont know anything about hosting or the like, but there seems to be the desire to keep the “community” alive outside of that facebook crap.

    The collected music reviews wont likely be recovered, but a new source of mostly passionate and honest reviews of stuff i like, and dont yet know I like has to continue in some way.

  37. MadJohnShaft says:

    Ugh… losing all the live reviews is tragic. Likely most the of shows and tours discussed there were the only written account of many short lived excellent bands.

  38. jmucke says:

    I started a yahoo-group for the time being. Former SR.com-members are welcome to join until a new proper forum is in place (hopefully). At least its a way to stay in touch.
    http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/srcom-refugees

    srcom-refugees@yahoogroups.de

  39. GiantChris says:

    Huge bummer to say the least. I found so many great albums from that site its not even funny. Ufomammut, YOB, hell even Celtic Frost, Pelican, Zoroaster, Weedeater, Unida, Nachtmystium, Sleep, Yawning Man, Spirit Caravan, Captain Beyond, hell I could just keep going…Those album reviews were literally a godsend for finding awesome new music. Now I’m going to have to fish through a bunch of different blogs to find new stuff where before it was bam all there.

    I didn’t post that much (more of a lurker) but The Jam room was a massive help in my songwriting and guitar playing it literally cannot be underestimated how valuable a resource it was. There was a LOT of useful knowledge on there. I was really looking forward to posting my new work on there when I finished my first couple tracks of my new project :( Really wanted to see if I could get on their next comp :(

    And fuck as goofy as general discussion was (I didn’t really post in it) it was hilarious to read.

    RIP I hope whoeever ruined it gets herpes.

  40. jmucke says:

    sleestak has a better idea:

    http://stonerrocklives.com/forum/

    H.P., maybe you can post this link higher up.

  41. justJon says:

    While GenDisc was not the palce for those with thin skins, there was much entertainment to be had among the asshattery. Many good people there who I never met IRL.
    Reviews, and particularly the Jam Room were invaluable resources for me.

  42. mortlock says:

    not to sound like a fag, but im practically in tears over this..someone has to do something….fuck.

  43. Slomo James says:

    What a bizarrely 21st Century feeling this is! Been wandering around the net and have spotted a few SR.com refugees here and there. Hopefully the community will coalesce again, but will an instant replacement feel odd against the 10 year organic mutation that SR.com underwent?

    Like the rest, SR.com was one of the few sites I checked every day wherever I was in the world. A damn fine mix of awesomegaydouchebag and thee best music resource – all written for the community by the community. Where else could you tell Jus Oborn about his big trousers, get threatening messages from Billy Anderson and request mix CDs from Tommy Southard? Oh and meet the dunkin genius that was the Dong.

    And Roadburn folk we need to find a refugee camp where we can huddle around a campfire and discuss this years campaign. Cos I hate the DFFD site.

  44. I’m sorry to see the website go. I’ve met alot of cool people through that network (including you, JJ), and really, i’m not sure if the vast network of dissimilar yet sympathetic genres would have came together if not for Stoner Rock. Much kudos to Dan and Melanie, who had themselves met through that website.

    Here’s my analysis on what went wrong. I don’t have the official behind the scenes word, but I think that maybe Dan had just sort of had enough of not enough support out of the community. He’d expressed some disappointment in coming forth with his monetary problems in hosting the server and all the bandwidth to keep the website alive. I think that once he’d had about a year or so to judge the importance of the website to the community, he’d figured that it was just time to end it. I think that his last card in the deck was asking for monetary donations, and then having to end peoples’ “community supporter” status when a certain timeframe was up for a certain unspecified amount. I know that i’d have a difficult time telling people that their donations weren’t enough. I’d suggested that he maybe contact labels like Relapse, Southern Lord, etc, to donate some bonus tracks (demos, alternate mixes, etc), for community supporter status, seeing as that those labels benefitted from SR.com’s existence.

    I’ve found that message boards are generally pretty dead at most places that I go to. Message boards and forums are generally dying off at almost all of the places that I go to and frequented. I think that a big attraction of StonerRock.com was that there was a vibrant forum, and even after the disillusioned had left last year due to what maybe they felt they were being told was to “pay or get out” (which I never felt), there was still quite a few people that stuck around.

    I have to be honest though…..through the years, i’ve had times where i’d got sick of the SR.com forums, because one thing I have to say that may have saved the forums some time ago, is more moderation. I found that alot of the racist/ mysogynist/ sexist/ homophobic/ intolerant posts sort of drove out alot of level headed, rational people….leaving alot of the juvenile, trolling type people there. Justin/ Slitherbang/ etc was a huge example of that…..he’d have been gone a long time ago at other forums–bored, “look at me” type people that drove away quality people who’d got sick of the board’s self moderating stance.

    There is good news, though. You put alot of effort into the scene, JJ, and The Obelisk now sort of functions in a way that Stoner Rock did ten years ago. Your passion and investment means alot to us all. Most bands that play the psych/ heavy doom/ stoner stuff are losing money, so it’s not really a career option, it’s something that someone does because they enjoy coloring outside of the lines. And Dan was forthcoming that StonerRock. com lost alot of money to keep it alive, and there’s sometimes only so long that you can do that before you have to stop doing it while you still have some appreciation of the good memories that preceded the bad ones.

  45. John says:

    blows

    can’t we throw some money at the issue and get SR.COM back up?

  46. “blows

    can’t we throw some money at the issue and get SR.COM back up?”

    From talking privately to Dan, my understanding is that the non-supporters far outweigh the supporters, and that it was still a difficult go of it. My own assumption is that there was a certain cost of bandwidth, but that the real cost was in personal time…..uploading things (pictures, etc) and making it look nice and professional. My assumption (again, but based on what Dan has told me), is that a few more supporters still won’t unfortunately float SR.com’s expenses and the cost of investing one’s time and effort into what needs to be done to keep it alive. Again, these are just well informed assumptions–the real issue could really be that someone hacked into SR.com’s servers and deleted things and made a mess of the HTML and whatnot. I could see that as being the final nail in the coffin…..website in disarray, not worth trying to recover what can be recovered and whatnot.

    I suppose that someone could probably ask him if they could buy the website off of him and then find out how much money and time that it takes to keep it at the level that it’s currently at. But possible, he just wants to end that particular legacy.

  47. Jake Ball says:

    Ryan, from my understanding, Dan isn’t selling it right now. However, it sounds like he may put the domain up for auction at some point.

  48. Putting the domain up for sale may be a good idea. Maybe Dan felt that the quality of past years just couldn’t be maintained anymore, but if he’s willing to sell the domain to someone else, perhaps they could re-tool the website and change some things (like re-doing the forums where a new set of rules is put in place in terms of posting guidelines and what’s acceptable and what’s not). Ultimately, I felt that the moderator title was an arduous task for people…..the forum was overrun by people that really needed better self editing and people that warranted policing. In fairness, i’d felt that the Blabbermouth forums/ comments suffered the same fate…..kind of funny to read at times, but civility definetely wasn’t emphasized as much as it should have been by alot of the users.

  49. Skillit says:

    I agree with Ryan 100% on my guess of what happened

  50. Its a big loss, so many contacts etc I put on gigs by getting in touch with people on the site. I put Roadsaw on in London pretty much just through bmails and I did a uk tour for Sun Gods In Exile, again found through stonerrock.com. Found out about so many bands too! :(
    Also met lots of people in London via that site when I moved here 5 years ago

  51. Thanks, Skillit! I didn’t want to speak directly for Dan, but i’m just putting two and two together from what he’d told me, as well as what he officially went public with, last year, on SR.com. I’d donated some money and bought some stuff, but i’m not sure what type of money needed to be given to keep SR.com around….and how frequently it may have been needed. I wasn’t really clear on that, but then again, maybe Dan was trying to figure out how much above the
    debt line (or how much acceptably under the debt line) he may have needed to be, to convince himself to continue forward. Sales having dropped from All That Is Heavy/ Meteor City was something that made the continuity of SR.com difficult, seeing as that the goal of SR.com was to divert people to ATIH and Meteor City, and vice versa.

    I’d noticed that the band banner advertising had been nixed in the last half a year or so….perhaps he felt that it wasn’t doing anything for sales. He’d mentioned that originally, SR.com charged for banner advertising which helped to defray some of the costs at the website, but since bands stopped buying that advertising because it wasn’t effective for sales (or at least that’s my assumption), that the free advertising was suddenly no longer effective for either the bands/ labels, nor All That Is Heavy/ Meteor City. For a few years, perhaps the banner advertising was still emphasized since maybe the decline in sales may have been perceived as temporary, and that it was meant to still have an air of importance there. As a band and label that dealt with ATIH and Dan, I can say that he truly helped out and gave a damn when no one else did. I thank him for allowing that free advertising there and getting the promos that I sent him into the right hands at the website. And somehow, I think that the prestige that SR.com had, it had really helped my band and label out in unison. I’m not quite sure if what i’m doing would be perceived in quite the same way anymore, if I were to start doing this now, rather than years ago. I’m lucky to have benefitted from that community, and I have to thank Dan for his invaluable support and help.

    Kudos to the other people that gave money, as well, though.

    And kudos to Dan for taking the high road on the demise of SR.com.

    Sorry for the long assed posts, guys, but I thought that i’d weigh in with my thoughts and with what information I have regarding the situation.

  52. asshat mcgillicuddy says:

    bridget was a cunt

  53. dmal says:

    Check out this copycat site.

    http://www.stonerrock.com.mx/

  54. dmal says:

    I think they may have actually been targetted by a hacker. I cannot fathom why.

  55. Dnice says:

    late to post, but I was greatly saddened by the end of sr.com as well.
    absolutely terrific resource for me musically. And it felt like, in the last couple years, we were just starting to scratch the surface on some really amazing discussions about related genres besides typical stoner rock. For avid heavy rock and metal enthusiasts, it really was the pinnacle site for music. big respect from this guy. (Dan in Boston)

  56. Dr. Doom says:

    So sad. SR.com was an unbelievable way to find new music. I would never have heard of bands like Orange Goblin, Kylesa, Torche etc. This is a huge loss and I don’t know how it will ever be replaced. RIP. :-(

  57. Hydrobrew says:

    I would not be the man I am today without Stonerrock.com and Kelly Bundy.

  58. heavy kevy says:

    thanks dan and melanie for the years of service.i tried to spread the word for support. some embraced some were close minded. couldnt grasp that you can get into music thats not on most store shelves. wouldnt have picked up on kyuss,fu manchu,a.t.p.,nebula,lowrider as well many many others.living all over texas the last 15 yrs. stonerock is not getting any airplay maybe on occasioal q.o.t.s.a. play. w.t.f. ? the genre will exist to some extent and that is what matters the most.thanks again !

  59. tim says:

    there’s still hellridemusic.com’s board, though, right?

  60. Jake Williamson says:

    Hey guys, we are an Australian band and we have just released a new film clip and we consider ourselves heavily influenced by stoner rock bands such as Fu Manchu, Kyuss, Red Fang. If you could please have a listen to our stuff (it’s pretty descent) and maybe give it a spin on Obelisk radio that would be rad!!

    Here’s some links

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC6c2OS5jkA

    https://thekeepawaysaus.bandcamp.com/music

    Thanks for your consideration

    Jake

  61. Joe says:

    Sadly missed! The greatest thing about the stonerrock.com community was the knowledge. didn’t just put me on to countless stoner/doom bands, it was the obscure rock stuff. I thought I was pretty good on my heavy 70’s bands hardly any one had heard of before using that site.

  62. Jay says:

    Bringing this one from the depths. I was actually kinda too bummed out when it disappeared to even really saying anything about its end. I was on stonerrock.com since ’99…a few months after it started up. Unfortunately, I only posted a handful of times but I was always there reading reviews and listening to music. I was writing for Daredevil at the time and those were some glory days for me…that whole era. Was actually just missing it right now, which sucks, so I came here to get it off my chest!

  63. bumblebuck says:

    ITS BACK!!!!

    http://stonerrock.com

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