I’ve been in touch with MeteorCity co-founder Jadd Shickler since I was a sniveling college kid sending out cold-call emails looking to get labels to send me CDs to play on my dinky stoner rock radio show. When he sold off the label and its All That’s Heavy webstore to the crew from StonerRock.com, it was legitimately the end of an era that brought great records from the likes of Nebula, Unida, Solace, Lowrider and many more, and as such, it’s great to see him step back into the game in joining forces with Mike Vitali as part of Magnetic Eye Records. Shickler has been writing for The Ripple Effect for a while now, and as a next stage of re-involvement in heavy rock, this seems like an awesome way to go.

The news came down the PR wire, as I expect much more will continue to do from Magnetic Eye from here on out. Cheers to Shickler and Vitali and all the best of luck:

MeteorCity founder joins Magnetic Eye

Through an unexpected cosmic confluence of entrepreneurial ambition and musical obsession, a significant addition has been made to the MER core team: original MeteorCity and All That’s Heavy co-founder and former label boss Jadd Shickler has joined Magnetic Eye as Director of Label Operations.

You may remember MeteorCity’s string of milestone releases from Nebula, Spirit Caravan, Solace, Dozer and Blind Dog, not to mention the first music released anywhere from scene icons like Unida, Lowrider, The Atomic Bitchwax, and Sixty Watt Shaman. Needless to say, Shickler’s instincts and experience are certain to help push Magnetic Eye to even greater successes going forward.

“We actually have Elephant Tree to thank for this,” Shickler says. “I’d been writing for a couple music blogs, and among all the new stuff coming my way in early 2016 was this massive record from a truly amazing band. I got to work on an Elephant Tree piece for The Ripple Effect, which brought me in touch with Mike Vitali at their label. It turned out he’d done the Solace/Greatdayforup split when I still had Solace signed, so that helped me appreciate where he was coming from. After signing off on the sale of MeteorCity in 2008, I stayed away from the music biz for a while, eventually landing in digital marketing. But working in music was my first professional love, and I’d been itching to get back to it – I just needed to wait till the moment felt right. When Mike made it known that he was looking to expand his team, the moment felt right.”

One of the first things Shickler has done since coming on board is to get MER’s retail distribution on track by leveraging existing partnerships and establishing new ones. Beginning with our MEANTIME [Redux] release in September, your favorite record shops across North America and the United Kingdom (Brexit be damned) will be able to bring in Magnetic Eye’s glorious limited edition LPs and digipak CDs via our distribution partners The Orchard (USA) and Plastic Head (UK), not to mention All That’s Heavy.

“I had become more serious about partnerships and growing the label,” Vitali says, “so when Jadd and I connected over his Elephant Tree piece for Ripple, I realized it was a once in a lifetime moment. I had been a huge fan of MeteorCity and All That’s Heavy, and truly believe that teaming up with him is one of the best decisions I’ve made since starting out. These first five years have really been a lot of trial and error, so with Jadd bringing all his experience to the table, I feel like we’re ready to apply what we know to help make a real impact for both the bands and the fans. I couldn’t be more excited to be working with him.”

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Various Artists, Meantime [Redux]