MeteorCity Inc. and StonerRock.com announced today that a purchase agreement between the two companies took effect as of midnight on May 15th, under which StonerRock.com assumed full ownership of the All That's Heavy Online Music Store.

MeteorCity launched All That's Heavy in September of 1997 as an online shopping resource where fans of KYUSS, MONSTER MAGNET and FU MANCHU could locate the bands’ harder-to-find releases. Owners Jadd Shickler and Aaron Emmel corresponded globally with customers and heavy rock fans to expand All That’s Heavy’s catalog to include other artists and releases that fit stylistically alongside the aforementioned bands.

Josh Firestone, a MeteorCity intern, coined the term desert rock to describe the blossoming genre, although it was the term stoner rock, named for the "Music for Stoners" tagline on Roadrunner Records' 1997 Burn One Up! compilation, which eventually stuck. Based on the success of the store, MeteorCity formed its own record label in early 1998, and released the Welcome to MeteorCity compilation in May of that year. The compilation showcased both semi-established and up-and-coming desert and stoner rock acts, and introduced the world to future heavyweights like SIXTY WATT SHAMEN, LOWRIDER, THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX, DOZER, GOATSNAKE and LOS NATAS, among others.

In early 2001, MeteorCity formed an agreement with the heavy rock resource website StonerRock.com that saw the latter take over management and operations of All That's Heavy. StonerRock.com was the perfect match for All That's Heavy, having become the premiere online

community hub for heavy music fans soon after its 1999 inception, and under StonerRock.com's stewardship, All That's Heavy maintained the world's largest catalog of stoner/desert/doom/sludge rock. MeteorCity was thus freed to focus its energies on the record label, and the success of this venture motivated both partners to implement a new deal through which All That's Heavy was officially sold to StonerRock.com in early 2004.

"We've been handling 100% of the day-to-day operations of the store since March of 2001," StonerRock.com owner Dan Beland explains. "So our customers shouldn't notice any difference besides a fresh new look and a newly implemented and much more modern and versatile shopping

cart system. Everything's going to continue exactly as it has been, with the same music, the same ordering system and the same attention to customer service."
"It was really easy to work with someone who had the same goals we did," says MeteorCity President Aaron Emmel. "StonerRock.com and MeteorCity are both about the music and the people who make it, regardless of hype or scene politics. We feel great about our entire partnership, StonerRock.com proved that they were able to keep the music fans happy, and we'd jump at the chance to work with them again."

StonerRock.com and MeteorCity speed into 2004 with increased dedication to the established and thriving music scene they both helped create and have long supported. StonerRock.com boasts more than 22,000 registered community members and over 1,100 All That's Heavy catalog titles, while MeteorCity is focusing on the recent release of BLACK NASA's second album, Deuce, the June release of a split EP featuring THE HIDDEN HAND and WOOLY MAMMOTH, and numerous other projects including a reissue of the classic OBSESSED album Lunar Womb.

MeteorCity Direct, the specialty wholesale distribution version of the All That's Heavy catalog is now owned by StonerRock.com as well. MeteorCity Direct has also been fully managed and operated by StonerRock.com since 2001 and will continue to operate with little change under the new name All That's Heavy Direct.