Small Stone Recordings Hit By Storms, Suffer Big Damage

It seems lately that when we at MetalSucks hear a massive, cerebral, hooky jam by a psych/stoner/doom band, we find that its an act on the roster of Small Stone Recordings from Detroit. First it was the “kick-ass stoner rock” of Wo Fat, then the sky-wide psych sprawl of Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus (here), then Greenleaf’s euphoric groove (here). Shit, it was just Wednesday that Small Stone struck again via Lo-Pan’s “Regulus” (below, via Noisey), a heavy gem that’s crack-like in its power to instantly addict and exhilarate. Like their labelmates, Lo-Pan make you despair, too: Like, would it kill active rock bands to be even half this good? What a waste of radio.

But amid this run of hot releases, bad luck has arrived too: a couple weeks ago, the offices of Small Stone were socked by storms, flooded all to shit, and now house a bunch of damaged gear and stock. A campaign began Monday to help with the costs of clean-up and repair; five days later, half of the goal is reached and, holy shit, a bunch of hefty contributions illustrate that we’re not alone in loving the label and their bands — and in our panic at the thought of a delay to their next triumph. Chip in if that’s your vibe here.