ROADRUNNER’S MONTE CONNER TALKS STONER ROCK
Friday, March 6th, 2009 at 2:24pm by Vince Neilstein
The Obelisk, a new metal blog run by JJ Koczan of the now defunct Metal Maniacs Magazine, recently published a fascinating interview with Roadrunner Records A&R-king Monte Conner on the subject of stoner rock. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the mind of one of the most famous and influential A&Rs in the history of metal, if not just for the interesting stoner rock subject matter then for the industry / label politics / A&R talk. Monte speaks all about his stoner rock heroes from Kyuss to Fu Manchu to Queens of the Stone Age, spends a good deal of time talking about why Roadrunner never ventured far into the stoner rock foray (Karma to Burn excepted — and he goes in depth about them, too), the current state of stoner rock, and why it’s never become a commercially viable genre. Take a quick look at some of the interview highlights after the jump.
The Obelisk: What do you think it is about the genre that never really caught on commercially? The music, by and large, is accessible.
Conner: It is by and large accessible and as I said, most of these bands have fairly accessible vocals. To be honest, I really think most of these bands tend to sound very similar. They all have the same kind of fuzzy guitar tones. The lyrical subject matter. Fu Manchu and Nebula sound alike — well, in the beginning they sounded alike, Nebula eventually branched out into something more alternative sounding. In the beginning they sounded alike. If you listen to a band like Roadsaw, it sounds like all the rest. I just think due to the lyrical subject matter and even the album covers and the guitar sound, it’s a limiting genre. I think these bands all tend to sound too similar. Of course, to me, Kyuss is the one band that stands out as completely unique from everything else. As much as I love Fu Manchu, there are plenty of other bands that can do the Fu Manchu sound — never as good, of course. I think it hasn’t caught on mainly because musically it’s limiting in terms of bands not really being able to expand on the formula. I guess you could call Wolfmother a stoner band in a way, and if you can, they definitely are the most successful stoner band of all time – the only one with a gold record. But if you look at Wolfmother, they also have this whole Led Zeppelin III acoustic side to them that these other stoner bands don’t have, so it’s no surprise that a band like that was able to break out. Because they’ve got another side to them that a band like Fu Manchu or Orange Goblin, Sleep, none of those bands had that.
The Obelisk: You could apply the same thing to The Sword, if maybe on a lesser scale.
Conner: The Sword are definitely a full-on stoner band, but for some reason, people just absolutely love that band and think they’re different than everything that’s come before them. I love The Sword and I can appreciate what The Sword does, but it kind of bears out my thoughts on stoner rock. As acclaimed as The Sword are — and Metallica takes them out on tour — and they’re just this band that’s loved by all kinds of big musicians, that’s a band that pops out 50,000 units. And yeah, 50,000 units is great for a label like Kemado, they can make money on that, but for a bigger label like Roadrunner, we wouldn’t be making money, and I don’t want to just sound like some callous record company asshole, but we are a record company and we are in business to make a profit and it’s my job to keep the commerce in mind while defending the art. We want to sign cool bands, but we also need to sign cool bands that are gonna help keep the lights on, because ultimately this is a business. A band like The Sword, cool as they are, it’s not really the right business for a label like Roadrunner. And it sucks to say that, because I’d love to work with The Sword. I’m a big fan of stoner rock, this just isn’t the right place for that kind of music. I think it would have been perfect to sign Queens because they were a stoner band and they were able to branch into something bigger. That would have been perfect for a label like Roadrunner.
Check out the interview at The Obelisk for a great read. My only problem with it is that there’s one very notable omission: Mastodon. You could easily argue that Mastodon aren’t true stoner rock, but let’s not get caught up in micro-genre pigeonholing; they absolutely have stoner rock elements and appeal to stoner rock fans. Will Mastodon be the stoner rock band who break the genre through to the masses? I guess the verdict’s still out on that one.
-VN
Love me the stoner rock
There is as much classic rock elements in what the sword do as stoner rock elements.
Same goes for bands like baroness.
if sabbath were starting up now they would be called a stoner rock band and roadrunner would pass.
If record companies like roadrunner got behind bands like the sword they would sell records. But instead they sign fantastic “hard rock” bands like Theory of a Deadman and nickleback.
Stoner rock is growing, almost transforming. I would consider Mastodon a stoner-rock band, if anything the stoner-rock band that is setting the new guidelines for the future of it. Mix it up, experiment in ten years stoner-rock is going to look very different.
Orange Goblin one dimensional? Fuck yeah they are. And I love them for it.
Really liked this interview. I find it really interesting that even in the last couple of years the amount of stoner/doom/sludge bands has increased significantly and while there’s always the threat of oversaturation, it will be interesting to see whether a new generation can expand the boundaries of the genre or whether all the good bands will be lost in a sea of sound-a-likes.
I think stoner rock’s a pretty limiting term to describe someone’s music. To differentiate it from other rock because it’s got a fuzzy tone, groove, and a whole lot of “Yeaaaaaah”s is stupid. This record label dude sounds like he’s spewing to me if he doesn’t give any love to Sleep and thinks Wolfmother are more popular because they have…. acoustic elements. Are you kidding me? I’m pretty sure it was the catchy Led Zeppelin ripoff single with a “hot” lead singer. And Monster Magnet? I put them right next to Kyuss as a key rock group from the last 20 decades. He is right on one account though, there is basically Kyuss and by extension QOTSA, then Fu Manchu, then a watering down of them all.
It’s really god damn unfortunate hardly anyone makes great rock records without rehashing the same grunge/stoner/desert rock style. Even still, they are ready to be made and keep coming. Torche’s last two albums, Sasquatch II is fantastic, the latest QOTSA was perfect, and more and more keep coming. Why anyone thinks its unpopular is beyond me. Grindcore is unpopular, stoner rock is listened to by all kinds of people who would never ever EVER try out an extreme metal band.
After looking over the Roadrunner lineup and then reading this statement about having cool bands that move units I can say fuck this label. And fuck this callous record company asshole.
“After looking over the Roadrunner lineup and then reading this statement about having cool bands that move units I can say fuck this label. And fuck this callous record company asshole.”
As someone who buys 99.9% of their music in cd form to this day, I fully support stealing any music put out by roadrunner. Seriously, fuck this label and the amount of effort they put into making music stale and unoriginal.
Blood Ceremony in 2009!
Word to that. Especially sad that a label which broke so many pioneering death metal bands in the early 90’s has come to this — some bald motherfucker in a sportcoat and a turtleneck talking about ‘commercial viability’. Nickelback. seriously. Any rock and roll band with the slightest bit of integrity should avoid this type of label like the plague. Forget your pipe dreams of advances and per diems. That’s fucking toy poodle shit, and those days are gone anyway. Work your shitty job, pay for your own recording (or do it your damn self), then get in the van and tour. This is rock and roll, not showbiz, and yes, the two ARE different. To give even a moment’s consideration to ‘accessibility’ or ‘commerce’ represents an appalling misunderstanding of the function of art. It’s bad enough when it’s an A&R — hell, it’s this guy’s job — but when this shit-eating, associates-degree-in-business-administration-and-marketing terminology invades the lexicon of musicians (which of course it has), it truly denigrates the discipline. Fucking offensive. Let the big labels put out orchestral music, pop-country and adult contemporary, and let them keep their greasy hands the fuck off my rock and roll.
You people saying “fuck Roadrunner” are looking at it all wrong. There ARE good bands signed to Roadrunner, and if they didn’t have Nickelback making them serious money they wouldn’t be able to sign and record bands that essentially don’t make much money – it’s a freaking business.
@ Conduit
The last 20 decades huh? According to Bon Scott, rock was born in 1955…not 1809…
why don’t they ask this guy about his favorite numetal bands that polluted our ears for a good part of the last decade?
this dickhead has no cred.
Whether Roadrunner has Nickelback or not, their the biggest sell out label ever. I say this as fan of artists like DevilDriver, Dream Theater, Opeth and a few others all of whom are signed to RR bu that doesn’t mean I don’t hate the label. If Roadrunner is remembered as anything, they can be remembered for being the label with most reissues ever printed! haha. Most of those fat checks they get is because of stupid best-ofs and reissues of CD’s!
I bet Roadrunner will sign the Sword after the smaller guys have developed it and worked really hard to break the band. Then they will sign them and act like they did all the hard work.
Take a chance on a new band. It is a business and you have to make money to keep the lights but get some balls.
There is no denying that Roadrunner while prospering via Nickelback’s and to a lesser degree Slipknot has taken a nosedive in quality. I grew up in the 90’s when the Roadrunner records symbol on the back of an album stood for a symbol of groundbreaking quality. There were so many seminal metal albums that were released through RR. Which makes it all the more heartbreaking to know that the the man behind many of those albums ‘( you know what records i’m citing) only passion as of now seems to be the bottom line
I hate you Monte Conner.
Lil’ Wayne moves units so why not sign him? Fuckin Prick
To the people bashing Conner, I feel compelled to remind you of all the work he’s done with killer metal bands. Sepultura, Cynic, King Diamond, Fear Factory, not to mention all the “best of” collections.
Roadrunner is the biggest metal label out there, sure they’ve signed a few bad rock bands in the last couple of years, but that’s necessary. Nickelback may suck but the money earned by them goes into financing good bands.
It’s called the music business for a reason. It’s a business retards. You can’t keep making music if you don’t make money.
@ Tyler, we basically made the same point with RR past alum and yes it is a business, but as us retards as you were as quick to distinguish us could give 2 fucks about how Nickelback perpetuates the sale Opeth or whoever’s sales. The point is that once mighty RR isn’t the standard of metal it once was. If getting with the times means accepting Nickelback funding Devildriver is business and business is just that. The fact is that some of us remember when it was a music first label that took chances that paid out in some outstanding albums. So unless you are somehow gaining a profit from the homogenization of this label i can’t see how you can argue in it’s favor. Fuck knows she ain’t what she used to be in terms of quality groundbreaking metal which used to keep their lights all the same as Nickelback.
Point is that Nickelback money isn’t funding fuck-all towards emerging or on the fringe acts.
yeah, there was a time way back when that if a record had Roadrunner printed on the back you knew almost without a doubt it was going to be something good to listen to even if you had never even heard of it….not these days.
scott reeder from kyuss almost joined– and played bass on tour for– tool ; adam jones of tool played extensively with the melvins ; king buzzo of the melvins was in fantomas with mike patton ; mike patton made an awesome EP with the dillinger escape plan ; the dillinger escape plan toured with– and lost drummer chris pennie to– coheed and cambria ; taylor hawkins played on a coheed and cambria album ; taylor hawkins and dave grohl are the core of the foo fighters ; dave grohl was temporarily in queens of the stone age .
I think right now Roadrunner have some fantastic PR people working for them – from my experience they simply work harder than the PRs for other metal labels. But they choose to bestow this gift on some pretty risible bands, Madina Lake being an example that springs to mind.
It’s been disappointing hearing their new signings for the forthcoming year, so is there a lack of new talent? Hmm. I respect what they have achieved in the past but this is a label that seems to be chasing the teen market with the new acts it’s nurturing. The most talented bands on the label now seem to be those that were established before they joined the roster.
will never understand how people jizz themselves over the sword.
I remember reading a guest column Connor did in “Scream” magazine back in ‘93 where he reviewed demos. He did a great job and drove home the importance of originality. Why buy a band called Hideous Corpse that sounds just like Morbid Angel (one of the demos he reviewed) when you can just go get the real thing? True.
Many of the bands on RR do have their own character. Say what you will about Devildriver or Dragonforce (or even Nickelback), but when they come on, you can tell it’s them even if you don’t like them. They signed Opeth because no one sounded like Opeth. They signed Killswitch Engage for the same reason.
I think that was Connor’s point — why sign several bands out of a genre that all sound the same, when you can pick one that’s doing it their own way? Nothing I’ve heard from that genre has really turned it on its ear yet. Not that I don’t like it, but I see his point.
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