As someone who LOVES stoner/doom/sludge/crust metal… this hurts like a motherfucker. I had to unsubscribe. ‘Stoned Meadow Of Doom’ was the cornerstone for the sub-genres of doom and is now being condemned by anyone who finds out that the channel’s owner, Clint Beed, is racist as shit. If you’re in the scene, you’ve heard of this channel and/or Clint, and you’ve heard some of the things that this guy has said/done. As an average consumer, I just watched SMOD on YouTube for the albums and paid no attention to anything else… why would I? Until I saw this on Instagram…
And of course I’m thinking… “what the fuck is wrong with this guy…. OH GOD I’M SUBSCRIBED TO HIS CHANNEL?!” So after I unsubscribe on YouTube, I see this AGAIN on Facebook and… holy shit the thread was unreal. Turns out, this is not a shock for most people. In FACT, it got a little worse.
EDIT: Here’s some screenshots confirming the above comments.
EDIT: Screenshots of Clint talking to… “flirting?” (harassing) someone via FB messenger:
EDIT: I don’t even… know… WHAT the fuck…
As all of this is unfolding, Instagram and Facebook are both blowing up over his anti-Semitic comments. Even some bands and record labels were coming forward about his unprofessional behavior when it comes to the music on his channel.
And with that comes the obligatory apology…. which he later recanted:
After he posted and deleted this “apology”, his subscribers started deleting him. And now a question remains… what will happen with the Doom community? If you’re a band, you’re mortified. Either you get this guy to take down your music (if he even does it)… or you keep it there on his channel, thus associating your band name with the racist posts he’s been making. If you’re just a fan, it’s disheartening (if you have a fucking soul it is…) and you need a new place to listen to doom.
I have a top 10 list of YouTube channels (a few that I’m subscribed to personally and professionally) for you to check out. Maybe not as big as the old one… but with new subscribers and new bands posting on there INSTEAD of SMOD, in time no one will know the difference — you know, aside from the fact that these people are actually decent.
UPDATE:
SMOD’s ORIGINAL YouTube Channel barely has any videos on it now. Someone tell: Ignu, The Ugly Kings, Sabel, Transylvania Stud, Kayleth, Dirty Sound Magnet, Druid, and Crow Hunter to email him too (unless they want to stay on there… not my call). I’ve been watching the channel and he’s not ACTUALLY deleting the videos, but making them “private” since it was 10 about an hour ago, and now there’s 18 (with the original post date). I mean, why else would it still say he has over 600 videos on there (but only 18 are visible)? ….I wonder if any LEGAL ACTION should be taken? Apparently, private videos (when they were supposed to be deleted and not made private) can result in a COPYRIGHT STRIKE… hmmm…
There’s ALSO the backup channel with these bands: Black Royal, Shiraz, Ulls, Woodstock Barbie, The Dennis Rodmans, Disco Dooro, Devil’s Whiskey, Lemurian Folk Songs, Folian, Orbiter, Krachwerke, Black Satori, Hipnotyk, Zolfo, Arcana 13, Wolftrucker, Witch in Hawaii, Kurse, Chang, Revvant, Ancestros Chord, Bulldozer and the Machine Guns, Monovine, Snow King, annnnd more of The Ugly Kings. Again, send them a note regarding this and they can make their own choice of having him take it down (making it private) or not… again… not my call.
He is still archiving the videos, some of the bands that were mentioned earlier are “gone” from the main YouTube, and now Sageness is visible… annnd now Supernaut.
He is CURRENTLY posting NEW VIDEOS on his BACKUP YOUTUBE ACCOUNT…
UPDATE:
Bands have been messaging me about how much money he makes and that they should probably be paid what they’re owed. They asked me how much money HE was making from posting everyone’s music without permission or payment… I have your answer here. Maybe you should get your money.
UPDATE:
THIS IS NOW ON YOUTUBE
UPDATE:
THIS IS NOW ON METALSUCKS! Soooo glad you guys read my email! Thank you!!!
UPDATE:
This is what’s going on with his CLOSED FB Group “SMOD NATION”
UPDATE:
SMOD FEST IS DEAD.
UPDATE:
Another “apology” posted on Truckfighters FB post
UPDATE:
BUSTED ON SMOD FEST PAGE BEFORE IT WAS DELETED
ADDED BONUS:
The best email sent to Clint by Highbernation I’ve seen.. it’s beautiful.
ANOTHER ADDED BONUS!
I will be doing a “Stoner Metal Saturday” on here from now on. Full details here!
If you have screenshots you want us to share/published send them to: MFKNZINE@GMAIL.COM
We will post it. Fuck this guy.
Other than that THANK YOU! I woke up this morning mad as shit… and I’m going to bed happy as fuck. That’s how you do it. I fucking love you guys!
Don’t forget to follow us on social media to stay updated with everything! AND CHECK OUT OUR NEW STORE! Yes! MFKNZINE now has some MFKNMERCH… nice. Requested by viewers, and made for viewers.
You can buy our “Rebirth of Venus” Graphic-T here!
honored to see my channel mentioned; I would like to add The Holy Parish Of Doom as well. I’m in frequent contact with this guy who has the best channel if you’re into Traditional Doom…
And thank you for this article; since 2016 I’ve been public of all the scandalous things I’ve witnissed on screenshots + all the shit ‘we’ (the smaller channels) had to deal with. Numerous takedown-requests and exclusivity demands for the sole benefit of his wallet as more views means more advertising money to him. Now I get my fair share of downloadcodes from bands who want me to upload and spread but I also spend 100-150 euro every month on Bandcamp where I’m following close to 8000 bands/fans/labels. then you make an effort to make a video; upload it including all links you can find of the band (the goal is to get listeners to purchase something or at least like/follow/subscribe to the band’s pages). And then usually I would post it in a number of groups, only to hear a couple of days later that “we have to ask you to take it down as we have an opportunity to get a bigger channel and he wants exclusivity, we thank you for your purchase, support and time that you spend om our band but please take it down”. That’s only the BUSINESS side of SMOD…
surprised it took this long. Despite his comments over the years, he had an offer from reputable studios, promotion companies and brand managers for a massive tour in Europe and US. Zero business sense and acts like this. Simply put, in life you won’t get anywhere if you cannot cooperate with anybody. You will also need to cooperate with people you don’t like for some reason. It’s a shame because he built a channel from nothing (I still don’t know how due to his lack of sense in business) and it would have been good for the scene for him to keep on. If I was him now, I would take a deep swallow and delete everything you have on the internet. Reinvent yourself somewhere, go travelling, see the world a bit – have a life. Then come back on the internet as something new and don’t show your identity and maybe from the experience you will learn not to be a manchild and learn how to communicate with our humans sensibly. I am not mad, I am dissapointed Clint. You should be to.
I think he pulled off his channel just purely based on uploading early Elder albums (I think he reuploaded Dead Roots Stirring after the original upload from a different channel with like a million views disappeared back in like 2014) and Naxatras. Also because he didn’t purely upload straight Doom but softer sounding Stoner/Psych bands (like Naxatras). This is hitting me especially hard because I had a Sleep playlist on youtube of like 30 albums, most of which were SMOD uploads. Ugh. Why couldn’t he just try not being a bigot…
Same, I had a 180+ playlist ready to listen to. Now most are all private or deleted. That’s how I got down this rabbit hole. I don’t think I would have ever found this was happening if it was for his videos going private as I don’t use facebook or twitter at all really. Only if I am needed or something has happened.
I feel sorry for the bands that had their albums there… What will happen with this?
Heads up, everyone! Just checked that his main channel now has only 4 uploads for ENTIRE last year – all other videos are gone!
Excellent list of alternative YT channels to follow. Here’s another one I saw mentioned in another thread:
The Bong Druid Of Mammoth Weed Mountain
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKTDJzaR6Tse7qAMSCP0pGg
Tangy Zizzler who ran this channel (together with the MrStonebeliever channel) left the scene partly for all the shit he had to put with from the SMOD takedown’s requests… Tangy actually helped Clint set up the channel but basically got backstabbed… both channels are now in-active when were talking NEW music…
It’s so amazing that our community is responding so swiftly and succinctly. Stoner/Psych/Doom forever!
Hey could you also include the latest post from Truckfighters, since the cover art of their album is the same as SMOD’s avatar?
https://www.facebook.com/truckfighters/photos/a.357077037646981/2920105568010769
Hello Black Satori has requested that Stoned Meadow of Doom take down our music as we do not want to be a part of a platform that uses its public position to spread disrespect toward others (disrespect being the softest possible word for what this guy posts online). As you can tell Black Satori’s lyrics we promote consciousness evolution, peace, love and compassion. For example in Another Dimension the opener from our debut Lucy Lane the lyrics state, “Stare into another dimension fill your heart with light all the time, you may not need a guru to travel consciousness beyond time.” I can assure you these are not the words of haters but the words of a band filled with open and accepting lovers who advocate for global peace. Thank you so much for your support! This video that has gotten us the most attention 2.5k views in a week which is awesome for a band with no finical support or cool friends but we cannot be associated with platforms that strongly misalign with our values and ethics. The Psychedelic rock community is one of the few places where Black Satori and it’s members have some influence and we will not use our passion and creative talents to promote disrespect. We always choose love; each member of Black Satori is legitimately awesome and deeply compassionate person who is more likely to give you help and a hug then cause any harm; one member is even a middle school teacher. Thank you again, Peace and Love from Black Satori
For Bands you need to copyright your music and register with a Preforming Right Organization like BMI then you do get a cut of views which is a fraction of a cent. Usually labels do this but for small bands like Black Satori make sure your music is protected legally so you can get your pennies when videos are viewed.
As a concerned fan I reached out to Spaceslug yesterday and was happy to discover today that their music has now been taken down from the SMOD YouTube channel.