Scene SC Sampler: Volume 10
This morning, Scene SC released their 10th annual sampler. Just let that sink in for a moment.
Every year since 2010, Scene SC has released a full-length compilation of original South Carolina music, with no more than one song from each artist per sampler. That’s an impressive accomplishment in itself, but the merits of the Scene SC sampler go much deeper than that. If you find yourself wanting to go down the rabbit hole of South Carolina music, take a look at the artists featured on previous samplers.
Since this article is technically about the 2019 Scene SC sampler, I won’t go into too much detail, but I will say that Scene SC’s David Stringer has a knack for picking out talent. Many of the artists who have been featured on earlier samplers have gone on to greatly impact the shape of the South Carolina music scene, and some of them have even found success well outside of South Carolina (Shovels & Rope, SUSTO, All Get Out, Heyrocco, etc). Yes, many of the artists featured in the past have completely disappeared, but my point is that you should keep an eye on the musicians who make their way onto the Scene SC sampler. David knows what he’s doing, and he’s proven it with 10 straight volumes of hand-picked original music.
The 2019 Scene SC sampler contains 30 songs from 30 different artists, which makes it the longest one yet. In my eyes, the length of this year’s sampler is indicative of the sheer volume of talented musicians coming up in South Carolina right now. In the few years that Extra Chill has been covering the music scene, there have never before been as many artists worth watching as there are today. Even with 30 artists on this sampler, 18 of them are first-timers, and only 6 of them were included last year. Many of these songs are being heard for the first time on the sampler, too. The only ones that were released prior are “Cool With It” by Shirlie, “I’ve Got So Much Love To Give” by The Restoration, and “Rules” by Youngster.
Volume 10 is also the first Scene SC sampler to include a rap song, with Extra Chill Fest veteran Sunny Malin coming in at track 8 with “Champagne”. The South Carolina hip-hop scene has been on the rise lately, and I expect that Scene SC will continue to recognize that by including even more hip-hop on the 2020 sampler.
There is so much good music on this thing that I would have to write a whole book to talk about all of it. I have given it several spins at this point, though, and a few of my favorites from Charleston artists are listed below. Check the release article on Scene SC for a more detailed song-by-song breakdown.
The Extra Chill Top 5:
- Cry Baby – “Can’t Wait”
- Faline – “Beedles (I Wanna Hold Your Hand)”
- Secret Guest – “Live/Dead (Live at The Royal American)”
- She Returns From War – “Galaxy Sands”
- John Bias – “Bodies”