As a child I was great at making mix tapes. Sitting in front of the radio with my fingers on the play and record button, waiting for a good song to come on the radio. Maybe it was “Wonderwall” or “Buddy Holly” by Weezer, but I was always ready to get it. The way I see it though, I missed the glory days of the mixed tape, but I was the perfect age for the mixed CD. Little did I know then that I was practicing for building samplers that flowed well 13 years later.
This year I went back to those days in my mind. I had the DGC Rarities, Volume 1 compilation in mind, along with the Empire Records and Angus soundtracks. All great mixes of b-sides, and all of them a joy in music discovery, because that’s what it’s all about.
This years sampler includes 18 tracks from bands never before featured on a SceneSC sampler. Every year it’s difficult to narrow down who will and won’t be on the sampler. There are always bands we’d love to feature and aren’t able to for one reason or another, but looking back over the last four years, I think about how amazing our talent pool here is, and the fact that we’ve featured over 40 different bands total.
Our mantra at SceneSC has always been that we just want to do our little part in helping out the South Carolina music scene that we are a part of. The sampler has turned into a huge part of that, and being able to showcase new music, new artists, and a variety of bands is something we hold close to our hearts.
I hope you find a new band you enjoy on this sampler. I hope you tell your friends about them, and I hope you share this sampler and the good word of SC music.
I can’t say thank you enough to the bands on the sampler, for donating their song to us so that we can help in doing our part in pushing them forward. It means everything to us, and we’re very proud to show off their hard work. The same goes for Kenny McWilliams who donated his time and skills to mastering the sampler and Nate Puza for his artwork. I have only the best things to say about both of those guys, and I try to be as vocal as I can telling everyone how great they are. These are the same two guys that helped us out with our first sampler in 2010. They are both ingrained in the music scene here, and both understand the importance of helping out. I’m not sure what I would do without either one of those guys.
