Written By-Bakari

Cayla Fralick-Just as Quietly from Scene SC on Vimeo.

So. I went to USC’s Acoustic Cafe last night, and it was pretty fantastic. Everyone who played impressed me, I must say.

Cayla Fralick
Andy Lehman
Cherry Case
This Machine is Me.

My wife Cayla Fralick was up first, and was spectacular. I’ve never actually listened to her perform and wasn’t surprised that she was amazing, because I’ve heard such great things about her music. All of them were true. Her voice is airy while continuing to be captivating which makes it so amazing.

Andy Lehman was next. Andy Lehman is from Greenville, South Carolina, and I had never heard of him until this acoustic show. He was rather good. I really enjoyed the power and range of his voice. His guitar skills also impressed me. He knows how to rock a Tele. I was so impressed that I asked him to send his album to the station (WUSC) and he gave me one on the spot! I will be sure to review his album, “Landline” as soon as possible as to get it put into rotation. I will also add an album review to Scene SC, which I now am a staff member for!

I had heard of Cherry Case once before, but have never heard them play. I must say their set was quite interesting. I’m slightly intrigued and I’d love to hear them again.

This Machine Is Me-Starbucks In Russell House from Scene SC on Vimeo.

This Machine is Me played last. I yelled at Blake to take his glasses off, and he obliged. Then he replaced them. Anyway, they did a pretty good acoustic set. Jayna’s voice sounded really good, and the guitars were tight on. Blake also did a vocal solo on one of the covers. It was rather enchanting.

Personally, I love the Acoustic Cafes. I think they’re a great way to learn of the awesome talent on campus and off. I seriously urge everyone to at least check out one Acoustic Cafe this year.

Tags: Acoustic Cafe, andy lehman, cayla fralick, cherry case, Greenville, this machine is me

(Scene SC Staff Bakari and Will)

We’ve got two new staff members at Scene SC.  Bakari Lebby and Will Flourance are joining the team.  Both Will and Bakari are active in the SC music scene by playing local bands on their WUSC radio show and by going to shows.  They were recently the MC’s at the Scene SC kickoff party and will be helping out here with everyday news and show reviews.

Will is a Journalism student at USC, originally from Arlington, Virginia.  He has the most “indie” taste on the staff, whatever that term means.  I’ll say it this way.  He likes more music on Pitchfork.com than anyone else does.

Bakari is a Business major at USC minoring in Music.  He has been a fan of Scene SC since the very first post and has always been there to comment and suggest stories.  His music taste covers everything from hip-hop to indie to anti-folk to punk.  He doesn’t listen to country, although you might see him tapping his foot occasionally to some Bluegrass.

Both of these guys are young and have their best years ahead of them in the music scene.

We’ve got two more people we will be introducing soon and then our team of 6 will be complete.

(Photo taken without permission from www.Free-Times.com and courtesy of P. Wall,  If I need to take it down let me know and I will happily replace it with this picture.)

Sumter Street Storage is currentley appleaing the Richland County Fire Marshall ruling prohibiting band practice at Sumter Street Storage.  The results of the appeal will be in around Thanksgiving on whether or not bands can practice in the sheds after midnight November 30th.

This appeal should have been made at the time the decision was made to shut down the shed, not after “our support and calls to the media prompted the decision.”  These 20 bands that practice in the sheds are a large source of revenue that will be gone if bands are kicked out.  This $3,000 or so dollars a month should have been fought a little bit harder for off the bat.

What this appeal does is doing is quieting the concert that is being planned and effectively ending the idea of having a blowout party at the end of the month.  Since the decision won’t be until so late bands will have to “do what they got to do” to get by.

I truely hope the sheds stay open. Not only do I think it is a great place for bands to practice near campus, but I think the reason behind the sheds being closed down is bull shit in the first place.  I just hope it all isn’t too little, too late.

If you can’t read the banner at the top of the page The Fire Tonight has their CD Release party this Friday night at New Brookland Tavern.  The guys have been practicing hard and have some special plans up their sleeves including a new and an old cover and a never before heard song.  What else is cool about this??  Well you can get the full length album for only 5 dollars.  I am lucky enough to have a copy of it and I feel like I owe them it is so good.  Burned it straight to a CD and it has been rotating in my car for the past week with Hannah Miller and All Get Out.

You need another reason to come to this show??  Well the opening bands are awesome too.  You get to kick off the night with Cats and Cobras and yours truly will rock your face off.  I might even wear the wolf mask again on stage.  After that you have The Drownout who will have you dancing around and then you get to hear Daniel Machado who recently released a fine CD.

Not enough?  Go listen to The Fire Tonight on Myspace and download their song “Cannon Canvas” for free!  TGIF eh

The Scene SC Kick Off Party was everything I hoped it would be, but after being at New Brookland last night I realized what we were missing.  That little extra push that would have helped us sell out the place.  We all learn from our mistakes, so let me list for you what we will have at the next Scene SC party.

A) Wet T-Shirt Contest

2) Belching Contest

#) Drunken Tricycle Races

B) The Beer Chug

C) Beer Funnel Races

Last) Tattoo Raffle

While these are things that I forgot, these are all things that will take place Saturday at New Brookland.  No, I don’t think I am lying.  The final SawFest ever will feature

Diavolo
Into The Depths
Hollowmass
Facedown
Worth The Fall
Decadence
Diary Of The Dead
Man Fell To Earth

and starts at 6 PM.  At 10 Bucks it’s a steal.

Congratulations to Brodie Porterfield for winning the Acoustic Challenge at New Brookland Tavern.  There were three Scene SC Endorsed artists playing and it is was really hard to decide who to vote for.  Stephanie Lawson, Hannah Miller and Brodie were all great as always, as well as the other artists that played.

Brodie started off the night around 8 o’clock and there were only about 20 people in New Brookland including musicians that would be playing later.  I was at a table with a group of people that I had never before met and everyone was impressed with everything about his performance.  They asked me if I knew this guy and I was like, “I guess he would recognize me if we were walking down the street, but I doubt he knows my name.”  They asked if he had a CD and I’m not sure that he does.  I directed them to his Myspace.  Later on in the night when I talked to Brodie he said “Hey, you’re Bentz’s cousin, right?”  So yeah, I guess he does know me a little bit.  Brodie and Stephanie are regulars at Right Bank Rails and we have often played acoustic shows together.  It always seems to me like the underground of the Singer Songwriter world of Columbia.  Everyone is always really good, but a lot of the musicians that play either don’t always play acoustic (Rob Lindsey of Friendly Confines), and some like Brodie, just don’t play out that much.  It was great to see him win this.  Now maybe he’ll start playing out more.

What always impresses me about Brodie’s performance is his guitar style.  He has a clean finger picking style that on a national level is common, but put on a local level makes him one of the best that you will see out in Columbia.  Couple that with his smooth, deep voice and the talent to move up and down the fretboard fingerpicking and singing at the same time and you have something great.  Not only did he show this off live at New Brookland, but he does on the songs on his Myspace also.  Check out “Get Ready.”

If you check the live videos tab there are new videos up.  Here are some of them.

Marry a Thief-Obvious from Scene SC on Vimeo.

Baumer-Don’t Panic from Scene SC on Vimeo.

Kill Anties from Scene SC on Vimeo.

The Decade-Backscratch Fever from Scene SC on Vimeo.

Ghosts of the Great Highway-A Spell and A Fire from Scene SC on Vimeo.

This Friday at The Watershed Mel Washington will be previewing his new “Friends EP” with special Guest and friend Cameron Gill.

While All Get Out has been out on the road for months at a time from Florida to Texas, Mel Washington has written a handful of songs about many of his close friends, 3 of which will be available on a CD that night.  The full EP doesn’t come out until January, but come out Friday night and get a sneak preview.

Listen to it.

Also there are three worthwhile shows in Columbia Friday night.

Mel Washington at The Watershed

Jay Clifford at 5 Points Pub

and of course The Fire Tonight Show.

Attention Bands:  If you want the HTML Code to put the survery on your page email me or myspace me!

When I started the website and started adding bands on Myspace and making connections to help everyone out, one of the points I always tried to make is that Scene SC is here to stay.  We aren’t going anywhere.  It always seems like someone will start up some online zine or radio thing and it fizzles after a couple of months.  One difference might be that they probably thought they were going to make money doing it.  I knew I wasn’t going to make any money doing this and although it would be awesome if I could do that, I really don’t see it happening.

So as this year is starting to wind down and we have our Kick Off Party tonight, I’ll tell you where Scene SC is trying to go.

• The Compilation CD of SC’s Best Bands will be released In January.
• Next Year bands will have the option of having their live shows Professionally Video Taped and recorded off the soundboard for a small Fee.  We’ll still do the video like we do now for free.
• The Podcast is coming at some point soon.
• We will have Scene SC TV where we will have live acoustic performances of National and Local bands.  All who pass through Columbia.
• At some point the site will be redesigned by a professional to be more functional.
• We are in talks of starting a Network of “Blogs” covering Fashion, Contemporary Art and as much as we want to stay away from it, maybe even a neutral Political Blog to compete with the big boys.  A network the way that Geekologie and The Superficial are linked.  I’ll stick with the Music.
• We come up with new Ideas every day and are wide open to suggestions.

Basically this website is for you.  Whether you are a fan or in a band.  Support your local music scene and do your part in it if you care about it.  Come to the Kick Off party tonight and show your appreciation.  Even if the music isn’t your cup of tea, tonight is about the music community.  It’s not Athens or Atlanta or Nashville, but we have to make the best of what we have.

Daily Gamecock givin me some love.  Too bad I got trumped by an album that came out over a month ago, drag queens and a book that builds you up after you see all those beautiful people in magazines!  ”Perfect hair perfect teeth, designed to hide what lies beneath.(Dave Bazan)”  Still very much appreciate everyone that reads and helps out the website.  Thank you Shelby!

USC grad’s Web site to connect Columbia acts, listeners

Shelby Sachs

Come check out some of Columbia’s finest southern Rock tonight at Headliners with Ed Lemon and the Get Rights, Lucas War Hero, The Bourbon Brothers and Harrison Ray’s Magic Ghost.

The Bourbon Brothers had their guitarist fly in from NYC so it will be a special night for them.  If you like fun and bourbon and babes and Jeremy Kolmin then come out.

We are so serious at Scene SC.

In the Free Times today the reason behind the Fire Marshal shutting down the Sheds for practice was revealed as so

“Basically, that’s a storage facility,” Spivey says. Any other use, she adds, is unallowed.

“We would describe [the current situation] as … a storage-use occupancy. But they’re using it as … a multi-use, mixed-business operation. So short of you moving yourself in and taking yourself out, there’s nothing in the code that allows a person to be able to occupy it for a period of time other than housing equipment.”

I know of at least 3 other “storage facilities” that bands practice at.  Will they be subject to the same shutdown by the Fire Marshal?  And if they are not, why aren’t they?

As of 10 PM November 30th bands that practice at the Sumer Street Storage facility will have to find a new home.  This is not an “eviction”, but the Fire Marshall has deemed band practice as a violation of county ordinances.

I have a little better theory though and it leads back this person.  In a September 24th article published by The State title “Rockin The Sheds” real estate developer Clif Judy had this to say about bands playing at the sheds.

But real estate developer Clif Judy, 69, objects to “vulgar” lyrics and the noise that rattles his windows and disturbs his sleep.

“It drives me batty,” he said.

He also said that he was going to research county land laws to find a way for owners to stop renting to bands.

It was also noted in that article that no zoning laws are being broken and that there have been zero noise violations in the last year.

This summer a rule was made that bands could not practice after 10 PM.  Apparently this wasn’t enough.

For almost 29 years Rosewood Storage has been renting to bands.  It is where Hootie and The Blowfish wrote “Hold My Hand” and “Only Want to Be With You.”  For years it has been the heart of the Columbia music scene, but no longer.

The wall on my shed says “Play Faster Mother Fucker”  Thats all I have to say.