Even though 2020 has been so unusual/unprecedented/awful, a wealth of great music was still made and released in our fair city this year. Though there’s no shortage of Best Of lists that help recognize the recorded efforts of Milwaukee musicians, Silver City Studios recently gave listeners another way to brush up on some of 2020’s best local music. This week, the recording studio released the Silver City Sampler 2020, which features an eclectic blend of 19 tracks Silver City worked on this year.
Whether you’re reminding yourself how good The MilBillies and Johanna Rose releases are, listening to the audio from a brand new “StoryRaps” installment from Wes Tank, or finally getting around to discovering just how great Lyrid is, the digital sampler—which can be streamed on Soundcloud or (12 of the 19 tracks) on Spotify—is a great refresher course for the abundance of enjoyable audio that came out of Milwaukee (and beyond) this year.
“We appreciate everyone sticking with us through a difficult year to be a studio—or small business in general,” Silver City Studios co-owner Josh Evert says. “We were super grateful to have people work with us remotely, and it forced us all to think differently about music creation and be innovative with making things come together. Like everyone else, we hope to return to some semblance of normalcy in 2021.”
As we, once again, acknowledge the work of Milwaukee musicians, it’s also a great time to recognize how important places like Silver City Studios (as well as Wire & Vice, Mystery Room Mastering, Howl Street Recordings, and many other Milwaukee area recording/mastering studios) are in helping to bring excellent material to the next level. Revisit some of Silver City’s finest recorded material of 2020 by streaming the sampler below.