The Cola Concerts series continues its push to make big shows work in a socially distanced environment. Having just hosted a four-night stand …

The inherent difficulty in continuing to one-up yourself with the headliner for your music festival is that there comes a point when you reall…

Getting back to normal is hard. That lesson is around us all the time right now, especially as it applies to Columbia’s regular spate of sprin…

Valley Maker’s “When the Day Leaves” is a record about trying to find a sense of place during a time of uncertainty.

Colonial Life Arena is set to host its first concert since the COVID-19 shutdown last March, a comedy bill headlined by Mike Epps.

The inability to perform as normal has impacted many creatives during the past year. But Columbia singer-songwriter TiffanyJ (AKA Tiffany Joyc…

The notion that heavy metal is a corrupting influence, in league with demonic forces, has become quaint.

Rosewood Crawfish Festival plans to proceed with its annual celebration of live music and freshwater crustaceans, returning after canceling its 2020 outing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cola Concerts will get back to business next month with its biggest booking yet.

If you’re a fan of live music, you’ve probably watched a lot of live-streamed shows during the last year. As venues everywhere have remained c…

Pretty much every prominent event has canceled plans, adjusted plans, and then canceled them again during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.…

The best live albums make you question whether the artist should bother recording in a studio. “Thank You So Much, We’re Dear Blanca” is such an album.

The charm of Ken Baldwin’s “A Strange Brew” is its sense of togetherness.

Watching fans and artists enjoy and interact as they watched pre-recorded sets from 15 local groups performed at the venerable West Columbia rock dive New Brookland Tavern was an affirming experience during a turbulent year. 

Fat Rat da Czar didn’t have to include a pair of surprising, well-chosen samples from Netflix favorites at the top of his new release to prove…

Preach Jacobs is a busy man. Even during a pandemic, Jacobs has several different projects going on all at the same time.

This follows 2020, when Five Points was forced to pull the plug on its annual March event just 10 days before it was scheduled to take place as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.

I really wanted to hate “Smiling Politely,” the new album by Hillmouse, AKA Columbia singer-songwriter Tyler Gordon.

Columbia rapper 2Ru3’s new release “Lil Sumthin’” is hands-down the most accurately titled album of 2020.

Arrested Development isn’t just a ’90s band.

The White Mule is in no condition to hold a concert.

We keep up the tradition of ranking the best albums South Carolina mustered in 2020 for the same reason that we do it every year — to celebrate local music, and to get you all talking about and interacting with it.

Year-end lists celebrate great albums. But here’s the rub: They also leave other great albums out.

COVID-19 shook up the lives of the artists that made this year’s Best of South Carolina Music List, and the way they were able to promote their winning albums.

Famously Hot New Year is transforming its typical New Year’s Eve block party into a virtual event in response to COVID-19.

In 2016, veteran Palmetto State musicians Dave Britt and Bobby Sutton started Ashes Of Old Ways, a group that split the difference between ragged rock and mournful honky-tonk country right down the middle.

The duo’s relationship to the country music industrial complex has always been more convenient rhetorical stance than legitimate beef.

For many people, watching a musician perform is how they connect with them.

This weekend’s Dec. 12 concert from Americana stars Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, along with a Dec. 13 appearance from Fox News personality …

Many musicians, at multiple levels of the industry, are having trouble in this year of COVID-19. Be it acts with national or regional renown t…

Chaz Bear attended Ridge View High School, and became locally and regionally renowned for his involvement in the indie rock band The Heist & the Accomplice before coming to greater prominence with Toro Y Moi.

My Columbia Craft Famously Hop IPA was brought directly to my cove in a stapled brown paper bag, the height of coronavirus concert luxury.

In the wake of their 2018 EP “Ritual,” Glass Mansions did a lot of touring, looking for a new home base as they travelled the country.

In rock music, perfection is the enemy. Few things throw off a good rock song like too much polish. There should be some sloppiness, some ragged edges.

An effort to bring big-time acts and socially distanced audiences to the Columbia Speedway Entertainment Center will have to wait until next w…

Last year, Columbia singer/songwriter Ahomari released an EP called “Girl Kiss,” a spacey combination of synth-pop and soul that came with a w…

There’s no better evidence of Boo Hag’s wild-eyed determination than “Ballads” and March’s “Burial Ground.” Listening to them back to back, you’d be forgiven for thinking they were by different bands.

The First Couple of Charleston folk-rock, Shovels & Rope, kick off the first run of shows on Nov. 14, and the rest of the lineup doesn't disappoint.

The band’s more intense tracks offer a welcome catharsis from the steady, thrumming dread they cast in relief.

Columbia singer, songwriter and guitarist Elaine Townsend took a break between her last album and her new EP. A 20-year break.

On its debut album, the married Columbia duo comes across as exactly what it is — nice, personable, immensely talented, and overflowing with potential.

On their second LP, Columbia’s E.Z. Shakes expand what they can be by getting closer to who they were in the first place

In describing itself with genre tags, the Columbia quartet Bathe nods to several immediately apparent strains of heavy metal — doom, grindcore…