Major events and crises have a way of spurring artists to create responses. The current pandemic is no different, even on a local level.

Like the dark forces it often evokes, goth-rock’s names are legion — cold wave, dark wave, death rock and witch house, to name a few. Even pos…

There’s always a danger in waiting too long between records. Artists can change, or become plagued with self-consciousness, self-doubt, or mer…

Boo Hag, Burial Ground (self-released)

Give Eight Track Parade credit for ambition. With its second album, Babylon Gold, the Columbia octet transcends its ’70s smooth-rock and soul-…

Marcum Core (aka MIDIMarc), the ne plus ultra of Columbia’s beatmakers, is pushing 40. So it’s tempting to view Thirty Seven, which Core named…

On “Falling,” the opener to the second album from Charleston’s 2 Slices, leader Danny Martin delivers a verse that crystallizes the theme of t…

Experimental instrumental act Modalcoda has always been a bit of an enigma, referencing anything from Can to Black Sabbath, Miles Davis to the…

Aldean performed his song “Drowns the Whiskey” (the brown liquor references were mounting) and between the staff constantly coming to mop up spilled beers and a guy collapsing because he was completely hammered, this scene had to nearing its end.

Galaxy Chief, Dreadnoughtus (self-released)

Hot Lava Monster, The End Cometh (self-released)

There are just enough authentic touches to give it a human heartbeat underneath the programming.

Les Merry Chevaliers, Punque Vivant  (self-released)

Bruised Fruit, the sprawling debut from Columbia indie rock quartet Hold Fire, feels at times like a distillation of millennial indie rock as it brims with the eager melody and bursting dynamics of perennial favorites, without sacrificing the idiosyncrasies that mint cult-favorites. 

Is it still retro rock when some of the musicians involved have been playing around Columbia in various bands almost since it was new wave? In the ears of the listener, at least, the sounds on Lost In Time certainly place The Transonics squarely in the early-’80s college radio era. Chiming guitars, martial beats, gutsy female vocalist — it’s all there for your next Brat Pack or Valley Girl theme night. 

On Axattack’s new EP, Feasting on Violence, the instrumentals are firing on all cylinders throughout. The trio, singer/guitarist Alec Edelson, bassist Anthony Oliver and drummer Chris Crass, are an absolutely lethal unit on the four songs, playing with power, precision, volume and velocity.

E.Z. Shakes, Summer Cut (Pow Pow Sound)

Quinn Cicala, Talkin’ to Breathe (Shibby) 

Welcome to the era of Hootie 3.0. It’s complicated.

Quark Lepton, Beachcop (self-released)

Teiji Mack, Lavenders for Ty (self-released)

Dead Spring, Being Kind on Purpose (self-released)

MNRVA's Black Sky (self-released)

The Disquiet's Kingdom (self-released)

Ashley Wright and the Vance Gap Ramblers, too good to be true (self-released)

Hopscotch is hurricane-proof — at least when it’s a glancing blow.

This was Hootie Madness.

Longshot Odds, Circle the Drain (Dying Scene)

The Raconteurs, Jacuzzi Boys; Township Auditorium, Columbia; Aug. 20, 2019

Cloud Repair, Traumatic Design (self-released)

The Movement, Ways of the World (Ineffable)

The Witness Marks' The Witness Marks (self-released)

Goldenhostage, Learning for the quiet merge (self-released) 

A Spot on the Hill, A Need That Runs Too Deep (self-released)

Pray for Triangle Zero, Do You Have the Software? (self-released)

Mario McClean, LEARN (self-released)

H3RO, Misfits 4 (self-released)

Slush, Parallel Basements (self-released)

Various artists, 2019 SceneSC Sampler (self-released)

Skullduggery, Skullduggery (self-released) 

Sean Thomson, The Boogz (self-released)

New York Disco Villains, Love Ballads, Vol II (self-released)

Vortex of Old Men, Vortex of Old Men (self-released)

Shovels & Rope, By Blood (Dualtone)

Tokyo Joe, Live 5-5-18 (self-released)

Kenji, REFLECTION (self-released)

St. Pat's in Five Points; Columbia; March 16, 2019