south carolina

Album Review: Ruba Say and the Cosmic Rays

by Kevin Oliver

I wrote some words about the new album from legendary SC rocker Ruba Say; He will be playing Art Bar in Columbia this Saturday night and also appearing live on air with The Columbia Beet show on WUSC-FM 90.5 this afternoon.

via Ruba Say and the Cosmic Rays’ self-titled album | Music | free-times.com

SceneSC 2017 Sampler Shows Depth, If Not Diversity

by Kevin Oliver

scenesc 2017

The yearly compilation of music from South Carolina bands from SceneSC has become an annual tradition, a barometer of sorts for local music. This year’s continues the trend of introducing new and unreleased tracks from many of the artists involved, some of which will be heard here first before inclusion on a full length album of their own later.

If there’s a complaint, it’s a minor caveat that SceneSC tends to the indie rock side of things, with nary a heavy act, country crooner, jazz artist, or hip-hop MC anywhere near this. That’s their right, of course, and SceneSC has never claimed to speak for the entire South Carolina music community….but given the bully pulpit the blog/site has established it’s a missed opportunity for major segments of the scene, especially since there really isn’t an equivalent blog or site doing anything remotely similar to fill in those gaps.

Our favorite tracks: Numbtongue’s gurgly, trance-like “MosesBones”, She Returns From War’s stately, resigned yet hopeful-sounding “Fruit of the Night”, the understated grandeur of Yosef’s “Elise”, and Dylan Dickerson’s raw strummer “Seasoned Veteran.”

Yours? listen at the link below:

 

Those Lavender Whales Streaming New Album on Goldflakepaint blog

by Kevin Oliver

Love to see SC bands getting widespread attention; the April 7th release of the new Those Lavender Whales album is garnering accolades already and you can now hear the whole thing streaming online here:

via Album Stream: Those Lavender Whales – “My Bones Are Singing” – GoldFlakePaint