For Miami students who are looking for some new music to add to their summer playlists, Redhawk Radio is offering a solution. This Wednesday, Redhawk Radio will be hosting a free spring concert featuring the bands Argonaut & Wasp and Cross Country. The concert will run from 8-11 p.m. in the Armstrong Student Center in Pavilion C.
Argonaut & Wasp, the headlining band at the concert, is a four-man band hailing from Brooklyn, New York. The four members, Trey Schibli, Theo Klein, Alec Donkin and Chris Corsico, create their music using a combination of physical instruments and a synthesizer. Their music gives an alternative, chill vibe.
Cross Country is a local band comprised of four Miami students, Ezra Saulnier, Thomas Meyer, John Clooney and Emily McColgan. Formed in 2015, their music has an indie rock sound.
"[Our music] is definitely made to be performed live," said Saulnier, Cross Country's lead singer and guitarist. "It's a lot more simplified than a lot of electronic music -- it uses a lot of guitar, so it can be performed live and is a bit more easily digestible."
Jason Tulloch, a senior analytics and finance major who is a member of Redhawk Radio, coordinated the spring concert. Tulloch chose these bands to introduce the Miami community to an up-and-coming band while offering a local taste as well.
This is the first free spring concert offered by Redhawk Radio, said Claire Stemen, a senior english major who is involved with Redhawk Radio. According to Stemen, the expected crowd will be around 150, so this concert will certainly call some more attention to the local music scene.
"We want to get to a point where we can have a spring music festival here every year, like the one they have at Ohio University," Stemen said. "We just need enough interest in it that the university will back it."
The purpose of this concert is two-fold, said Madeleine LaPlante-Dube, another senior english major involved with Redhawk Radio. The mission is to give Redhawk Radio more of a presence on campus and to introduce a larger portion of the Miami community to local and upcoming music artists.
"There's this unique, underground music culture at Miami that really is overlooked by many in the Oxford community," said LaPlante-Dube. "Our goal is to bring some more awareness to the local music scene."
Redhawk Radio's Free Spring Concert offers an important opportunity for local and underground music to be celebrated.
Saulnier also says that supporting the local music scene is a crucial thing to do.
"It's important that if you're doing something locally, that it gets some sort of recognition," he said.