Kit Warchol (senior, ECLS)

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Lindsay Palmer’s opinion piece, “KOXY Spins Good Vibrations,” was obviously much appreciated by the KOXY staff. Palmer concluded with the following summation: “Oxy students need to get more involved in this unique college experience of sharing music. KOXY shows are easily one of my favorite parts of this campus, and I love being a part of one.” Because Palmer’s piece focused solely on radio programming, I want to point out that “KOXY shows” are not solely limited to our on-air schedule.

Last week, local darlings Nite Jewel and Weave! played an absolutely free show in the Cooler. The turnout of Occidental students was pathetic despite extensive advertisement and a long list of RSVPs. Nite Jewel (a band which incidentally includes in its ranks a recent Occidental grad) toured with Glass Candy this year, played sold-out shows at South by Southwest and in front of packed audiences at the Smell, and has been featured in various music magazines as an up-and-coming-group-to-watch.

We are a small campus and a small radio station in a very large, sprawling city. But believe it or not this reality actually lends itself to some positive outcomes: KOXY has the opportunity to schedule shows with bands, DJs, and musicians who are about to become kind-of-a-big-deal.

The station’s staff spend most of their free time at local venues around the city, finding new music that is different and, quite frankly, often better than mainstream alternatives.

In the past five or six years, the following acts have played on campus to embarrassingly small crowds: No Age (Hello? Have you even been able to buy tickets to a No Age show recently?!), Mika Miko, Pocahaunted (open frequently for Sonic Youth, featured on the first cover of the new L.A. Record and twice in Nylon Magazine. Are we insane?!), YACHT, and We Are Scientists. And right now, this year, we have a great deal of programming in the works that promises to be just as interesting. Can we alter this overwhelming ambivalence, please?

If you haven’t heard of the bands you see on our posters or Facebook event invites or Twitter posts, trust me, you should hear them, and you will hear of them very shortly when the make it big and you no longer have the opportunity to see them for free. Seriously. We’re bringing the Los Angeles (and beyond) music scene to you. Come to the shows.

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