Headphones

ASSORTED DECLARATIONS BY STAFF WRITER TOM GRAHAM

Last call
This is the final notice for solo artists and bands looking for exposure and a place to perform their original music. This is the last call to all original bands in northeastern Pennsylvania looking to enter to win an opportunity to deliver your original music during a busy Friday night in downtown Scranton. The electric city and Scranton Cultural Center’s Listen Local Series is a music showcase highlighting the area’s best and brightest upcoming original acts. Listen Local is currently accepting submissions for opening acts for its 2012-2013 season. The series will consist of four shows featuring two bands performing in The Scranton Cultural Center’s Shopland Hall on First Fridays in October, November, April and May. The opening act will have the opportunity to play a 60-minute set before the night’s headliners take the stage. All solo artists or groups submitting music to the contest must have 60 minutes worth of original material in order to be considered. All ages are welcome to enter and, again, only original music may be submitted for consideration. The entries will then enter into a juried competition with the semi-finalists facing off in a public vote through electric city and the Scranton Cultural Center’s website. When all is said and done, four finalists will be selected for the series. Past performers have included: Rogue Chimp, Langor, Nowhere Slow, Jeanne Zano Band, Bobby Davis and the Smartest Man, Harmony Constant, Red Blue Green, Aayu, MiZ and Ashes for Trees.
The deadline for submissions is Monday August 13. Visit www.scrantonculturalcenter.org/listen-local-call-to-artists for proper instructions regarding submissions. Take a chance and enter the contest. Maybe you’ll land an opening slot and your music will fill the hallowed halls of the Scranton Cultural Center. Get going and good luck.

How many do you need?
After what seems like a month of packing and unpacking, my belongings are finally tucked away into their new home. Among the records, books and bikes are guitars, guitars and more guitars. Some of them I know I will never play again; some just need a little tender loving care before they come out of retirement. Most will live out the rest of their instrument lives being supported by wall hanging systems of sorts on an office wall, not only as decorations, but as little time capsules. I not only remember acquiring each guitar, I also recall their different personalities and technical problems. One acoustic guitar still has some blood-stained wood and I’m pretty sure I broke at least one of its strings every time I touched the poor thing. Another is just a cheap jazz guitar I picked up while I was living on the west coast. It sounded like a construction site when it was unplugged, but found its true voice when paired with a bright purple NAMM series Marshall Amplifier. I consider myself the furthest thing from a hoarder, but when it comes to guitars, sometimes it’s just too hard to say goodbye. Some may be cheaply constructed, full of scrapes, dents, buzzing and nearly impossible to keep in tune, but every one of those woodboxes still has a song to sing that’s all their own.

Here’s what’s in my headphones this week: Radiohead Kid A (Capital) 2000

Send email to tgraham@timesshamrock.com