Creative Edge Music

Celeste Buckingham In my usual perusing of YouTube, I stumbled across some really good music by Celeste Buckingham that completely took me by surprise.  After a long night out with a coworker, I wasn't expecting to come home to find a new musician with such authentic music. That's what strikes me the most about Celeste's music: it has a very "real" and authentic element to it.  The sound is very true, passionate, and trustworthy if that makes sense.  I am not hearing anything fake or overly produced; rather, it's just all raw and real goodness.  And while I've captioned this article as "Next Pop Star", I'm not entirely sure Pop is an accurate label for her music. Her music certainly does have pop elements, but there is a lot of pure singer-songwriter stuff going on, too.  Perhaps the most impressive part of the whole deal is that this girl was born in 1995, and at the time of this writing she is not yet eighteen years old.  He...

I have been playing BOSS pedals for years now.  They are very reliable, well-built, and perform pretty much up to their stated specifications.  Like others have said before me, they are built like a tank and withstand extreme abuse, stage use, etc.  In my life, I've never had an issue with a Boss pedal breaking down, shutting off, or deteriorating in quality. Furthermore, while no pedal is cheap, they tend to be a great value at the price point.  Pretty much all their newer stuff is digital (some older stuff is analog, though... and if you're into that, you can get the old versions on eBay). The only problem is that a lot of their pedals simply lack the warmth, character, and tonality of more refined (and less commercial) boutique pedals.  Maybe it's because Boss pedals are mostly digital, and buffered (not true bypass), or perhaps it's simply because of the quality of the parts used in production.  Then again, perhaps it's the engineering and design -...

Orange Amplification’s Custom Shop Series represents over forty years of master craftsmanship, creating and building the very best Orange amps in limited quantities that have become much sort after and critically acclaimed. The launch at winter NAMM 2013 of the Custom Shop 50 is the culmination of their years of experience and expertise. The new amp offers the finest in hand-wired, point-to-point workmanship and the definitive British Rock amp. Each of these amplifiers is an individual masterpiece, built to perfection using only the highest-grade materials and components. Beautifully crafted in the Orange custom shop, this amazing amp is full of wonderful, powerful sounds, all with that hallmark Orange tone. The amp can switch between 50 watts class A/B and 30 watts class A. The 30-Watt Class A mode has all the jangle, chime, and clarity you could ever want in an amp. Flipping the switch to the 50-watt Class A/B mode unleashes one of the most inspiring British Rock expe...

Shooting to bring back the Bay Area punk scene, Global Affront from San Francisco smashes and snarls their crowd away every show.  Global Affront has been playing since 2009 and play a wide range of punk from sounds like Green Day ’s Dookie-era upbeat alternative, to NOFX ’s bratty, fast-as-hell irony, to Bad Religion ’s complex melodies and lyricism that deal with politics and social justice. Their first song, “ When the Riots ”, was written in 2009 as a response to the riots in Oakland, CA after the rise in police brutality.  In 2011, they released " Global Affront EP ", a 4-track EP that set the bar with their fast-tempo melodies of “ Ready, Set, Go! ” to the intense call and response chants of “ Rally Up. ”  In 2012, Global Affront released " Another F*cking Global Affront EP ” that raised the bar with the pounding drums of “ Raise the Flag ”, the hardcore snarls and critique of the state of the USA in “ Dead America ”, and their catchy ode to the generation ...