Daniel Ash

Mark Lightcap.

superslacker wrote:Uli Roth formerly of ScorpionsI'm not a massive UR fan but I found this rig rundown highly entertaining!phpBB [media]At 30:43 he talks about guitarists in the '60s barely being able to play but sounding good and these days players who can "shred like hell" sounding awful.

Donald Roeser Buck Dharma from Blue Oyster CultAndy Powell from Wishbone AshPiggy from VoivodMichael Schenker formerly of UFODavid St. Hubbins/Nigel Tufnel of Spinal TapYanni Papadopoulos from Stinking LizavetaAndy Partridge/Dave Gregory from XTCMassimo Morante from GoblinUli Roth formerly of Scorpions

Nice!

None of these choices are surprising if you know me, I guess.Steve Austin (Today Is The Day) - man, can he play. He almost never solos, but when he does (a few instrumentals on the debut, the "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" cover off Temple), it's an interesting mix between standard metal shred and Robert Fripp, and playing as many riffs as he does, as precisely and quickly as he does, while absolutely screaming his larynx out takes a lot of skill. I seriously wish I could play that well. He's a metal guitarist that got totally warped at some point along the way.Nick and Scott (Toupee) - one of the best bands going right now, absolutely. (Unsure if they'd want their last names here, so I didn't include them. Yes, I am friends with them, we like each other's music, and we have played many shows together. So I am biased.) They really work together well as a guitar team, and often it's hard to tell who does what, but Nick is the more effects-happy, "lead" player and Scott does a lot of the rhythm and/or "noise" playing. Extremely creative, smart, unorthodox playing and songwriting.Dustin Rose and Greg Packet (Drose) - Boy Man Machine still destroys me. They make noise together that's as bleak and beautiful and innovative as anything I can think of. Hellish anti-harmonies and noise as inhumanly mechanistic and shrieking as gears grinding together. I haven't ever heard guitar music quite like that before. Game-changing. I guess it's weird to put forum members on here, but so what.Chris Woodhouse (Mayyors) - If there's ever been a real heir to Helios Creed, it was Woodhouse throughout the Mayyors catalog. Taking that mindbending style and expanding on it with hardcore speed and truly twisted songwriting/hook ideas was a real accomplishment. I really wish Woodhouse would record and play live again. Still some of the best riffage I've heard in years.Ian Logan (Hoax) - Logan essentially had two things in his favor: total chainsaw guitar tone and an insanely unhappy chromatic riff-writing style that is still individual and recognizable. For anyone in punk rock to come up with a signature style of riffing this late in the game is pretty amazing.Kevin Whitley (Cherubs) - an obvious influence on my playing. The shotgun spray of noise and hooks has always worked for me, and will continue to if I start to mix it up more often (which I will).Liz Harris (Grouper) - she is inspiring. Her music doesn't foreground guitar, and she gets exactly what she needs out of it. Just astoundingly beautiful, and painful, and complex at her finest. "Living Room" is a deeply moving song. Incredible drones as well, though whether they're strictly guitar-generated or not is anyone's guess (mine is that they aren't, but I don't know).Rikk Agnew on the first Christian Death album - there are so many brilliantly warped lead guitar moves on Only Theatre of Pain. I've always loved it. Plus, he had the best use of overfried/overmodulated chorus or flange that I've ever heard, along with Keith Levene. I have copped a similar sound at times because of those two.Matt Johnson on the first The The album - his approach to guitar layering was so revolutionary for me. The constantly shifting, strange guitar playing on Burning Blue Soul still just blows my mind. Brilliant use of guitar in the service of mood and texture while (importantly) always serving the songwriting. Songwriting is what it's all about, anyway.Jason and Eugene from bbigpigg - if you ever wanted to put the Jesus Lizard together with Arab on Radar, they did that for you. Some very, very creative and odd approaches to guitar tag-teaming over a bruiser rhythm section. And they seem to get better when they get less melodic, which is often a good sign. I particularly like it when Eugene turns on the pitch shifter and Jason breaks out the slide.Probably most of these people are unknown instead of underrated. But, them's the breaks. If I could do something on guitar as well as any of them, I'd be a happy man.

jtyler wrote:How about XTC's Dave Gregory? I'd classify him as another "deceptively good" guitarist.'Underrated' in the sense that he/they are not widely appreciated, but it doesn't take long to figure out that he's incredible. I've covered a lot of damn songs at this point, and XTC would be near the top of my "oh crap, I'm gonna have to work hard at this" list.That reminds me: both guitarists from Big Country are quite good and that was tougher to cover than I imagined it would be.

Mike Keneally. He may be guilty by association if Zappa isn't your thing but he's a fantastic musician with quite an eclectic cv. Seems to be a pretty cool guy too.

Dude from Arbouretum is really subtle, and you just know the motherfucker can probably shred but doesn't. Love his guitar playing. Even the D&D lyrics do it for me in this context.