Eight Track Mind | Top 10 "New School" Guitar Players

Top 10 "New School" Guitar Players

by Jaded Bitterman

**I mainly based this upon non-"classic rock" guitar players, so basically if you are a guitar player from after 1980.

1. Johnny Greenwood & Ed O'Brien (Radiohead)
These two play like one guy. The creativity of Johnny and the raw power style of Ed compliment each other like no other guitar duo of recent memory. The have it all: skills, songwriting ability, technique, uniqueness, and groundbreaking sounds. On the older stuff, they played like raw rock guitarists. On the newer stuff, they play like a Triton Workstation keyboard looped through a vacuum tube, mixed by Phil Spector and ingested by Tim Leary. Experimental playing at is best.

2. The Edge (U2)
I once read a great line that really sums up The Edge: "he's more unique than technique." If you're rolling through the radio stations in your car and you happen to come upon a U2 song, you know it immediately. Why? That reverb-laden, echo chamber, delay maniac The Edge. He takes 70's punk, 80's emo, 90's alternative, and Dylan-inspired songwriting and rolls it into a style perhaps the most unique on this list.

3. Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth)
No doubt the "hippest" players on this list. These New York bohemian Godfathers of noise rock deserve all the credit they get and then some. Legions upon legions of players owe a great debt to these two for turning feedback into a legitimate style and art form. Part Sun Ra, part Neil Young, and part Velvet Underground, these two don't write or play pop music, but their sound is as popular today is it has ever been. And yet most people still don't know who these two are. Shame on you!

4. Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave)
The same way Eddie Van Halen changed hard rock guitar playing with his unique "hammer-on" style and quick technique, Tom Morello forever changed the sound of the guitar. Completely reinventing the way the guitar is used in a rock band, Tom took the speed, scales, and showmanship of past greats and replaced them with unorthodox noises and an anti-guitar hero mentality. Mixing funk, rock, metal, and even hip hop into his playing, Tom created a new avenue for the guitar that is closer to DJ Premier than it is to Eric Clapton. One that wasn't solely based upon how fast you can play but how creatively you can play it.

©Steve Tackeff

5. Adam Jones (Tool)
If he walked up to you on the street you probably would have no clue who he is. Because his band's music is so dark, mysterious, and inaccessible to the pop ear, many people don't give this guy the credit he deserves. Multi, multi layers of guitars are found on most Tool songs, yet live he pulls it off flawlessly. He's "metal" without being "metal". A hard player who uses awkward time signatures, long song structures, and barely any solos will rarely get the limelight like other guitar players do. But listen to any Tool album and you will find that this guy takes it all to the next level and then some.

6. John Fruscianti (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest Peppers fan at all. But I gotsta give props where props are due. If for nothing else, his amazing songwriting and playing on Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic. A white boy who plays funk and doesn't sound like a white boy playing funk. Simplistic style with high-end energy, John is the driving force in the Chilli Peppers. I know Flea gets most of the props, but if you listen to the albums without him compared to the ones with him, there is no denying that John is a great guitar player and main reason why the Chilli Peppers still garner interest today.

7. Kirk Hammett (Metallica)
Talk about changing a generation of players. What Metallica and Kirk in particular did was change the face of heavy metal when it was needed the most. Surrounded by glam rockers, posers, has-beens, and wannabes, Kirk took the thunderous approach of heavy metal and mixed it with the speed of thrash and the time signatures of prog rock. Add in great song writing and structures and you have it. Kirk is one of the few on this list that actually still takes solos!

8. Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)
Almost feel like I have to put him on this list considering the tremendous amount of influence he has on an entire generation of anti-rock star guitar players. Kurt's greatest asset was his songwriting. Has anyone since Johnny Ramone taken the three-chord song to a greater level? Soft-hard-soft-hard-soft-hard formula has always been played out. But Kurt did it with a style and creativity that separated him from the rest. Countless rip-off bands have tried to emulate his formulated playing with little or no success. The "Smells Like Teen Spirit" riff is this generations "Smoke On the Water."

9. Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age/Kyuss)
Rarely do you hear Josh's name mentioned when talking about recent great guitar players. From his grudgy metal days of Kyuss right up to his more accessible, and slightly more poppy QOTSA work, Josh has proven again and again what a great songwriter, producer, and musician he is. As the leader of all these projects, Josh is a musician with a vision and a unique sound that is as much punk, metal, and grunge as it is folk and blues. His writing is very fluid at mixing the 70's stoner rock of Sabbath with such modern influences as PJ Harvey and Ween. Josh gets little credit for his production work and even less for his voice. But he deserves to be on this list cause he's a total knob-ripper-offer.

10. Al "U.S." Steele (The Black Hand)
Sure you've never heard of him or his arty-folk-alt country-rock-fusion band. But The Black Hand's "secret weapon" is undoubtedly just that: a secret, and quite a weapon. You don't want to call his guitar an "ax" cause he might actually have a real ax in his case, leftover from woodchopping, cabinet making, or "disassembly". Al Steele plays guitar like the sirens sing their songs. Combining silky smooth tones with the brutality of blistering lead solos that draw you in and makes it even harder for you to get out. Al takes the stage and the audience usually has no clue what their in for. "That dude looks like my 8th grade math teacher"; "who is that guy?"; "I'm scared!" are just a few of the comments you might hear spoken at one of The Black Hand's shows. But make no mistake folks, this guy tears up the guitar like George "the Animal" Steel (no relation) tears up the ropes.

Jaded Bitterman is founder and CEO of the Holy Shit It's The Fucking Feds Foundation which helps innocent victims of police brutality and wrongful arrest. He currently resides in Montana and is writing his memoirs about survival and the coming technology age.

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