Here's a place I like to browse around in : http://www.archive.org/browse.php?collection=etree&field=%2Fmetadata%2Fcreator
For the melodic guitar laden music, I enjoy the Steve Kimock Band..

Wow, great site! I was listening to "Jimmy's Chicken Shack" for a bit. I've heard of them but I've never heard them. The Steve Kimock Band was very melodic and jazzy. Seems these days there are a lot of bands who's singers sound like they clear their throats with a garden rake and some napalm. The guitarist sounds like he uses a ball peen hammer for a pick. No soul, just anger. I like bands like Gov't Mule, Ozzy, etc. Something with a well executed guitar solo in there, and carries a decent melody. I'd really like the old bands to put out some new material and have the various media outlets give those songs airplay, instead of listening to the same "Classic Rock" songs over and over again. I'd also like to hear some new blood. Not necessarily playing their mom and dad's rock n' roll, something that's theirs but has that feel to it, that rock n' roll vibe, and I'm not hearing that these days. Instead you get some guy who has the fretboard gymnastics down, but also wears a KFC bucket on his head.

I hate to give the record companies all the blame so I will only give them most of the blame, the chase for the dollar has made the record companies play it safe, and the radio stations have followed and sadly the consumers seem to have no problem with all this. At a time when there are more styles of music, better musicians, and more avenues for that music to be heard the record companies and radio stations are not investing in new or old music only a few can't miss bands are getting the support they need. The old big bands are being pushed aside for the latest and greatest and if you are sitting on your laurals I have no problem with that but attemp to change styles or explore new concepts, experiment do all the things that keep music new and the record companies will not care until a new band takes those experiments and writes a hit around your work. In the area where I live there is a radio show on PBS for just a couple of hours every evening where the guy only plays new music, a lot of stuff that isn't heard much anywhere else and it doesn't matter if is stuff from old bands doing new music or new kids with new ideas plus he will play local guys if they have pro stuff they can send him. If you only listen to the top ten and only buy the top ten don't be surprised when there is nothing else.

I stopped listening to music on the radio a long time ago. I turned to the internet, my mp3 player, and CD's. I use Pandora to discover new music. Then I buy it and put it on my mp3 player. That way, I always listen to what I want to hear.

I have not sat down and watched more than about 2 hours of TV in a long time, then I get restless, pick up my controller and play FFXII or I pick up my guitar. I don't even watch TV unless it is on DVD. I don't like having my brain bombarded with advertisements, and such. I don't mind advertisements on the internet, for some reason. unless it takes over the web page and it won't load because of all the useless spam.

At the risk of offending some of the other members, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. These guys aren't Kiss or Alice Cooper. I can't understand what they're saying most of the time. Is this what passes for "Rock" music these days?

I've tried to embed what I consider the worst example, but in case it doesn't work..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrBONyFBePc

Most of it happens as social trends fade out. Luckily at my school and around my neighborhood Classic Rock has been coming back full circle. In Downtown Orlando we've had Creedence Clearwater Revival (Without Fogerty), Kansas, Three Dog Night, Grand Funk Railroad, The Grass Roots, Foreigner (With Jason Bonham), The Guess Who and Fleetwood Mac among others all here to play. Tons of people showed up.

Also The Eagles new CD sold pretty well and got good air play and most of the songs on the album were all great. The Eagles are still selling more shows than any new acts around now.

I saw Eric Clapton here in 2006 in the Orlando Magic stadium and it was packed. By far the best concert I've seen. Bob Dylan Came here too. B.B. King opened a new blues and jazz venue here and I saw him on opening night. Also Tom Petty released a new album not too long ago tat was great.

So classic rock is still there, but like always you have to go find it.

"rock" has been bastardized in my honest opinion. People put too much thought into rock as being about and attitude that it clouds the music and the thought of rock having to have crashing guitars is put at the forefront of everything.

Todays rock is far from the ideal "Rock" that I love in such groups as The Beatles, Zeppelin, Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and others.

I don't know Fred. I am hearing that the XM and SIRIUS networks are very classic rock savy. They dedicated one whole channel to nothing but Led Zepplin for 1 yr, if I'm not mistaken. I don't listen to the radio anyway, but the station we have on the Gulfcoast is called 97.9 CPR, and they play both classic rock and new rock. One minute you'll hear Rush and the next minute they are playing Stone Sour, so I think it's more of a regional thing. When you live amongst the country folk that I do, if they don't have classic rock goin' while they're drinknin' they aint happy.

I am a big fan of Mudvayne, but they are off the beaten path. I kind of like that though. I think of it as just another form of entertainment. But then again I like quite a number of bands that are growlers and screamers.

Well, to me Mudvayne is fine, if that's your thing. I'm not trying to trash anybody's taste in music. I've just noticed more of this type of thing creeping in. The Internet, XM, and SIRIUS are all new to me. I'm used to a certain format that had been around for nearly fifty years. In Baltimore stations like 98Rock seem to be playing a lot of the Nu-Metal, hip-rock, and guys who like to sing about suicide. It just seems so artificial to me. Times change, and that's the way it should be. Now I know how the 50's rocker guys felt when we were listening to Zepplen, and they just couldn't relate. They were the original deal, and we took our hard rock sound, (then anyway), and bastardized everything they started. Don't worry, it will happen to you too, LOL

I call this, the state of the instrument, not all new music is bad, alot of it is pretty good, I think that nowadays people dont want to hear 3 minute guitar solos like we did years ago when rock was king. I also think that the guitar or guitar bands are not as popular as they were, this maybe down to the devolpment of guitar tecnique with the rise of the virtuoso gurus of the 80's, this may have put lots of people off, having said this though I can listen to EVH without ever feeling fatigue, ying thouugh has a totaly different affect on me, 5 minutes and im turning it off. although sweeping is a great tecnique I think that its overdone. shred is dead and I think classic rock is dying. thats just the way of the world. out with the old in with the new.

I call this, the state of the instrument, not all new music is bad, alot of it is pretty good, I think that nowadays people dont want to hear 3 minute guitar solos like we did years ago when rock was king. I also think that the guitar or guitar bands are not as popular as they were, this maybe down to the devolpment of guitar tecnique with the rise of the virtuoso gurus of the 80's, this may have put lots of people off, having said this though I can listen to EVH without ever feeling fatigue, ying thouugh has a totaly different affect on me, 5 minutes and im turning it off. although sweeping is a great tecnique I think that its overdone. shred is dead and I think classic rock is dying. thats just the way of the world. out with the old in with the new.

I do miss the shred days. I hated the big, spray painted hair and the "look at me, I'm so damned cool!!" poser attitude. But not all of it was bad. If they had just toned it down a little, not stepped over the other band members. There were some real guitar innovations going on then. But it went way overboard, C.C Deville with a go-zillion fluorescent B.C. Rich guitars, what a joke, and then everybody rebelled. Nirvana tore it all down, and that was the end. Still, for a lot of guitar players, those were the days. The same thing happened with Disco in the late seventies, and I hated, I mean HATED disco! People got fed up with guys like Steve Rubel(sp) picking certain people out of the crowd, while they stood in the freezing cold, idiots! That's when the American punk scene got started and CBGB's became the place to go.