Guitars! Guitars!

So I'm browsing the internet just now, wanted some music to go with it, so I search iTunes and find my old (old!) fave... Van Halen! Haven't listened to Van Halen for ages, it's a bit embarrassing to listen to the stuff of teenage air-guitar wet dreams when I'm all grown up and sensible now (!). And this is OU812 -- yeah yeah, I know, Sammy Hagar (blurgh!) and all that, infantile lyrics, overproduced vocals, etc. But I put on a track I remember as cool, Cabo Wabo, and there's Eddie Van Halen, my childhood musical hero, sounding as awesome as always.

And so I come back to the question -- where have all the f**king guitars gone?! When was the last time you heard a really ball belting guitar solo? You can't hear it in anything recent, that's for sure. Not that I miss the screamingly tight jeans and poofter-hair (sorry, I'm Australian), but musicianship has just vanished from modern rock music. Well, except for Tool, maybe (who are surely the hard rock that Beethoven would be writing were he here today). I'd just like to hear some more rock musicians who know how to play their instruments well, is that too much to ask?