What I'm saying is that those guys are innovators just like Hendrix or Clapton were in their time. They are pushing the technical, compositional, tonal capabilities of the guitar, except they aren't really recognized yet by the public... Steve VAI knows about those guys, he is trying to sign Freak Kitchen, and Ron THAL has recently had an appearence of Dweezil ZAPPA on his CD '9.11' I hope they will get the attention they deserve, because when the public knows about them, guitar will come back really hard in the music industry (not in the way of nu-metal band, but really like hendrix in his time, I hope)

Check out those sites
http://www.freakkitchen.com
http://www.ronthal.com

and a lick by Ron Thal I have contributed http://www.guitartricks.com/2000/trick.php?trick_id=3659