I STILL dont get shredders, I've been listening to Via for about 8 months now, and I dont get all the myandering.. yes, he certainly has some excellent riffs, but god, you have to sift through some real OTT crap to get to it.. but that's just me... The same with satch... It just feels so empty to me.. I do like the Zappa stuff though, it's more adventerous...
Dj's are cool i think... Admitidly the commercail stuff makes you want to slit your wrists, but the more indie stuff is cool (eg Dj shadow)... I think guitarists simply have to accept the mixing desk... the same way trumpeters had to accept the on comming dominance of the guitar... DJing isn't as actually as easy as it looks.. just watch grandmaster flash (that's not to say, that all djs are grandmasters)...
It makes you cringe to see bands like Linkin Park using the mixing desks, and getting a lot of attention... but there are still great groups who used desks for a long while, and have had some sucess like Massive Attack (Unfinshed Sympathy has one of the best intros i've ever heard)..
