Marc, ola! It's been a while, if not forever. Good to see your voice. I'm not allowed to mention "that group" for a little while (I'll give it two weeks) but I will say that "the guy you mentioned" was a phenomenal and uber-influential player and writer. If you look at The Band I Can't Discuss from a pure musicianship perspective, it's the guitar of Your Guy and the bass of My Guy that are standouts, that shape the sound of the band. Less so the Other Two.

And Ihate to dwell on old music even an instant longer, but I wanted to say thanks to Derek and Kyle for impassioned feedback on OMD...I have truly changed my opinion on them - have found and listened to "Arch and Mor" two nights in a row. It's an outstanding record, unlike their later work which I really (still) don't like. It's the spareness and "modern-ness" of the sound that grabs me, and the synths really stand out as a more experimental instrument - ie their use of them was promiment and somewhat exaggerated versus the smoothness / lushness / popiness of later recordings.

Re Bill F, I raised him because he is a frustrating musical personality for me. He comes from jazz, but has a ginormous range of styles that he incorporates into his recordings, not to mention his approach to the instrument. So unlike say John Scofield, whose pure playing isn't all that different, I find Frisell very difficult to pin down and make a "like him / don't like him" call on. I like Scofield, btw. I have a few albums, mostly from the late 90's onward. I like Blues Dream and one called with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones (both from early in the decade), I'm less thrilled with later work History Mystery, which is (and this would be my major coplaint of the man) absolutely all over the place. Still I have alarm bells inside me that remind that frustrating listening often equates with genius, so wanted to get other opinions. And Stu, is "not a headphone band" an insider term for he's crap? Banal? Not worth exploring? All of the above?

Re new music, what have ya'll downloaded with this month's emusic? Or better yet, bought in an actual store?