This forum is rather diverse in geographical location, so I figured you all might know some really excellent artists from your area that for some reason don't receive any blog love or exposure.

I will start off with a plug for Denver's tremendously underrated Ian Cooke. I am not a personal friend of his, and I don't have any affiliation with him, but I just think he is criminally overlooked. I don't have any download links, since I bought his album from a local record store, but there is his myspace, and iTunes. And here are two mp3's.

Ian Cooke- Music
Ian Cooke- Trouble Process Report

Stylistically, the easy comparisons are Final Fantasy and Andrew Bird, since he uses loops and his cello primarily.

Anyone else have some bones to pick with the blogosphere concerning a lack of coverage for local artists?

Im partial to LA's the French Semester who are green but make some fucking good songs like the shins

I pasted there link HERE.

One of the most accomplished local artists around the valley here are the duo the Lymbyc Systym. While not indie rock by any stretch, I feel the need to plug them because I think they are doing some wonderful things and I haven't seen them covered by many blogs. (If you have seen them and dissagree perhaps you should point me to a great music blog)

Homepage:
http://lymbycsystym.com/

Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/thelymbycsystym

I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure Jglass wrote something on the Lymbyc Systym in his blog at some point.

as far as the LA music scene is considered, HEALTH is pretty incredible. upon first listen it is very obvious that they are influenced by bands of the liars and boredoms ilk. there album, released recently, should be generating more buzz than it is.

wow, ian cooke is pretty awesome.

especially "the rot"

what else is good from denver? i have never heard of bands coming from this city.

i live in DC (obviously, my screen name), but baltimore actually has a bunch of great punk/noise bands. check out the following:

ponytail (http://www.myspace.com/jreamteam)
double dagger (http://www.myspace.com/doubledaggersucks)
thank you (http://www.myspace.com/wethankyou)

ponytail is garbage. worst live show i have ever seen.

quote:

Originally posted by krugulitis:
as far as the LA music scene is considered, HEALTH is pretty incredible. upon first listen it is very obvious that they are influenced by bands of the liars and boredoms ilk. there album, released recently, should be generating more buzz than it is.

I like the album quite a bit, but I think it's WAY too short for it's own good, it's like you get one really good, fun idea only to see it cut short within a minute. It's almost infuriating.

And I don't know, I think Ponytail is pretty good. At the very least they are good musicians with a pretty large amount of energy. Sure their lead singer is annoying, but they're mostly instrumental anyway.

Hey! I like this thread. As noted below,
V
I'm from Greeley. I'm just starting to meet some people who are doing exciting things with and for music in Denver, as well as Northern Colorado (Ft. Collins especially).

Denver:

Widowers - Think about what the Clientele might sound like fronted by James Mercer of the Shins. plush psychedelic pop. really nice!
Widowers' music

Picture Plane is a one-man progressive house/dub project. Excellent stuff.
picture plane music

Fissure Mystic are post-prock. Tons of fun to watch and hear. Unfortunately I think they're on an indefinite hiatus at the moment.
Fissure Mystic (AKA Mr. Fishstick)


Ft. Collins:

The Good Ole Fashioned Sinners comprise a Foco band I've had the privilege of seeing a couple times. They migrated to Fort Collins from Chicago. Great guys and a great band. I'm having trouble knowing how to describe them. The songs sound oddly familiar to me, but have also have an uncanny edge to them. See? I have no idea how to describe them... Check it out for yourself:
Good Ole Fashioned Sinners

The Black Apples are another transplanted Fort Collins band. Everytime I see them they make huge strides in their sound. These guys are well worth keeping an eye out. classic pop-rock cum new wave goodness!
the Black Apples

Greeley:

Vitamins - I think almost all of these guys have moved down to Denver, but they started in Greeley. Anyway, Vitamins are a little alt-country and a little straight up indie.
Vitamins Music http://www.myspace.com/vitaminsband

Oh, and my band Lil' Slugger is OK too, if you're into that kind of thing. ..see link in my signature.

These bands are probably but a small cog in the larger regional musical wheel, but I hope you find something you can tap your toes to in their somewhere.

quote:

And I don't know, I think Ponytail is pretty good. At the very least they are good musicians with a pretty large amount of energy. Sure their lead singer is annoying, but they're mostly instrumental anyway.

Lil' Slugger was fortunate enough to open for Ponytail in Denver. I thought the vocalist (Molly) had a great manic stage presence and the band had crazy technical and melodical skills. I wish she did more of her thing on the record. However, I can't help also wishing for a bass or something to fill out the lower end instead of two guitars and a cat/pig/squirrel being gutted before your very ears. it got a little shrill for my taste at times.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: V,

This thread made me look into my local scene a bit more, so thank you for making it

This list by Cokemachineglow pretty much covers most of the Iowa City music scene, most of which isn't spectacular, but not bad: http://www.cokemachineglow.com/scenecast/no3iowacity.html

I really like what I've heard of Caleb Engstrom. "Nothing Cloud Lion" is a nice folk track that really showcases his vocals. http://myspace.com/calebengstrom

I also like The Envy Corps, an indie-rock band vaguely recalling Coldplay from nearby (or about 2 hours away) Ames, Iowa: http://myspace.com/theenvycorps

Representing the great Minneapolis area, I present for your consideration

Weaver at the Loom

City of Sound

And, for good measure, some pop in the form of...
Sing It Loud

Hope everyone enjoys

I should know more local bands in the San Francisco bay area than I do, but for now I'm very much a fan of

Odessa Chen, whose new album is terrific and will make my top 20 list for the year i think

and

Tarentel, whose latest album is very strange and and abstract, and was first put out only on vinyl, but is now out on cd in a limited edition release

I don't know, but you posted it this week? This thread is four days old.

No, many moons ago. I skimmed through all my old posts and couldn't find it. Oh well, perhaps it was all in my head. Wait, is metacritic all part of my imagination too? I must have one fantastic imagination...

Anyways, I'll be back to this post later, once I re-evaluate some local bands.

Check out these guys, they recently got back from independently touring the states about 2 or 3 months ago, they are local to Melbourne, Australia, AWESOME band, I’ve seen them live several times.

www.nitidus.com.au
www.myspace.com/nitidus

If you’re looking for unsigned bands, I suggest you have a seriously look around the Melbourne scene, it just keeps growing and growing, week in week out rehearsal venues are jam packed out with more and more local bands, and venues all around Melbourne have been booking more original live acts then ever before.

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If you’re into good old fashioned Heavy Metal, these guys are also awesome!

www.unknownaddiction.com
www.myspace.com/unknownaddictionband

The bassist in this band is nuts, he uses a 7 string Conklin and plays it like a god, it’s crazy, it has 2 jack outputs and splits the 7 strings into 2 halves which run directly out of the bass in stereo.

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If you’re into “Progressive Metal”, you should seriously check these guys out. I only recently saw this band live, seriously these guys are only just barely 18 years old, and as much as I hate to admit it, these guys are probably one of the best live acts I have ever seen on the Melbourne scene. I very, very rarely see a band that has everything so together, even from bands that have done the hard yards, let alone a band with members as young as these guys.

www.myspace.com/showcard
www.showcardrock.com.au

Their stage presence was phenomenal, the lead singer has an excellent voice and also plays all the soloing of which his guitar technique was astonishingly good and worked awesomely with the rhythm guitarist, the bassist and drummer were just as skilled, and the entire band from the word go just rocked on so hard but with such grace.

Over all, they’re a very impressive band. I haven’t heard their recordings on their Myspace, but I’m not sure if it does them justice based off what I’ve been told, but keep checking in on their page, as I spoke to them after their performance and they’re currently recording.

In response to krugulitis, who asked for more Denver music, Matson Jones are good. (I like bands with strings, alright)
DeVotchKa , of Little Miss Sunshine fame are a great band that gets pretty good press. For Hip-Hop, 3OH!3 are pretty awesome, but not really underground indie rock. They are blowing up, and the word on the street is that there is a major label bidding war going on for them. I wrote about them here.

In my opinion, The Welcome Kit is phenomenal! Super creative. Fun, poppy, hip hoppy, it's got it all. Check it- www.myspace.com/thewelcomekit

I imagine seeing them get pretty big pretty soon. Thoughts?