Two bands I know who are “Instagram famous” are The Brothers Comatose (Very bluegrass-y) and The Rainbow Girls (aggressively extroverted folk rock buskers). The two bands have actually collaborated once or twice.
Two of my favorites are Assemblage 23 and VNV Nation. They’re both EDM/Industrial bands, and both have been around for many years. If you like your stompy, beat-driven dance music to have intelligent and insightful lyrics (as opposed to being badly translated from German–I like those too, but the lyrics are hilarious!), these two are worth checking out.
VNV Nation - The Game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaV9geUFxbc
Assemblage 23 - Crosstalk (quite relevant to today’s reality): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=497GZcoZsA8
Some bands on here seem quite large for smaller bands…
But my list, from the UK, so unlikely to cross your paths, but melodic rock towards heavy rock…
From the US:
From the scandinavian area:
From Oz:
If you like Fishbone, check out Tropidelic from Cleveland area. They’ve been around a while, but just clawed their way up to headling their own festival over last couple years. They used to open for cover bands. They deserve their success.
Edit to add that they did a song with Fishbone.
QFT, but in that spirit, I’ll add some “small” international bands that have or might in the future tour in North America.
Jinjer - Ukrainian Metal
Eruca Sativa - Argentinian Hard Rock
The Warning - Mexican Hard Rock
And couple that would tour North America in a heartbeat, if only…
Grai (Грай) - Russian Folk Metal
Otyken - Siberian Folk Pop
Otyken are awesome! They make their own costumes, instruments, and are all self-taught musicians, aside from the nose singer.
Saw Btothers Comatose at Get Down, a super chill, family friendly festival out Amish Country couple years ago. It’s a very positive experience.
If this thread were started a year ago, my answer would be Angine de Poitrine. But they’ve become a lot bigger since then.
Yeah but I’d hardly call them that ‘small’, more like cult, I mean they have a documentary about them that makes them fairly large…
I saw Jinjer open for Babymetal, the Japanese all-girl metal band, a little while ago. Pretty good.
So good to see someone mention Tyketto and Massive Wagons. Absolutely love both of those bands, so I’ll be checking out all of the others on your list. I also add another vote for The Warning, I’ve seen them a bunch of times and it’s always a great show
They have certainly received a lot of attention in recent days! As I write this, I’m also watching/listening to this response video. I think they remind me a lot of Primus.
Flipper and Killdozer never got enough love back in the day.
I urge everyone to check out Madam Radar. They play all over Austin and Central Texas, but they also get in the van and venture farther out, even as far as both coasts and the Midwest.