The Shins are originally from Albuquerque...if you haven't heard them, you need to...NOW
Stoic Frame is almost like Mars Volta, only they don't jam randomly for 20 odd minutes www.stoicframe.com has some mp3s you can legally download.
Left Unsaid is pretty good, a notch above most bands of the day...they kind of remind me of lostprophets...www.leftunsaid.com is their official site, and www.purevolume.com/leftunsaid has a song to download, and 3 streaming songs
your saying jerry cntrel from alice in chains is not real music i maen i can understand putting down the other bands becuese you are not into heavy music but saying jerry cantrel is not real music is absurd
plus they also have
misfits
killswitch engage
nickleback
diecide
fear factory
sepultura
type o negative
Fear Factory released Archetype through Liquid8 not RoadRunner, as Road Runner didn't want to keep the origional contract. oh and i heard great things about Glassjaw, bought "Everything You've Ever Wanted To Know About Silence" and must say apart from Ry Ry's Song, what a peice of shit that album is. their other albums had better be better, i'll have to listen to Worship and Tribute (i think thats the name)
i live in the south jersey area so there are millions of local bands... most of which are signed to small local labels. like if you live in my area there is at least two dozen emos bands... then if you travel to philly of camden county there are all ska/punk bands. this of course not including the other random acts going on. the local scene in this area is probably the only reason why im still here.