Sure, 90% of what's famous internationally comes from the US and the UK, with a good number of exceptions from Canada and Australia, and very few European names out there, even fewer from other countries.
As an Italian, I feel some bands here would deserve international exposure, and would deserve to be regarded as great bands as much as the native-english speaker breeds.
For example them, Massimo Volume, a band with great muscians. They play this jazzy post-rock, having a sound which might be similar to Slint or Karate, yet clearly their own.
The bass player is also the "singer" who performs these amazing spoken lyrics, which unfortunately for you are in Italian, but they are some of the most poetic lyrics out there. I love his simple take on bass, he and Vittoria, the drummer, form a great rhythmic spine to the beautiful melodies of the two guitarists.
This is their latest single, from the new album they recorded after a ten years break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNQfnns99gE
An old classic of theirs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhYss...eature=related
Or the great Verdena, which will have their 5th album out soon. A three-piece rock band with a muscial palette that goes from psychedelic rock to noise to stoner to grunge to acoustic pieces.
The bassist is definitely not about technique, but she wrote some great basslines, this is one of my favourite ones, from the second album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nocgBj9uMI
Very psychedelic.
This is their cover of the Cream's Sunshine of Your Love, that appears as a b-side on one of their old EPs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoyrYekriSk
The singer's english is terrible. But it's a good cover IMO.
A more recent song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbIo_8qwIX0
A different story is that of Uzeda, Sicilian just like me, who are more famous in the US than here. They recorded 2 albums with Steve Albini and played with many great bands.
this is almost the complete "4" EP (just 3 songs out of 4 here)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOpi1stvgbE
All three bands are amazing live bands, they give it all on stage, and great songwriting is involved. Yet, they stay in the shadows.
