To my shame I missed Russian duo I am the Morning off my list of discoveries (but I have mentioned them several times elsewhere ).
 
Their music has been discribed as "chamber prog" but it defies a narrow genre classification.
 
https://soundcloud.com/iamthemorningband
https://iamthemorningband.bandcamp.com/
 
I just received the latest copy of "Prog" magazine with the results of the 2016 readers poll and I am pleased to see Marjana Semkina picking up both female vocalist and woman of the wear awards and piano player Gleb Kolyadan coming second behind Marillion's Mark Kelly in the keyboards award. Gleb's piano playing is sublim, the band are well worth checking out even if you would not normally listen to "prog".
 
 
 

Animals As Leaders.  They are an instrumental progressive 3 piece band and they sound amazing.  I've never heard music like this before, 8 string guitars, played that way.  Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes are phenomenal players, each on their own.  Crazy time signatures they all play so fluidly, and the drummer is not a tom obsessed player either, very percussive and groove oriented, tight and tasteful.  
 
It's great fun to listen to, and the writing is really good.  Might take a couple listens to unpack it all, but it's addictive - be careful.  
 

 
 

jamesg1213
One of my favourite 'discoveries' from the last couple of years is Bros. Landreth. I'm not a huge country fan but I like it when it leans more towards 'Americana' and these guys are just brilliant at that.
...

Very nice.
 
Just one funny thing, and I have not heard anything else by these yet on purpose ... it reminds me of Bob Weir's first album when he put together "It looks like rain", and Jerry Garcia decided to practice his steel guitar, and one comment at the station in Santa Barbara was ... now the GD is doing country music! 
 
It's just really nice stuff .. and has less to do with country and anything else, except those folks expression. Just the thought of "country", actually turns me off listening to it, but I trust the words of the folks here and listened to it ... and it was very very nice! I actually thought of Paul Simon some while writing this up, and that's not country!

I just got back from a couple of weeks away, behind the wheel most of the time.  Armed with XM I did a lot of intentional searching/listening to things I normally wouldn't listen to.  Nothing made me want to hear more. 
Nothing.
 
There was one tune that got my attention, I don't remember the name, but as soon as I looked at the dash and saw "Butthole Surfers" I immediately changed the station and gave up.
 

Keep looking, there are nuggets of good out there!
 
(Oh yeah, and don't judge bands simply on their names.  I have several albums from the Butthole Surfers, the F*** Buttons, Bongwater, Bondage Fruit, Alien Sex Fiend, Bare Naked Ladies, Dead Kennedys, Incredible Expanding Mindf***, Kick Bong, Birth Control, CinderVOMIT, Circle Jerks, Club 69, Garbage, Lucifer's Friend, Orgasm Death Gimmick, Premature Ejaculation, Purple Helmets, Rotting Christ, Satan's Pilgrims, Sex Gang Children and the Sex Pistols just to name some, and excluding a few that most people didn't realize were crude like Thin Lizzy and Steely Dan).

Kyu Sakamoto, relatively well known for Ue O Muite Arukou.
 

 
Fantastic Japanese crooning :-)

craigb
 
excluding a few that most people didn't realize were crude like Thin Lizzy and Steely Dan).

 
[rock trivia nerd] Steely Dan, yes, but 'Thin Lizzy' were named after a character in UK comic 'The Dandy' called 'Tin Lizzie'. It was a kind of backwards joke because Irish people often pronounce 'thin' as 'tin'[/rock trivia nerd]
 
 

So the female toy was named after the band then? 

I've discovered tons of music during the last year, but none of it is very new. I think the only contemporary is Pigovat's Holocaust Requiem...
 
I became a HUGE fan of Penderecki and Lutoslawski.
 
Alexander Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 9 (Black Mass).
 
François Poulenc.
 
Also - Harry Christophers and the Sixteen. I love choir music, especially the darker stuff. I bought 3 or 4 albums of theirs last spring.
 
And many, many others.
 
Otherwise, I'm happy just listening to KISS. :P
 
EDIT - How could I omit possibly my absolute favorite: Beethoven's Late String Quartets. How have I managed to live up to 44 before I discovered those?!

Rain
 
I became a HUGE fan of Penderecki and Lutoslawski.
 

 
Aren't they that Polish Country and Western duo?