Rain
I'm an old fart now. I've recently come to the realization that I don't need really new music and started questioning the mentality behind this form of consumerism. which seems to have been made even worst in the age of the internet. Why the need to always have new songs to listen to?  IMHO, that's how music becomes irrelevant. Me, I need to grow fond of albums, to let them become a part of my life.
 
Pop music is a relatively compact and somewhat restrictive format - it seems a bit illusionary to think that we can keep on piling up song after song after song, decade after decade, w/o the well drying up a bit.
 
I see friends of ours putting out record and I keep asking myself - why? Do you really have anything to say, or do you simply want to have your album, to take your turn?
 
Furthermore, a lot of the new bands I would listen to are actually recreating what was done in the past - they sound and even look like transplants form the 70s. That's fine but personally, I don't need new pseudo-old music. 
 
There's so many things I've never heard going way back centuries ago. I find it sadder to think that I'll never had time to really get to know this or that pice of music by Schubert or Mozart than the latest bunch of pop songs, which are often only as different as one from another as Burger King from McDonalds.

Not yet you aren't... but I am!
I find I like pretty much everything that Counting Crows puts out. I especially enjoyed all the great covers on Underwater Sunshine and I saw a TV special where they played almost the whole Saturday Evenings and Sundat Mornings album... live, even on TV, they were great. However, pop... pop has always been disdained by older people.. always. However, this time it is deserved.
I feel for new artists, it is like everything good has been done. Artists 1969-71 just hogged pretty much all the good stuff. LOL.
Oh well... I listen to new music a lot on Spotify, playlists of things I haven't heard before. I skip a lot of songs but now and then I find a gem.. young man!
 
J

craigb
...
TransAtlantic (Progressive)
...

 
Their one piece with Jon Anderson doing Pt 1 of TFTO, is absolutely magnificent ... and even more amazing is watching a drummer, actually drum, and stick to it! 
 

I have to say, I really enjoy Spotify's new "Discover Weekly" feature. Every week they slip you a playlist of stuff their algorithms (or whatever) think you'll like based on your listening history. 80% of it is crap but over the last few weeks I've discovered quite a few new tracks and artists that I would never have discovered on my own. It's not all new music, some of it is older stuff. On Sundays I have a lot of paperwork and accounts to do and it's become a ritual to fire up that week's new Discover Weekly lineup. My philosophy is, if something makes me stop doing the paperwork and turn the volume up, it's worth saving. 

I recently ran into Fuel which is like a mashup of Live and Alice In Chains.  Really good stuff (if you're into that style).

I've found some fresh listening reading Mojo and Prog magazines. The included CDs are my favourite listening
nowadays. I've never gotten myself to get aquainted with any of the web music services, partly because the times I listen to music, computer is nowhere around.
 
But the point is, as mentioned in the posts above, to find something fresh, you need to actively search. The charts and radio stations will never give it to you. There's more music around than ever, also inventive, original, crazy...

igiwigi
on the American side I would say Chicago are one of the greatest USA bands,with lots of clever and enjoyable brass work.

 
Have you ever heard the Canadian band "Lighthouse"? They are from the 70's and very similar to Chicago in many ways - including the horn section. If you haven't it would be "new" to you even if it isn't recently recorded. "One Fine Morning" would be a good place to start.... follow it up with "Pretty Lady" and "Sunny Days" then take it from there.
 

Rain
... a lot of the new bands I would listen to are actually recreating what was done in the past - they sound and even look like transplants form the 70s. That's fine but personally, I don't need new pseudo-old music.

For me a good song is a good song, and a good sound is a good sound. I don't care when it was actually done. Your a transplanted Canadian.... have you listened to Saskatoon's "The Sheepdogs". It's a 70's sound that is really quite refreshing - IMO.
 
Sheepdogs - I Don't Know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvCq2hmlasM
 
 

igiwigi
Music today seems to be all the same and all tech and no inventiveness.
The other day I listened to the B side of the Small faces Ogden Nut Brown Flake and what a refreshing piece of Inventiveness.
 

couldn't disagree more.
 
there are lots of killer albums out there,
lots of folks getting 'creative',
but it doesn't sound like 40 years ago.
 
gotta open your mind.
 

As the populace gets dumber, so do the things they do.

Every generation has to face the fact that they are no longer relevant. Music has evolved/devolved but our taste in music gets formed early on. I remember the first Van Halen record came out and I told my pals "this will never amount to anything". Ya, right.

ampfixer
I remember the first Van Halen record came out and I told my pals "this will never amount to anything". Ya, right.

I felt so differently when I first heard it... as a 13 year old it was such a breath of fresh air compared to the disco that was ruling the airwaves at that time. 6-7 months later Dire Straits came out with their debut - it was an exciting time for a young guitar player still trying to form an F chord.