Firstly, I'm feeling what dHarry said when he said if you are going to mention a list one bands, say a little bit about them. The whole point behind this thread is that many people have no idea who the fuck you are talking about.
I suppose going into this I figured that a lot of the bands mentioned (pretty much all of them except the Klaxons so far) would have some kind of avant-garde/high-art edge to them. This makes sense to me, and I never really doubted going into this thread that the more esoteric, artsy shit probably has a thriving scene.
However, being a DJ, and somewhat a utilitarian in my music tastes, I am particularly interested in common people music. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like a trend in new underground rock music is to sound obnoxious or willfully obscure (a la Gang Gang Dance, Xiu Xiu, Animal Collective, whatever...). Even in indie rock it seems the whole idea of having anyone in your band who can actually do their job well (i.e. a GOOD guitarist, a GOOD drummer, a GOOD singer, etc.) has gone out the window. Indie rock and a lot of art-school bands have a really amateur feel to them, and I can't get down with the lack of professionalism because in many cases it seems like they are bad without justification. Just lazy. This seperates them from amateur music that I actually do really enjoy like earlier punk rock.
It feels like rock music bothers me right now the way that visual arts are in how it seems to have just lapsed into self-indulgence, which is strange because so many indie rockers are now shockingly extolling the values of Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado. Why is there seemingly no good rock bands in this vein of music?
I am a fan of hip-hop, grime and that kind of shit, so I am used to bands with very direct language. So I sort of like the whole "mention Tescos in your lyrics" thing, which is why out of all those new indie rock bands that sort of sound the same, I sympathize with the Arctic Monkeys. I'm sure there are fans of rock music out there who don't want to go to a concert and have their ears obliterated by the next White House-influenced, wall-of-noise, neo-no wave art schooler outfit.