If you're a fan of both badass guitarmanship and deep grooves, I can't recommend Songhoy Blues hard enough.

They have a new album out next week, but I'll include a live performance of their first track from their debut album (actually it appeared on a compilation before that) here as it is probably their most popular song (this version has Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs playing with them).



On where they come from and what not (cribbed from Wiki):

"Songhoy Blues is a desert punk / blues music group from Timbuktu, Mali. The band was formed in Bamako after they were forced to leave their homes during the civil conflict and the imposition of Sharia Law."

"In 2012, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) took control of the north of Mali. In turn, they were pushed out by Ansar Dine, a jihadist group which banned cigarettes, alcohol and music. Garba Touré, a guitarist from Diré, near Timbuktu, was forced to leave, and moved to Bamako, the country's capital, in the south. Together with Aliou Touré and Oumar Touré, they formed a band "... to recreate that lost ambience of the north and make all the refugees relive those northern songs." The three of them, unrelated despite the same surname, are Songhoy people. The name of the band comes from their ethnicity and the genre of music they play, 'desert blues'."