Try listening to The Tea Party, mainly Edges of Twilight and Transmission are good. Or you could just get their album Tangents which is a mix of most of their good stuff (although it falls short from some of the great stuff they have). Their new stuff is a bit more pop/rock but I think it still has a very nice sound (i.e. Seven Circles).

They are alternative rock, but have a very strong influence in middle eastern instruments and sounds.

Hmm, what else? How about... Alex Lloyd's 'Black the Sun' album, he's Australian so I don't know how you'd go at finding that album, but it's pretty damn nice. His newer CD which is self titled, has a similar sound but it's more pop than funk/rock.

I dunno, there's heaps of other stuff like Muse, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Days of the New, etc. Actually, I'd highly recommend listening to Jeff Buckley -- his voice is absolutely beautiful as was his talent for song writing. Grace album is defenately good, and you could check out Sketches for my sweetheart, the drunk. That one has some very nice tracks that were released after he died.

Edit: Oh, Elliot Smith is also pretty good if you're into the whole beatles/rock/semi-punk kind of stuff. So is Bob Evans.

And if you're ever into any fun ska, you could try Real Big Fish, those guys are pretty good, they do a nice cover for an 80's song I believe. XD