I recall Republica and sneaker pimps(seems like they are active again).

I never stopped loving Nina Persson and The Cardigans, they are great.
Of Saffron and Republica I just remember Ready to go, but I still like it.
From the '80s (actually the '70s in the first bands she played in) to the mid '90s I remembered a few minutes ago Lita Ford (I remembered her again after many years a few months ago reading about Joan Jett).

The only act I'm familiar with is The Cardigans because of Gran Turismo 2. "My Favorite Game" was the best song on the games soundtrack and featured in the opening movie of the North American version of the game.

This thread title encompasses like half the bands I still listen to, so you know I'll have more examples to add here! Great choices tho so far! In addition though...

Sleater-Kinney was mentioned, but less well-known are the original bands of their singer-guitarists: Heavens to Betsy (for Corin Tucker) and Excuse 17 (for Carrie Brownstein), both of which personally I find more enjoyable to listen to than Sleater-Kinney. Sleater-Kinney's stuff has a more polished type of vibe that I find somewhat less appealing than the amateurish charm of hardcore riot grrrl, complete with crashing guitars and shrill screams, as exemplified by the likes of Excuse 17 and Heavens to Betsy.

Here's one of my favorite Heavens to Betsy songs called Complicated. There's no music video because this was semi-underground stuff at the time:

And here's a live performance at New York City's CBGB by Excuse 17 and Heavens to Betsy from 1994:

I'd also like to mention L7. Even though L7 technically started out in the late '80s and is actually still going today, all of their best-known music is from the 1990s, so I'm counting them as a valid entry for this thread. It's all on the obscure side really, but not quite like Heavens to Betsy obscure. Like L7 gained enough circulation to at least have music videos and stuff. They've done a range of rock styles from grunge to punk rock to alternative metal. Everglade is among my favorite songs of their's:

Also, Bratmobile happened. Here's a concert from right after they got back together in 1999:

L7 is a cousin/sibling of Hole and Babes in Toyland. The group Sugar Babydoll consisted of Courtney Love (Hole), Kat Bjelland (Babes in Toyland), and Jennifer Finch (L7).

I got Cardigans wrong (seems they're still popular), so I might be wrong with this one, since I don't think many Americans were familiar with alternative outside of Mazzy Star and Smashing Pumpkins, as alternative music didn't really get big in the US until Nirvana in 91. Shoegaze/Dream pop emerged in the 80s and had a giant influence on 90s alternative. Dream pop itself emerged in the post-punk movement, and was brought to the mainstream by bands like Cocteau Twins and Siouxsie and the Banshees. My Bloody Valentine also exists in the world of Final Fantasy 7 - in the upper left you can see a poster for My Bloody Valentine and their 91 album Loveless.

Legend has it they recorded over 200 tracks of vacuum cleaners to make this song =)

This is great stuff!  I'm familiar with L7 but not the other bands.  This is the kind of music I like though, heavy distorted guitars.  Thanks for posting.

Here are a couple more.

1) The Sundays.  I still listen to them regularly.

2) Letters to Cleo

Not sure how this happened, but I forgot about PJ Harvey.  No one should ever forget about PJ Harvey!

This is my favorite song from her.  It is possibly NSFW.  (Really I wouldn't listen to most of the songs from this thread at work, but giving a heads up just in case.)

Liz Phair is another fierce female.

This list needs more Natalie is Freezing.

She's still pretty popular isn't she?