You should totally Youtube Richard Thompson; even if you don't enjoy it, it's worth listening to.
Independent music just refers to the label. That they aren't affiliated with a label owned by the big 5, or whatever. I listen to all sorts of music that I'd label indie, almost exclusively in fact, but little of it would be garage band sort of stuff.
I used to explore allmusic.com for bands marked as similar to, or an influence on bands I already liked. It's how I got into stuff like Velvet Underground, Wire, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, David Bowie, Ministry, Roxy Music, Eno. List goes on forever really. Back in the day I just bought CDs. Now when I stumble across a name I look them up on youtube or iTunes or grooveshark or something.
That or friends post stuff on FaceBook. I only have a handful of friends whose taste in music I'll defend, but still.
Believe it or not, Radio. Local radio often has indie or local spotlight sort of shows. In my home town there's WORT which is listener supported community radio, and there's the college station. Like all music it's gonna be 95% stuff that just doesn't do it for you, but it's worth it because you listen long enough and you discover, say, Arcade Fire.
Try Pandora or Last FM or any music service the uses the Music Genome Project, through them I have found dozens of bands I enjoy that my local radio stations would never play.
In addition do a internet search for recording labels and then go to their websites and they will have free samples of their bands available.
Are any of you interested in independent music - garage band kind of stuff that doesn't get played on the radio? If so, how do you go about finding these groups/musicians?
I hang out in the Music threads and just look up whatever Mothman, The Eldritch Mr. Shiny, Houstonderek or Gark the Goblin are listening to.
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Meatrace is right. Radio, if you have a sufficient indie rating to find it, is very good. I listen to one of the state public broadcasting systems, which has three hours on each weekend night (and streams at all hours). Seattle has a good indie station - somewhere in the 90s - but I can't get it all the way down here.
I also check my local paper's Friday "Entertainer" section, which lists bands playing in the area in addition to its usual artsy semi-drivel. I really just check for my favourite bands, but if there's something nearby I'll at least walk by.
And then I get my Homestuck music fix every f~$%ing day (f*$~ing windows media player and three f&~@ing albums). This is more of an obscurity thing - it has a fairly large following within the Homestuck fandom.
Tumblr is also pretty good for music shenanigans. I bookmark Homestuck musicians and check out stuff they reblog.
And my cousin has a band that I've been meaning to give a listen.
Not quite garage bands, no, but still pretty obscure. I am, unfortunately, limited by my insane cheapskatery and the cost of my home wireless internet: I don't use iTunes or Youtube or even pirate or buy CDs. Therefore my habits are likely very atypical.