I *knew* music for Beg Me For It was going to be tough

... but I had no idea how tough.

This is brutal. I'm looking for musical that cynical yet quirky. I thought I was on the right track with The Smiths, but while their lyrics are great, the music is just too... airy, detatched, happy in a miserable way.

I thought maybe The Ramones. But they're just too... bratty. And simple and direct. And violent.

So I checked out R.E.M. I have Losing My Religion and Orange Crush, but I'm not entirely satisfied.

Circle Jerks were action-clumsy. I tried X. Too modern. Pearl Jam. The lead singer's vibrato just doesn't work for this.

I tried Talking Heads. Swamp and Once In A Lifetime were sort of... but they weren't. Too much pep. Velvet Revolver, appropriate for SNAFU, not Beg Me For It.

The Smiths and R.E.M. come the closest I think. Any ideas?

ETA:

The Dandy Warhols!
There's a new R.E.M. option So Fast, So Numb.
I'm going to check out some early Clash.

There was a group that came out right around Soundgarden (mid-late 90's), but they were darker, with a heavier baseline. I recall a video of theirs had a macabre series of images of torture and dismemberment in claymation. There was a sort of resigned observant hopelessness to their lyrics. They're a major band... damn, what was the name?

ETA2: Tool! Thank you, aquatryst.

Now to check out Tool, Placebo, I'm definitely adding The Clash's Career Opportunities ("they offered me the office / offered me the
shop / they said I'd better take anything they'd got" -- ha!), and maybe Red Angel Dragnet, Complete Control, and What's My Name?, possibly Overpowered By Funk (these are hard to tell from 30-second clips, but the only Clash CD I own is London Calling). *back to scoping out music*