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

[icarus]

... 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*

Comments

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

I might have said Squeeze, but if Talking Heads are too peppy, then they're right out.

How about Elvis Costello (something early, but not too early...like, maybe from Imperial Bedroom or Spike?).

Ian Drury? Nick Lowe? John Doe (without the rest of X?)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I checked out Elvis Costello, but I had to nix him for the same reasons I nixed Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen (though I might revisit Cohen for the right song) -- they're just so... present... in their music. You don't think of Ron, you think of Elvis or Lou singing this to you.

Ian Drury? Nick Lowe? John Doe?

I'll check them out. I was also thinking maybe Morrissey from The Smiths, but he does tend to hit one note over and over in his songs, and that doesn't fit Ron.

The hunt continues...

Icarus