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

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

I second the Elvis Costello recommendation.

Maybe Richard Thompson, if he's not too flat-out melancholy?

Robyn Hitchcock has a lot of stuff that fits that description, though maybe he's just too weird?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Elvis Costello's a great idea. Can you think of someone who has his attitude, but who rocks out a bit more? Costello's like Lou Reed. You feel like you're reading his personal journal when you hear is songs, but it gets in the way when the song's supposed to be about Ron.

I don't know either Richard Thompson or Robyn Hitchcock, but I'll check them out. I mean, melancholy might just work. I was, after all, going to resort to Leonard Cohen (okay, he has the same problem I have with Elvis Costello and Lou Reed). ;)

Icarus