New Wave revivalists who helped popularize the Saddle Creek label and Omaha, Nebraska music scene,
the Faint employ a rowdy amalgam of indie rock, dance-punk, and electro-pop. The sonic antithesis of fellow Saddle Creek alums
Bright Eyes --
Conor Oberst was a member when the band was still operating under the moniker Norman Bailer --
the Faint hit their stride in 1999 with the release of
Blank-Wave Arcade, which helped usher in a new wave of electro-punk. The band continued to deliver sweaty, floor-filling bangers that both raged against the machine and got the party started on subsequent outings like
Danse Macabre (2001),
Doom Abuse (2014), and
Egowerk (2019).
The Faint have gone through countless changes in their career, but with each shift, both in terms of personnel and style, they have made a distinct new impression and turned more and more heads. Originally called Norman Bailer and featuring
Clark and
Todd Baechle (later he changed his name to
Todd Fink, after marrying future Saddle Creek recording artist
Orenda Fink of
Azure Ray), as well as bassist
Joel Petersen, the group's early years were a mix of lo-fi pop and tongue-in-cheek easy listening with a few punk rock ideals borrowed from their early skateboarding days. Along with a prepubescent
Bright Eyes and a recently formed
Cursive, the band was one of the seeds that spawned the explosive Omaha scene as well as a flagship act for the highly regarded Saddle Creek Records.
A very limited cassette release and a few tracks on split 7"s and samplers were the band's only output, but the spark was there, and after adding
Matt Bowen to the mix,
the Faint proper first came into being around 1998.
Media, the group's first full-length, was still a far cry from their later sounds, but the record was a fitting introduction to the band that featured a bevy of conflicting sounds, from new wave-inspired pop to
Lullaby for the Working Class-style acoustic dirges. In the wake of
Media, the band set out to add something special to its live show, and in the course of the year,
Bowen left the band and
Jacob Thiele joined up to add the all-too-important keyboard sounds into the mix.
Early 1999 saw the band reenter the studio with a new agenda, focusing on danceable beats, catchy keyboards, and an '80s-influenced sound that both revered and reinvented the past. The result was
Blank-Wave Arcade, a pulsating record about sexuality, transportation, and mass consumption that instantly attracted hordes of new fans who were blown away by the group's distinctive new sound. The new material, along with a seizure-inducing D.I.Y. live light show and incorrigible on-stage energy, created a major buzz, and soon
the Faint were revered as the second coming of new wave. A series of remixes on both a limited-edition LP and a tour to support the album furthered the hype, and by the time
the Faint entered the studio yet again in early 2001, the buzz had grown to a resounding roar.
In August of 2001, the group released its third LP,
Danse Macabre, a somewhat darker exploration of the styles hinted at on
Blank-Wave Arcade. They also added a guitarist by the name of Dapose (born Mike Dappen), whose death metal past worked perfectly with the gloomy but still oddly upbeat sentiments of the new record. The effort was well received and quickly became one of the label's best-selling titles. The band followed it up with even more touring and also found the time to release the Mote/Dust 12" on the GSL label in October of 2001, featuring two more remixes, a
Sonic Youth cover, and a new track featuring
Bright Eyes songsmith
Conor Oberst.
The Faint were all quiet on the recording front until March of 2003, when they released an album of remixes from
Danse Macabre --
Danse Macabre Remixes. The disc featured remixes by artists like
Paul Oakenfold,
Photek, and
Medicine. They followed this up with their fourth studio long-player,
Wet from Birth, which was released in fall 2004. The band remixed "Meet Your Master" from
Nine Inch Nails'
Year Zero, while bassist
Petersen reworked
Of Montreal's "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games" under his
Broken Spindles alias.
The Faint then built their own studio, named Enamel, and formed their own label, Blank.Wav, on which they released
Fasciinatiion, their first full-length to be released outside of Saddle Creek, in summer 2008. The high octane full-length
Doom Abuse dropped in 2014, followed by the career retrospective
Capsule: 1999-2016 in October 2016. Longtime keyboard player
Jacob Thiele left the fold in 2016, making room for
Reptar keyboardist Graham Ulicny, who made his studio debut on 2019's
Egowerk, which marked the group's return to Saddle Creek. ~ Peter J. D'Angelo