The Faint
The Faint
Omaha, NE's the Faint have gone through countless changes in their
relatively short 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 current members 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 Peterson, the
group's early years were a mix of lo-fi pop and tongue-in-cheek easy
listening with a touch of 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. It wasn't the perfect record, but it was an inspired
start that gave the band a good idea of what they were, and more
importantly were not, striving for. In the wake of Media, the band set
out to add something special to their 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 re-enter 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 (Saddle Creek), 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 genius. A series of
remixes on both a limited-edition LP and a tour to support a CD from
Insound 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
(Saddle Creek), 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 disc
was released to instant acclaim and almost immediately became one of
the label's best-selling titles. The Faint followed it up with even
more touring and also found the time to release the Mote/Dust 12" (GSL)
in October of 2001, featuring two more remixes, a Sonic Youth cover,
and a new track featuring Bright Eyes songsmith Conor Oberst. The band
was all quiet on the recording front until March of 2003, when they
released an album of remixes from Danse Macabre called, strangely
enough, Danse Macabre Remixes. The disc featured remixes by artists
like Paul Oakenfold, Photek, and Medicine. They followed this up with
Wet from Birth, which was released in fall 2004.