The Faint

The Faint helped put Omaha, Nebraska and the Saddle Creek label on the map with a rowdy mix of indie rock, dance-punk and electro-pop. They are the sonic opposite of their labelmates Bright Eyes, though Conor Oberst was in the band back when it was called Norman Bailer. They hit their stride in 1999 with Blank-Wave Arcade, which helped set off a wave of electro-punk, and kept making sweaty, floor-filling records on outings like Danse Macabre (2001), Doom Abuse (2014) and Egowerk (2019). Every shift in personnel or style has left a distinct mark. In the Norman Bailer days the group was Clark and Todd Baechle, who later changed his name to Todd Fink after marrying Saddle Creek recording artist Orenda Fink of Azure Ray, plus bassist Joel Petersen. Those early years were lo-fi pop and tongue-in-cheek easy listening with a few punk ideals carried over from their skateboarding days. Alongside a prepubescent Bright Eyes and a newly formed Cursive, they were one of the seeds of the Omaha scene and a flagship act for Saddle Creek. Their output amounted to a very limited cassette and a handful of tracks on split 7"s and samplers, but the spark was there, and after Matt Bowen joined, the Faint proper came into being around 1998. Their first full-length, Media, sounded little like what came later, gathering conflicting styles from new wave-inspired pop to Lullaby for the Working Class-style acoustic dirges. Looking to add something to the live show, the band saw Bowen leave and Jacob Thiele arrive with the keyboards that would prove crucial. They went back into the studio in early 1999 with a new agenda built on danceable beats, catchy keyboards and an '80s-influenced sound, and came out with Blank-Wave Arcade, a pulsating record about sexuality, transportation and mass consumption. Paired with a seizure-inducing D.I.Y. light show and relentless stage energy, it drew hordes of new fans, and a run of remixes on a limited-edition LP plus a tour behind the album pushed things further. By the time they returned to the studio in early 2001 the buzz was loud. That August they released their third LP, Danse Macabre, a darker take on what Blank-Wave Arcade had started, with new guitarist Dapose, born Mike Dappen, whose death metal past suited the gloomy but oddly upbeat songs. It became one of Saddle Creek's best-selling titles. That October they put out the Mote/Dust 12" on GSL, with two more remixes, a Sonic Youth cover and a new track featuring Oberst. March 2003 brought Danse Macabre Remixes, with work from Paul Oakenfold, Photek and Medicine, and their fourth studio album, Wet from Birth, arrived in fall 2004. The band remixed "Meet Your Master" from Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero, while Petersen reworked Of Montreal's "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games" under his Broken Spindles alias. They then built their own studio, Enamel, and started their own label, Blank.Wav, which released Fasciinatiion in summer 2008, their first full-length outside Saddle Creek. The high-octane Doom Abuse followed in 2014, and the retrospective Capsule: 1999-2016 in October 2016. Thiele left the fold that year, making room for Reptar keyboardist Graham Ulicny, who made his studio debut on 2019's Egowerk and the band's return to Saddle Creek.