The Faint

The Faint have always been ahead of the curve. Even in the mid-’90s, when the Nebraska band was coming up in Omaha’s folk-tinged indie-rock scene, they drifted toward post-punk and gritty electronic music that wouldn't become trendy until the electroclash boom of the early aughts. The trailblazers were among the first breakouts from the label Saddle Creek, and Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst was even part of the band for a time. They made a splash with 1999's techno-inflected Blank-Wave Arcade, which embraced lyrical sleaze and basement show grit on cuts like “Sex Is Personal” and “Worked Up So Sexual.” By 2001, fornication was out and death was in. Guitars were left by the wayside and sociopolitical songwriting had begun pouring out of frontman Todd Fink, propelling the group’s ghoulish, baroque follow-up, Danse Macabre, into underground classic territory. By the time 2008's arrived, the band was self-producing and self-releasing via their own label, which empowered them to remain boundary-pushing but also playful and absurd, even appearing as musical guests on children's TV show Yo Gabba Gabba! in 2010. With 2019's Egowerk, The Faint shifted their attention to the ever-encroaching apocalypse, unpacking the corrosive side effects of social media over a throbbing electronic palette perfectly suited to their chaotic wrath.