The Faint, “The Geeks Were Right”
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Tour Dates 07/27/08 People’s Court Des Moines,IA
07/28/08 Ramkota Annex Sioux Falls,SD 07/29/08 Ogden Theatre Denver, CO 07/30/08 In The Venue Salt Lake City,UT 07/31/08 Knitting Factory Concert Boise, ID 08/01/08 Commodore Ball Vancouver, BC 08/02/08 Knitting Factory Spokane, WA 08/03/08 Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR 08/04/08 Fillmore San Francisco, CA 08/05/08 The Grand Ballroom SF, CA 08/07/08 Henry Fonda Theatre LA, CA 08/08/08 Henry Fonda Theatre LA, CA 08/09/08 SOMA San Diego, California 08/11/08 La Zona Rosa Austin, Texas 08/12/08 Palladium Ballroom Dallas,TX 08/14/08 Variety Playhouse Atlanta, GA 08/15/08 Cat’s Cradle Carrboro, NC 08/16/08 9:30 Club Washington DC 08/17/08 Trocadero Philadelphia, PA 08/18/08 Terminal 5 New York City, NY 08/20/08 Roxy Boston, Massachusetts 08/21/08 Opera House Toronto, Ontario 08/22/08 Vic Theatre Chicago, Illinois 08/23/08 Sokol Auditorium Omaha, NE 08/27/08 Thekla Bristol 08/28/08 The Ruby Lounge Manchester 08/29/08 Cargo London 08/30/08 Electric Picnic Dublin 08/31/08 Hydro Connect Festival Argyll 09/02/08 Rotonde Brussels 09/03/08 Doornroosje Nijmegen 09/04/08 Melkweg Amsterdam 09/05/08 Maria Berlin 09/06/08 Vega Copenhagen 09/07/08 John Dee Oslo 09/08/08 Debaser Slussen Stockholm 09/10/08 Den Atelier Luxembourg 09/11/08 La Maronquinerie Paris 09/25/08 Prince of Wales Melbourne 09/26/08 The Metro Sydney Discography
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Here’s a quick heads up for all y’all New Wave revivalists out there: The Faint (MySpace)
have a new album coming out in August, and have just released a track
from the album to whet fans’ appetite for speaker-bangin’ synthetic
goodness!
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Just in case you’ve been living in a cave or in suspended animation for
the last decade, The Faint have been around since 1998, when they
released their first album, Media, on Nebraska’s
indie superstar label Saddle Creek. Though that debut album was a
decent exercise in straightforward post-punk rock, the band really hit
its stride and began to define its sound with 1999’s Blank Wave Arcade,
which featured more synths and clearly indicated that though The Faint
were obviously inspired by early-80s New Wave acts like The Comateens,
Ultravox, and Eurythmics, they were a forward-looking band with their
MIDI cables plugged into the future, not a “retro” act as some claimed.
The group’s 2001 breakthrough album Danse Macabre and 2004’s Wet From Birth were massive, furious blasts of electro-punk that lit up dancefloors across the nation. But then…they just sort of…well, vanished for the last four years.
But now they’re back, and if their lead single from the forthcoming album Fasciinatiion (to be released on their new independent label blank.wav
) is any indication, they’re picking up right where they left off. “The
Geeks Were Right” is a thundering, bass-heavy assault of grimy synths,
grungy guitars, and skull-pounding beats populated with Todd Baechle’s
trademark tongue-in-cheek lyrics. “They’ve got modified features and
software brains / but that’s what the girls like / the geeks were
right” pretty much sums up and lampoons the new century’s cultural triumph of the nerd without resorting to typical indie-rock “irony.” The jam is strong with this one, folks.
I’ll be reviewing the entire album soon, but for now, “The Geeks Were Right” should be on your playlist right now.
The Faint have a massive tour coming up, too, with dates all over the map–including Europe.
Links:
thefaint.com
myspace.com/thefaint
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