The Faint recently dropped their new album CAPSULE:1999-2016 on CD and digitally with the 2xLP due October 28 via Saddle Creek. This week the band shared the official video for “Young & Realistic.” The video was directed by Nik Fackler (Icky Blossoms, Sick Birds Die Easy, Lovely, Still) and The Faint’s Todd Fink.

CAPSULE:1999-2016 is a retrospective collection that represents a golden era for The Faint. The album includes 16 of their most beloved songs from five albums and is an excellent primer for new fans or a classic collection for those who’ve been nodding along since the Blank-Wave Arcade days.

The Faint’s is currently on tour with Gang Of Four and Brooklyn-based electronic artist Pictureplane. The tour will make stops in major cities including Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Los Angeles. The tour will conclude with a hometown show in Omaha on Halloween at Sokol Auditorium. The Faint will also be performing at The Growlers’ Beach Goth V festival taking place in Orange County, California. The festival will also include sets from Bon Iver, James Blake, Justice, Future Islands, Devendra Banhart, The Drums, Cold Cave, Wild Nothing, Hinds and HEALTH.

The Omaha-based band had been kicking around for four years prior to that period, but had a hard time hitting their stride. “We didn’t make anything we really liked until 1999,” frontman Todd Fink laughs. The Faint released some initial material that fit in with the times—reminiscent of the post-punk sounds of Fugazi and other Dischord Records bands—but wasn’t anything spectacular, lacking the distinct personality that would eventually come to define them.

It was in writing “Worked Up So Sexual,” the hit single from 1999’s Blank-Wave Arcade, that the band struck their jackpot moment. They discovered an entirely original fusion of synth sounds over a blaring rock background, one that was as catchy as it was danceable. Just like that, the Faint captured lightning in a bottle.

“I felt lucky… like, blessed or something,” Fink remembers. “By the time we’d actually recorded those songs, we were like, ‘Yeah, this is where it’s at.’ We were excited to go play basement shows and little bars and halls and just bring the music that we hunted down, that felt like us.”

Still reveling in the success of their newfound identity, the band added death metal guitarist Dapose and released, Danse Macabre, in 2001, one of Saddle Creek’s all-time “big three” albums, right up there with Cursive’s The Ugly Organ and Bright Eyes’ Lifted. It was a dark and sinister work that could still be enjoyed on the dance floor. Songs like “Agenda Suicide” and “Glass Danse” forced blasts of disorienting techno beats into aggressive, almost industrial noise that leaned heavily on filthy bass lines. The album exploded, and their weirdo melange of genres brought them a sizeable audience dancing along.

CAPSULE:1999-2016 Track List:
1. Glass Danse
2. Paranoiattack
3. Agenda Suicide
4. Mirror Error
5. Evil Voices
6. The Conductor
7. Desperate Guys
8. Worked Up So Sexual
9. Posed to Death
10. I Disappear
11. Take Me to the Hospital
12. The Geeks Were Right
13. Dropkick the Punks
14. Damage Control
15. Call Call
16. Southern Belles in London Sing
17. Young & Realistic
18. Skylab1979 (Bonus Track)
19. ESP (Bonus Track)

The Faint Tour Dates

09.30 – Chicago, IL @ Metro *
10.01 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall *
10.02 – Toronto, ON, Canada @ Velvet Underground *
10.05 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club *
10.06 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall *
10.07 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Trocadero Theatre *
10.08 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club *
10.10 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge *
10.11 – Atlanta, GA @ Center Stage *
10.13 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues *
10.14 – Dallas, TX @ South Side Music Hall *
10.15 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s *
10.17 – Scottsdale, AZ @ LiveWire *
10.18 – San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park *10.20 – Los Angeles, CA @ Mayan Theater *
10.21 – Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl *
10.22 – 10.23 – Santa Ana, CA @ Beach Goth V
10.23 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom *
10.25 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox *
10.26 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom *
10.28 – Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue *
10.29 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre *
10.31 – Omaha, NE @ Sokol Auditorium *
* with Gang Of Four & Pictureplane