Minibill

While the baby born "new wave" is now old enough to buy a drink, it's a genre that has neither garnered much respect nor aged well. The flat, robotic phrasing of lead singers and the electronic blorts and bleeps emitted from synthesizer acts like Depeche Mode, Gary Numan and A Flock of Seagulls instantly conjure up the Big '80s. But now a newnew wave is emerging with twenty-something bands that aim to pay homage to, as well as to further evolve, the music into a more contemporary sound. The Faint, a quintet from the unlikely musical breeding ground of Omaha, is at the forefront of this movement with its latest release, Danse Macabre (Saddle Creek). In marrying new wave with a darker gothic sensibility, they manage to sound both retro and forward at the same time. Suicide, paralysis, violence and dronelike jobs are fit topics for their Aldous Huxleyfied world, which, if it were a movie, would definitely be filmed in black and white by a German director.