Stream: The Faint, ‘Chameleon Nights’

S.Lo on November 6th, 2018

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Ahead of their appearance at this year’s Cloak & Dagger Festival on Saturday, veteran Omaha synth punks the Faint (currently original member Todd Fink on vocals and keys, Graham Ulicny on backup vocals and keys, Michael “Dapose” Dappen on guitar and original member Clark Baechle on drums) have teased their first release since 2016, “Chameleon Nights,” out now on Saddle Creek.

The aggressive, industrial synth tune features a machine-gun-pulse and flourishes of recorded found sounds as singer/guitarist Todd Fink opines, “Chameleon light / You see the slithering war / If you don’t blend in, you’re in danger… Hot tub, cold blood our defenses up / Does everyone know you’re something?… The eye on the screen, you’re on grave attack … Unfriend, unplug, there’s a world outside / There’s a place we see eye to eye… Everybody’s talkin but we don’t know shit/ You fight at fightin, it’s a ego trip / It’s a video game and you’re an avatar / What you fake becomes what you are.” The song covers a lot of astute observations of how technology has maddened people’s sense of self, how we relate to each other and how we’re monitored and manipulated by the media we consume. When the band began in 1995, the World Wide Web was just beginning to unleash. With smartphones and apps of today, with its possibilities and its dangers, there’s a lot to be said about how people’s use of technology has changed how we relate to the world and our identities. “Chameleon Nights” seems to indicate there’s a war on sincerity and reality itself with the ability to manufacture an alternative of it onscreen.

||| Stream: “Chameleon Nights”