Faint

You know the remix craze has gotten out of hand when bands on Omaha’s indie/emo stronghold Saddle Creek Records start hiring superstar DJs and other electronicists. The Faint’s members just couldn’t leave well enough alone; they had to dole out tracks from 2001’s Danse Macabre to Paul Oakenfold, Tommie Sunshine, Junior Sanchez, Photek and others so they could turn most of them into banal disco fodder for super clubs. The Faint’s spindly, new-wave electro pop loses its charm if merely used as raw data onto which DJs can throw crowd-moving beats. In this context, Faint singer Todd Baechle’s strained whine comes off like a poor man’s Simon LeBon. Only Ursula 1000’s funkified mix works, propelled by a choppy guitar figure and a cowbell pattern from Lipps Inc.’s “Funkytown.”