note: misanthropaganda is so much more fun when you view it on your desktop or laptop. Your tablet is fine I guess, as is your phone, but for full enjoyment and understanding of the artist's (ha ha) vision, take my suggestion. It gives the posts a look that's a bit more reminiscent of an old 90's fanzine layout, which is the whole point of this bullshit blog...
I really like The Faith. Their split LP with Void is definitely among the first vinyls that I ever got my hands on. I have mentioned before how unfortunately I paid this classic collectors item very little mind. (Well, this and Alec Mackaye's other band that succeeded this crew, Ignition.) It's just that I discovered this band a decade after the fact (in the early '90s) and there was just so much going on musically across the genres at the time that any dope band could have gone by unnoticed. Also, I had drank the '90s Hardcore Kool-Aid around that time and this band's sound was not what I was really looking for back then. I would now like to conjure the old idiom/cliche': "Better late than never!"
In an earlier post, where I had reviewed a laundry list of Dischord releases, I described the Faith and/or Void as having a non regional tone, in other words they pre-dated such a thing as the 'DC sound'. I then went on to insinuate that the DC sound was not truly born until the "Revolution Summer". Well, I'd like to offer a retraction because having paid much closer attention to The Faith's Subject To Change EP I have now come to realize that I was wrong. So now, I'd like to retract my earlier comments and replace them with a new outrageous claim. The DC sound was already present on Subject To Change. This EP has all the elements such as the introspective lyrics and traces of melodic intent (thankfully not melodic overload.) Quite frankly I was a fool to have let it slip by my stiff little fingers (reference!). My apologies!
The Subject To Change EP is where The Faith came into their own as a band. While their demo cuts and the songs on the Void split are all formidable pieces of work, they weren't really offering something too unorthodox musically as opposed to their contemporaries. I feel that Void got the most attention from that release with The Faith, and the reason why is because Void was just on some other bizarre type of shit that made a lot of people say "what the fuck was that", whereas The Faith was still doing Hardcore by the numbers (step one, step two and step three now chorus and then repeat.) Had The Faith have come on that split with their true sound, the emotional and impassioned sound of this EP, I think The Faith would have had a lot more attention
Now I view The Faith a little differently, having assessed the fact that they already had the blueprints in their clutches for the DC thing when they dropped this EP. It makes me reconsider them to have been a lot more influential to that town's musical shenanigans then I previously thought. (Dag Nasty and Dag Nasty derivatives like Samiam owe their entire existence to this Subject To Change.) I now can also see how immensely the work of Alec Mackaye influenced an old favorite band of mine called Turning Point. In hindsight I can hear a lot of The Faith's tricks pop up here and there in Turning Point jams, and also as I've mentioned before, Turning Point did record a cover of "Anxiety Asking" by Ignition (Mackaye's other band, post-Faith).
So don't be a smelly little pink, don't stop and think, just hit the link to Dischord Records and hook up all The Faith's shit. Yes, the whole shabang, the Void split and Subject To Change. Come on, don't be a tightwad, you probably spend more on product for your neckbeard than what these joints will cost you. Move!
(The feminists are going to love the "smelly little pink" reference...)
And if you really want a dope enhanced listening experience, put this in your shopping cart too while you're at it... Banned In D.C., the book, was first introduced to me in eighth grade by this kid named Rene Garcia. Rene was probably the third person I met who was into punk. Anyways, this book is a collection of photos, show flyers, and written anecdotes from lots of people that were there in the wee '80s when that shit went down, everybody from Ian Mackaye to HR of the mighty mighty and a whole lot of other DC musicians of bands you millennials may never have heard of before. The book has lots of dope action photographs from DC shows featuring all the City's usual suspects: Henry Rollins and S.O.A., Minor Threat, Government Issue, Void, The Faith, Youth Brigade, Teen Idles, Iron Cross, Black Market Baby, blah, blah, blah, I mean the list goes on and on... the scene was that populous! Cop the book, it'll blow your mind how vivrant the scene was.
Back in eighth grade, my biggest takeaway from the book was the fashion. I developed my "Punk look" based off of what the kids in this book were rocking. I ordered this book recently for old memories and with the intent of using it as a coffee table book. I have to tell you, just relaxing on the couch with a joint listening to The Faith and Void (or any old DC band really) while viddying (Clockwork reference) the Banned In D.C. book simultaneously is so relaxing and such a cool enhanced listening experience that I highly recommend this weird kind of Hardcore meditation. The book is great, definitely a great coffee table book for useless old retired Punks like me. I tried to see how many hot chicks were hanging out at DC shows based on the photographs, but pickings were slim, fellas. Better head south to Atlanta if you're looking for some top-shelf tail muchachos...
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