The Faith (American band)

The Faith
Alec MacKaye and Michael Hampton of The Faith, The Chancery, Washington, D.C., 1982
Background information
Origin	Washington, D.C., United States
Genres	Hardcore punk, melodic hardcore
Years active	1981–1983
Labels	Dischord
Associated acts	Rites of Spring, Minor Threat, Embrace, Untouchables, One Last Wish, Happy Go Licky, State of Alert, The Warmers, Void
Past members	Alec MacKaye Michael Hampton Ivor Hanson Chris Bald Eddie Janney

The Faith was an early American hardcore punk band, from Washington D.C., with strong connections to the scene centered on the Dischord label. Along with Minor Threat, The Faith were key players in the early development of hardcore, with a (later) melodic approach that would influence not just associated acts like Rites of Spring, Embrace and Fugazi, but also a subsequent generation of bands such as Nirvana, whose Kurt Cobain was a vocal fan.

The band formed as a four-piece in the summer of 1981 and featured Alec MacKaye, former vocalist for the Untouchables, on vocals, Michael Hampton and Ivor Hanson of Henry Rollins' first band, State of Alert on guitar and drums respectively, as well as Chris Bald on bass. They called themselves 'The Faith' and played their first show at H.B. Woodlawn High School in November '81. Alec described the name as "a positive kind of sound, not negative like so many others." "We felt that (The) Faith was a stronger-than-macho name. We did want something more hopeful and less nihilistic, in spite of our chaotic and sometimes destructive approach to performance."

Filling part of the void left by Minor Threat's hiatus, The Faith quickly became one of the most popular bands in D.C., and naturally signed with Ian MacKaye's Dischord label. After recording a demo in December 1981, the band released a split LP with fellow D.C. hardcore band, Void. It was released by Dischord Records, a local independent label founded by MacKaye's elder brother Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson of Minor Threat. The first pressing of the record sold out in two weeks. It featured the song "You're X'd," which addressed the straight edge philosophy popularized by Minor Threat and S.O.A. And at the same time it was a strong critic to the people that did not take the straight edge movement seriously and only pretended to follow it in order to sympathise with other people. The Faith members stated that they felt rather frustrated and angry because "people tend to compare the two sides of the record which is sort of dumb, we would have reviewed it as two separate bands—not comparing—instead of saying 'Oh, Void is so crazy and The Faith is just boring typical hardcore.'" "Our approaches to music were so different that there isn’t much point in comparing the two sides…they are never close enough to compare, only to contrast and to complement."