Oh man, dug into my wall of compact discs last night and got tangled up in my Friends of Dean Martinez discography from those dusty, mid ’90s.

I loved that band. It was such a departure from the “smash yer head on the indie rock” sorta rock that was my mainstay at the time. Lots of Sebadoh, Lips, Lizard and Dinosaur topped my list then. Here was this dusty, windblown, rattlesnake-bit, pedal steel stuff from Tucson, and, it opened a portal that introduced me to the likes of Giant Sand, Howe Gelb, and finally, Calexico, of whom, I just can’t enough of.

And of course some Scenic, too. That band is a whole ‘nother post. Phew.

What made me pick the thing up was simply the design of the albums. Beautiful, restrained typography and luscious Southwestern photography. Every font “fit” perfectly. It paid homage to some far away era, and for me, this was new.

And remember, this is at the height of all that horseshit, unreadable Raygun design stuff, right? Once I found out how “digital” all that stuff was, and could track the overlapped characters, it just felt, uh, gratuitous and bloated, and, quick. Anyway, back to Friends of Dean Martinez…

The designer was a guy by the name of Hank Trotter. Hell of a name. Mystified me. I’ve been on the lookout ever since, and haven’t heard so much as a blip. I remember hearing something about him being the “longtime art director” for Sub Pop or the Rocket or something. Maybe he’s the fella who brought in the insanely good Jeff Kleinsmith? Prob’ly. Timing sounds about right. Much, much enjoyment from these designers over the years. Tons.

I know this much, I love everything about these two albums, “The Shadow of Your Smile” and “Retrograde.” Heavily, heavily recommended.

There ya go.

- - - -

Some more vintage vinyl just to get you thinkin’.

- - - -

Hold up. All these juicy Flickr collections the last couple days are courtesy of the great Roadside Pictures. Basically, everything they touch is brilliant, and, quite the wealth of imagery. Thanks so much, and, bravo.