I’ve told friends that I prefer shopping for used music because I can still beat iTunes prices and not sacrifice the physical product—the visuals and liner notes that accompany vinyl or CDs. (In fact, the MoMA has a great exhibit of new wave/no wave/punk album art up now, according to former C-VILLE writer John Ruscher.)
Given the right price, it’s possible to score good visuals with local audio purchases. And, much like the Richard Crozier and Edward Thomas collectors in our midst, I enjoy seeing a local artist’s perspective on or inspiration taken from a local band. For my money, nobody does better work than Thomas Dean.
Many of you have seen Dean on bass with The Invisible Hand, or handling guitar duties with Order. But Dean has also issued a collection of prints during the last few years that has grown more cohesive, and increasingly symbolic of a local and regional emphasis on the best parts of D.I.Y.—use of the stuff at hand, simple items and materials made severe through combinations and layers.
I asked Dean a few weeks ago to send some of his album art my way, and he obliged—the work isn’t strictly his local stuff, but you’ve seen plenty already between his efforts for The Invisible Hand, Borrowed Beams of Light and The Nice Jenkins. (Thanks, Thomas!) More on Dean’s work in next week’s C-VILLE; in the meantime, take a gander and leave comments about your favorite local album art.
The Carlsonics, self-titled (2003)
Nethers, What the Wind Will Never Tell (2007)
The High Strung, Ode to the Inverse of the Dude (2009)
Borrowed Beams of Light, self-titled (2009)
The High Strung, poster