Hailing from Arizona, Friends of Dean Martinez brings together musicians with past and present affiliations to Giant Sand, Calexico, and Naked Prey in a loose Southwestern alternative rock collective. Although Howe Gelb, the guiding force of Giant Sand, holds no official position in the band, he supplies guest keyboard parts on its first album, The Shadow of Your Smile. That release delivers an unexpected throwback through its guitar-centered instrumentals, rooted in the instrumental and surf rock sounds of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Blending lounge textures with desert country guitar twang, the music projects a nostalgic mood without pursuing outright revivalism. Bill Elm’s keening steel guitar leads the way, punctuated by found-sound elements and experimental passages that summon images of open, dusty landscapes through wit and a measure of tongue-in-cheek irony. The result stands apart from the frequently earnest alternative rock routes these players follow in their main projects. Retrograde arrived in 1997, with Atardecer following two years afterward. A Place in the Sun surfaced in early 2000. The band moved to Narnack for On the Shore in 2003 and Random Harvest the next year, while Under the Waves appeared on the German imprint Glitterhouse. Aero issued the live set Live at Club 2 in 2005.
