The founding members of indie rockers Palaxy Tracks -- Jason Masters, Greg Wallace, and Brandon Durham -- originally came together in Austin under the name the Seven Hundred Club in late 1995. Recording mainly at people's homes and in bedrooms on eight-track recorders, the group released a self-distributed demo. A short time later, the three were joined by Todd Roberts on bass and Nathan Roberts on drums, having previously played all the instruments themselves. In the few months following the addition of the

Brandon’s an outstandingly talented developer, a thoughtful and constructive collaborator, ten times the designer that he thinks he is, and just one of my favorite people. I count myself immensely fortunate that his sensitivity to typography brought him to Hoefler&Co (typography.com), where I had the pleasure of working with him for seven of my company’s most energetic years, and I’m happy to call him a friend. Over these years, Brandon was instrumental in the design and development of not only typography.com, which underwent both evolutionary and revolutionary changes, but also the award-winning and influential discover.typography.com, which raised the bar for typography in the browser. Brandon took the reins of our SaaS product cloud.typography.com, and was an absolutely critical part of my team that was charged with creating an elegant front-end to conceal the massively complex set of decisions required of a sophisticated font library. Behind the scenes, Brandon dealt smartly and confidently with the demanding back-end integrations of two different content management systems, a best-of-breed CDN, and a sophisticated internal CRM that he designed while tackling the public-facing websites at the same time. I was always grateful for not only Brandon’s talents and energies but his ideas and opinions, his honesty, his good humor, his eagerness to simultaneously explore new technologies while committing to time-tested ones, his patience with the limited resources of an established company (bootstrapped, profitable, old-school), and his camaraderie with a diverse group of colleagues. I know him to have been both a generous collaborator and a good friend to the many designers, developers, engineers, managers, and typeface designers he worked with at H&Co, and I’d recommend him without hesitation to absolutely anyone with the good fortune to be consideri

Brandon’s an outstandingly talented developer, a thoughtful and constructive collaborator, ten times the designer that he thinks he is, and just one of my favorite people. I count myself immensely fortunate that his sensitivity to typography brought him to Hoefler&Co (typography.com), where I had the pleasure of working with him for seven of my company’s most energetic years, and I’m happy to call him a friend. Over these years, Brandon was instrumental in the design and development of not only typography.com, which underwent both evolutionary and revolutionary changes, but also the award-winning and influential discover.typography.com, which raised the bar for typography in the browser. Brandon took the reins of our SaaS product cloud.typography.com, and was an absolutely critical part of my team that was charged with creating an elegant front-end to conceal the massively complex set of decisions required of a sophisticated font library. Behind the scenes, Brandon dealt smartly and confidently with the demanding back-end integrations of two different content management systems, a best-of-breed CDN, and a sophisticated internal CRM that he designed while tackling the public-facing websites at the same time. I was always grateful for not only Brandon’s talents and energies but his ideas and opinions, his honesty, his good humor, his eagerness to simultaneously explore new technologies while committing to time-tested ones, his patience with the limited resources of an established company (bootstrapped, profitable, old-school), and his camaraderie with a diverse group of colleagues. I know him to have been both a generous collaborator and a good friend to the many designers, developers, engineers, managers, and typeface designers he worked with at H&Co, and I’d recommend him without hesitation to absolutely anyone with the good fortune to be consideri

Brandon’s an outstandingly talented developer, a thoughtful and constructive collaborator, ten times the designer that he thinks he is, and just one of my favorite people. I count myself immensely fortunate that his sensitivity to typography brought him to Hoefler&Co (typography.com), where I had the pleasure of working with him for seven of my company’s most energetic years, and I’m happy to call him a friend. Over these years, Brandon was instrumental in the design and development of not only typography.com, which underwent both evolutionary and revolutionary changes, but also the award-winning and influential discover.typography.com, which raised the bar for typography in the browser. Brandon took the reins of our SaaS product cloud.typography.com, and was an absolutely critical part of my team that was charged with creating an elegant front-end to conceal the massively complex set of decisions required of a sophisticated font library. Behind the scenes, Brandon dealt smartly and confidently with the demanding back-end integrations of two different content management systems, a best-of-breed CDN, and a sophisticated internal CRM that he designed while tackling the public-facing websites at the same time. I was always grateful for not only Brandon’s talents and energies but his ideas and opinions, his honesty, his good humor, his eagerness to simultaneously explore new technologies while committing to time-tested ones, his patience with the limited resources of an established company (bootstrapped, profitable, old-school), and his camaraderie with a diverse group of colleagues. I know him to have been both a generous collaborator and a good friend to the many designers, developers, engineers, managers, and typeface designers he worked with at H&Co, and I’d recommend him without hesitation to absolutely anyone with the good fortune to be considering him for a project.

The fish are still biting at your spot. I didn't tell anyone where it is.

I keep finding your notes in old books. Little hellos.

Thank you for the courage you lent me. I'm still using it.

The porch light stays on. Just in case.

Saved you a slice.

Still the best advice I ever got: go anyway.

I never told you this, but the note you left on my car the day I got the bad news is still in my glovebox. It just says 'You've got this. Call me.' I did call, and you picked up, and you didn't say much, which was exactly right. I read that note whenever I need to. It still works.

You'd have hated the fuss. So: a quiet thank you.

The swing still creaks the same way. I don't oil it on purpose.

I learned how to be a friend by watching you.

Cheers. 🍻

The chess board is still set up. Your move.

You were the only student who ever stayed after class to argue about a grade and ended up asking for more homework. I've been teaching thirty years and I still tell the new teachers about you. Curiosity like that is rare, and the way you shared it with everyone around you was rarer still.

You are in every room of this house. I talk to you anyway.

You saw something in me before I did. Turns out you were right.

Every time I see a red kite I think it's you saying hi.

Rematch. Same time next year.

I still hum the song you sang off-key in the car.

Every Thursday, for eleven years, you called just to ask how my week was going. Not for any reason. Just to ask. I never told you how much I looked forward to it. Thursdays are quiet now, so I'm telling you here instead.

We drove the old road to the lake this weekend. Windows down, like you liked.