Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week features a music video by Timothy Monger, pop-punk by Jojo Engelbert, a reissue from Fred Thomas, jazzy folk-pop by Josh Woodward, and ambient by Latimer Rogland.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week features keyboard and synth explorations by Martin Babl, cinematic composition channeled via KUZbeats, two MEMCO dance mixes, melodic hardcore by Tried, and a country-tinged rocker by Erin Zindle & The Ragbirds.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week features a tribute to WEMU radio host Marc Taras, punky rock by Kat Steih, electronica from DJ FLP, Americana via Cowgirl, and hip-hop by Mike C521.

It was homecoming night on Friday at this year's Fuzz Fest.

Except there were no fancy dresses or ill-fitting suits at this party and the regalia was a little less formal for this annual celebration of scuzzy hard rock and psychedelia. 

Fuzz Fest 8 ran August 3-5 at The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, and while the opening and closing days had numerous fab bands with local connections, the most surprising homemade ingredients inside this rock 'n' roll sandwich were on Friday.

The nervy 1980s Ann Arbor post-punk band Nønfiction reunited with twins Laurence and Benjamin Miller; 1990s A2 noise-punks Barbed Wire Playpen got the gang together one more time; and Easy Action—essentially the hard-rock version of Detroit hardcore legends Negative Approach—returned to the venue of its first-ever concert. (It was also the first time Easy Action singer John Brannon, who lived in Ann Arbor during his days with Laughing Hyneas in the late '80s and early '90s, was back inside the Pig since he was kicked out of the club for some reason long ago.)

But the big get on the menu was Deniz Tek returning to play in the city where he was born and raised before moving to Australia and becoming a key proto-punk architect as the guitarist and primary songwriter in Radio Birdman.

Because at its core, Fuzz Fest is a townie party with feedback, always held in August before the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University students repopulate the area, and geared toward the year-round headbangers who fight through the endless warm-weather road closures every freakin' summer.

Friday Five is a weekly column that highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

Ann Arbor produced one of the world's first punk guitarists, a person who channeled the speed and chaos of the I-94 rush-hour drive and influenced ax-wielders around the world.

And while The Stooges' Ron Asheton also fits this description, I'm talking about Deniz Tek.

The Ann Arbor born and raised Tek took everything he learned about Motor City rock 'n' roll in the late 1960s and brought it to Australia in the early 1970s when he moved to Sydney for his studies. There, he co-founded Radio Birdman, perhaps the greatest exponents of proto-punk mayhem this side of his buddies in The Stooges and another all-time Australian band, The Saints.

Over the past 50 years, Tek has continued to pound away on his guitar like a metal-stamping machine, producing steely riffs that draw on bluesy rock 'n' roll but played with linear propulsive power—like Chuck Berry playing a surf song on a buzzsaw.

Tek, now 70, has played in Ann Arbor many times since he left, but it feels especially fitting that he's the key act for this year's Fuzz Fest, the eighth annual celebration of the primordial punk sound the guitarist was essential in co-creating.

As always, Fuzz Fest takes place at The Blind Pig, and this year's edition runs Thursday, August 3 to Saturday, August 5, with Deniz Tek headlining the Friday, August 4 show. (See the full lineup below.)

If you're not familiar with Tek's career, this Friday Five will give you a tiny taste of the man's prolific output in a variety of bands.

But this is a bonus edition of the Friday Five, so in addition to my selections, Chris "Box" Taylor also weighs in.

Taylor, the main man behind Fuzz Fest and a member of Mazinga, will be holding down the bass for Tek at The Blind Pig gig—perhaps even playing some of the face-melting torchers he picked as some of his favorites.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week features jazz vocalist Allan Harris, hyperpop hip-hop by Gvmmy, electro-IDM by Fantishow, spooky trip-hop by Othercast, and hip-hop by Choke Uno & Foul Mouth featuring Tru Klassick & J-Classic.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week features modern classical / exploratory jazz / power pop by Benjamin and Laurence Miller, folk by Adam J. Snyder, quirky pop by Studio Lounge, retrowave by Dillan Pribak, and dance mixes by Vitamin TI, Dykechow, Bubu for the ongoing Immaculate Conception and MEMCO series.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week features indie-folktronica by Eve Machines, folk-pop by Juliet Freedman featuring Ben Wood, and site-specific performances and/or compositions by the NewBassoon Institute, Pepperoni Wilson, and The Regenerate! Orchestra.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week features new wave by Same Eyes, folk-rock by Mike Vial, tuba/euphonium art song by Brendan Ige, an Ann Arbor Civic Theatre cast recording of original songs for Much Ado About Nothing, and the latest MEMCO mix by Squid General vs. Otherseas.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week features alt-country by Erin Zindle, hip-hop electronica by Gvmmy, rap by BigPlanet, and dance mixes by BPasta and Ayla.