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

This week features ska-punk by The Boy Detective, electronic all-over-the-placeness by JDSY, indie-electronic emo by ness lake, synth-pop by Same Eyes, and rave music by LinX & KAISTO.

The Boy Detective, Art Theft 
Ypsilanti's The Boy Detective operates squarely in the third-wave ska-punk tradition, and the septet's fourth album, Art Theft, reaffirms how good the group is at mining that particular style of melody, groove, and joy. If you pine for the mid-'90s Warped Tour, you'll find a ton to love about this band and record.

The Boy Detective left me wondering if Washtenaw County was ever a hotspot for ska bands simply because there are so many horn players in the area due to the colleges. Some cursory searches didn't turn up a massive number of ska bands, but dating back to the 1980s I found The SLK, Hullabaloo, We Are the Union, SKWRL, The Skafia, The Ninjas, Etch-A-Sketch, Mad Hot Dance Hall, The Dirty Notion, The Idiot Effect, Complainer, Space Based Adventure, and After School Special (featuring former MGoBlog contributor Ace Anbender on vocals).

JDSY, Human Remains, Electricity USA, bLUE hOUSe
I'm gonna cut and paste a previous write-up I did about this artist because every word still holds true: JDSY is an Ann Arbor-based electronic-music producer who cranks out releases like Donkey Kong tosses barrels—there are more than 40 albums and EPs on his Bandcamp page. His music is quirky and all over the place, evoking everything from ambient and chip tunes to modern classical and trip-hop.

ness lake, berries go 
I wrote about ness lake's voice of three, the pre-release teaser for the full-length LP berries go, and now I'm realizing what that mini album did: It highlighted the six collaborative songs on this 13-track album. Ypsilanti's Chandler Lach is the band, sometimes with friends, but like I said last week, "the heart of ness lake's sound comes from Lach's longtime exploration of emo-ish melodies and lo-fi electronics. He's a prolific, appealing songwriter who wears his heart on his sleeve and doesn't waste time trying to make everything picture-perfect. Life is a mess; music can be a li'l messy, too."

Same Eyes, "Let's Pretend Things Are Normal" and "This Fear"
Ann Arbor's Same Eyes released a single a month last year, each one a banging throwback to the heyday of 1980s synth-pop. These are the final two tunes in the series.

LinX & KAISTO, "Salute"
Intensity Recordings is based in Ann Arbor, but its vibe is worldwide. The label releases party-based dance music that feels more European than American, including the new song "Salute" by LinX & KAISTO. The way the track is listed on Bandcamp indicates it's part of the Extended Collection Season 5 (2024), but no other artists have populated the playlist yet. For comparison, last year's Season 4 had 55 tracks.

Christopher Porter is a library technician and the editor of Pulp.