Friday Five: The Stellars, Jacob Sigman, "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Kelly Moran, Grant Johnson

MUSIC FRIDAY FIVE

Cover art for the albums and singles featured in the Friday Five.

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

On the opening track of The Stellars' second album, singer Erez Levin sings, "I wish you didn't live so far away," which is the theme of this Friday Five. All the acts in this edition spent formative years in Ann Arbor before moving on, including polished indie-rockers The Stellars, soul-pop crooner Jacob Sigman, avant-gardist "Blue" Gene Tyranny, experimental pianist Kelly Moran, and sound sculptor Grant Johnson.

 

The Stellars, The Stellars II
Band leaders Erez Levin and Dan Sagher are Community High grads, so you could say The Stellars will always be an Ann Arbor band. But it has been nearly eight years since the group's debut, Interthestellars, and they both appear to be living in New York City now. Before their surprise reunion and teasing The Stellars II on Instagram a couple of months ago, it had been nearly six years since the band posted to social media and it seemed like they had moved on to other creative endeavors (Levin created music as Magic Toaster and, previously, Rainshop).

The Stellars write wry, smart, and insanely catchy power-pop songs, and that describes all 11 tracks on The Stellars II (even the 30-second goof-off "John Mayer"). Levin's voice sometimes recalls a less nasal, more melodically confident version of The Decemberists' Colin Meloy, and it's a perfect fit for these jangly, driving, guitar-centered songs with radio-ready hooks. The Stellars II's opening track, "Red Moon," is also one of the finest pop songs I've heard by an Ann Arbor-associated artist since The Kelseys' 2019 stunner "Polyanna."

 

Jacob Sigman, Topanga
In 2017, The Stellars teamed up with fellow U-M student Jacob Sigman for the funky "Think About You" single and shared a stage that summer at Sonic Lunch. But Sigman is primarily a solo artist, who continued to create great music after he left Ann Arbor for Detroit—and he even appeared on The Tonight Show for a hilarious segment. Yet he was feeling a little discontent and disconnected from music-making, so for his second full-length album, Sigman and friends rented a place in Southern California and created the 10 songs on Topanga, along with videos and a short film.

The album explores the hybrid pop-R&B-hip-hop format of Sigman's past music, and he's an absolute wizard at it. Sigman is also a strong singer with an ear for clever arrangements, and Topanga is a total showcase for his many talents. (Sigman is celebrating Topanga with a release show on July 26 at El Club in Detroit.)

 

"Blue" Gene Tyranny, Real Life and The Movies: Volume 1
Following its Degrees of Freedom Found box set in 2021, the Unseen Worlds label continues to excavate music from the vast archives of the late "Blue" Gene Tyranny. The experimental pianist and composer lived in Ann Arbor (1962-1971) and performed with numerous people, Iggy Pop's first band, The Prime Movers, and later with The Stooges, as well as being a part of the ONCE Festival. Tyranny later taught at Mills College in Oakland, California, before moving to New York where he spent the rest of his life.

The 10 tracks on Real Life and The Movies: Volume 1 were recorded between 1958 and 1980, covering everything from early computer music and cut-up experiments using news audio to slow-motion blues and ersatz R&B.

 

Kelly Moran, Moves in the Field
Pianist Kelly Moran graduated from U-M but her talents and budding professional career weren't keeping her here. She eventually signed to Warp Records, the essential U.K. electronic-music label that gave the world Aphex Twin and Autechre, and Moves in the Field is her latest for the imprint.

Moves in the Field finds Moran dueting with the Yamaha Disklavier, which is like a modern-day player piano. So, technically, electronic, but where in the past Moran would focus on prepared piano and electronics, this lovely instrumental album focuses on how this device can expand the composer's reach by performing difficult parts with ease. (In March, The New York Times ran an excellent piece on Moran and the inspiration behind this album.)

 

Grant Johnson, This Is a Tangible Space - 7/6/24"
Recent U-M grad Grant Johnson is heading to CalArts in Santa Clarita, California, but he recorded this beauty in Ann Arbor at Oz's Music as part of the instrument store's experimental concert series. Johnson's music and video creations explore sound and vision from the view of an autistic person, building ambient epics using electronics, percussion, and voice.


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