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

This edition features jazz-steeped indie by Mei Semones, hip-hop soul by Nadim Azzam, Americana by Bill Edwards, '60s-style folk-rock by Chip Kramer, and jazz-dada jams by Tinn Parrow and His Clapfold Platune.

Mei Semones, Animaru
Mei Semones is from Ann Arbor (Community High), a Berklee College of Music grad, and a resident of Brooklyn, where she composes music that sounds like Brazilian jazz and math rock wrapped in an indie-pop shell. She sings in English and Japanese, can rip on guitar like a bebopper, and has a sweet, soft voice that evokes the airy beauty of Astrud Gilberto's. Semones' debut album, Animaru ("animal" in Japanese), is comprised of 10 songs that display stunning technical proficiency on her instrument as well as a unique ear for songwriting and arrangements. She recently landed the cover story over at NME, but The Michigan Daily was already singing Semones' praises in 2022. I knew her name looked familiar when I read the NME story, and when I found out that I had blurbed her debut single, "Hfos," in April 2020 in a prototype of what became Friday Five. We've all come a long way, but Semones is gonna go further than us all with talent like this.

Nadim Azzam, DNA Vol. 2 EP 
Ann Arbor's finest hip-hop soul-folk artist—and maybe the only one—returns with the follow-up to last year's DNA EP and "$20 Gold Piece" single. Nadim Azzam's ability to switch between fast, tongue-twisting raps and soulful croons gives music tons of crossover potential, from urban to alt radio, and his confident songwriting is in contrast to the frequently vulnerable lyrics. The standout track on DNA Vol. 2 is "Night Falls," a duet with Ashley Sorrell that features some sweet, rolling bass runs.

Bill Edwards, A Home in My Heart 
Bill Edwards sounds like he should be making music in Nashville, not Ann Arbor. The singer-songwriter's latest album, A Home in My Heart, is a mixture of honky-tonk country, introspective folk, and earnest Americana. My colleague, Lori Stratton, interviewed Edwards about A Home in My Heart for her blog, The Stratton Setlist.

Chip Kramer, Chipthology II (1976-1996) 
Chip Kramer, Dedicated to Sue 
The Ann Arbor singer-songwriter hasn't released anything since 2014, but 2025 must be his year: In addition to the 10-song Dedicated to Sue—presumably, the long-awaited follow-up to Inspired by Sue—Kramer compiled Chipthology II (1976-1996), a mixture of live and studio recordings from his long career. RIYL 1960s folk-rock with a country twinge a la The Byrds.

Tinn Parrow and His Clapfold Platune, Turn a Left and Down the Hall
Tinn Parrow and His Clapfold Platune, An Evolutionary Retrospect
As a musician, Lawrence Bond Miller is known by many names. The Ann Arbor native has also released music under these various handles for 50 years, covering everything from psychedelic, new wave, folk, jazz, modern classic, glam, experimental, and kids' rock.

One of his latest guises is Tinn Parrow and Tinn Parrow and His Clapfold Platune, whose Bandcamp bio is, "Whole-Tonal Spazz-Jazz Dada-Rock." An Evolutionary Retrospect is a compilation of rehearsals and live performances, recorded between 2023-2024, before the lineup solidified into its current septet form, which will record its debut in July. (I believe for Cuneiform Records, which released The Fourth World Quartet's retrospectives Grand Bland Vapid Rapids and 1975, featuring a jazz-art-new music group with twin brother Benjamin.)

Tinn Parrow performs some of the demos Lawrence made between 1974-1976, which can be heard on Turn a Left and Down the Hall, with several tracks featuring Benjamin as well as their other brother, Roger (Mission of Burma). Lawrence and Benjamin later recorded most of these tunes in Ypsilanti in 2022 for the Cuneiform release by the Miller Twins, Early Compositions 1973-1976. (Also below are some 2024 live videos of Tinn Parrow and His Clapfold Platune performing at Ann Arbor's Zal Gaz Grotto and Redford's Entropy Stereo.)

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