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

This edition features hip-hop by MC Kadence, artificial intelligence sounds by The Wreckage Choir, folk-pop by Joe Reilly, jazzy fusion by The Missing Cats, and bedroom indie by Lantern Lens.

MC Kadence, Rhetoric 3
MC Kadence's Rhetoric series needs to be added to the list of most important hip-hop records to come out of Washtenaw County, joining the Free Music album from his old Abolitionist Projects collective. The Ann Arbor rapper, born Brandon Edward Mitchell, can twist your ears into knots with his wordplay, which is Shakespeare thick and spit with Flash-like speed, while delivered in a stern-dad voice that makes you sit up and listen. 

The latest entry in the series, Rhetoric 3, was produced and mixed by Sun Hammer with Scott "Tenacity" Martin and features contributions from local musicians Andy Adamson, Brennan Andes, Josef Deas, Nickie P, and more. They add to the urgency of Kadence's overall sound, which is tense and determined, offbeat and spooky. But I also feel like I could listen to his raps without any accompaniment: Kadence grabs you by the lapels with lyrics that are conscious and confrontational while also being darkly witty.

Rhetoric 3 is so jam-packed with ideas and words that I've only partially absorbed it despite listening a half-dozen times, and its excellence will only continue to grow with repeated spins. The Rhetoric series is a landmark in local hip-hop, and if there were any justice in this unjust world, Kadence would be crowned far beyond Washtenaw County. No kings but Kadence.

The Wreckage Choir, Slow Burn
According to its Bandcamp page, The Wreckage Choir is from Ann Arbor. But it seems like the person who entered prompts into ChatGPT is the only thing from Tree Town, because The Wreckage Choir is an entirely AI-created entity. (That's artificial intelligence for you Allen Iverson fans and Linda McMahon anti-fans.) When I first played Slow Burn, I hadn't looked closely at what was written on The Wreckage Choir's Bandcamp page, which spells out the AI connections, so I judged the music solely on its sonics—and as far as 1960s garage-rock psych-blues homages go, it's pretty solid. But both albums by this entity are credited to some combo of ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Udio—from the lyrics and liner notes to the cover art and music—and it surprised me how easily I could have been duped if I didn't look at the credits. I can't wait to see an AI rendering of The Wreckage Choir opening up for a hologram MC5 at a hologram of the West Park Bandshell in a hologram of my life after I've shed this mortal coil and entered the Palantir-run mainframe of eternity.

Joe Reilly and The Community Gardeners, Learn to Love Again
Former Ann Arbor-ite and frequent Washtenaw County performer Joe Reilly is best known as a children's musician. But he got his start playing for big people, and Learn to Love Again is his first non-kids album in more than 10 years—though it could easily grace the ears of littles, too. That's because even Reilly's adult music caters to kids through its relentless positivity, earnestness, and love, packaged in easily singable folk-rock tunes with some nods to hip-hop. Joe Reilly and The Community Gardeners celebrate the release of Learn to Love Again at The Ark on Friday, June 27.

The Missing Cats, Tides
Ann Arbor's The Missing Cats have carved out a special niche. The band is jazz-trained, but it doesn't make straight jazz; it touches on prog- and post-rock, while keeping melodies front and center, somewhat akin to what you'd hear in smooth jazz without ever getting treacly or corny. The group's latest studio album, Tides, is an easily digestible meal of chops and earworms—which is simultaneously the best and grossest metaphor I've written in a while—with the two-guitar, one-sax frontline providing the hooks as the bass and drums swing through backbeats and light funk. The band released three live albums in the past year, which followed the 2024 studio album Walls, where I whined in my blurb about how I never see the group's concerts listed anywhere. Well, The Missing Cats are playing Ziggy's in Ypsi on July 3 as part of a comedy and music fest, so my concert-calendar eyesight has been restored.

Lantern Lens, In Hunt for the Eternal Vibe
Sebastian Bluejay is Lantern Lens, a prolific one-person project from Ypsi. Bluejay doesn't always sing in tune, or drum in time, or hit all the guitar notes cleanly on the latest Lantern Lens album, In Hunt for the Eternal Vibe, but I don't think technical exactitude is the point of this artist's music. It's about documenting emotions and impulses, about capturing the moment of initial creation, not rehearsed perfection. In the liner notes, Bluejay writes, "I think the purpose of life is to find comfort," and you can tell he finds solace in making Lantern Lens' very personal style of music. If you're a fan of early '90s lo-fi DIY bedroom indie, you'll find lots to like about Lantern Lens.

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